CAL MILLAR AND BOB MITCHELL
The charges are the first — and only — laid since the start more than a week ago of a spate of attacks on Jewish-owned property in Toronto and York Region. Police said they did not believe the accused in the latest incident is connected to the others.
They include:
On the night of March 14, cars
and homes on a street near Dufferin St. and Steeles Ave. W. in York Region were
spray-painted with swastikas and other racist messages. Some of the victims are
Holocaust survivors.
Last Friday night, windows were
smashed at a synagogue and swastikas and vicious slogans painted at two
synagogues, a community centre and a Jewish day school.
Sometime between Friday night
and Saturday morning, vandals desecrated Bathurst Lawn Memorial Park cemetery in
North York, toppling 27 headstones and smashing monuments.
On Sunday evening, a Richmond
Hill family was shocked and bewildered to discover two swastikas and the phrase
"baby killers" spray-painted in orange on the front of their home.
"We're not Jewish, ... we're Italian Catholics," Felicia Postorino, 19, said yesterday as she stood in the doorway of her family's home on Sunshine Dr.
"I'm stunned, ... clueless as to why this would have been done to our home," she said.
Postorino discovered the anti-Semitic graffiti when she returned to her home near Yonge St. and 16th Ave. on Sunday at about 10:30 p.m.
York police are treating the incident as a hate crime. Chief Armand La Barge said the incidents have "traumatized and angered" all residents of the region, not only the Jewish community.
"We take great pride in the diversity of our region and I'm saddened when such incidents undermine one of our greatest strengths," he said.
The Ontario Legislature responded to the spate of incidents yesterday by passing a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and giving support to a zero-tolerance policy toward hate crimes.
"Hatred is the stuff of cowards, and cowards like to work under cover of darkness. It's up to the rest of us to stand up, to speak up, here and now, in the light of day," Premier Dalton McGuinty told the Legislature.
"An attack on any one of us is an attack on all of us. So all of us must stand up and speak out. Let every Ontarian express outrage at the expressions of hate that have marred this community," the Premier said.
Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter said later the government is considering a reward for information leading to arrests in connection with the recent racist attacks on the Jewish community.
The first arrest related to anti-Semitic vandalism came at a building site on Bloor St. W. near High Park, where anti-Jewish symbols have been appearing for months.
Staff Inspector Brody Smollet, head of 11 Division in the city's west end, said two officers on patrol arrested a man at about 1 a.m. after spotting new hate graffiti on the wooden hoarding surrounding the site.
Smollet said the spray-painting consisted of a Star of David, an equals sign and a swastika.
Because of the earlier graffiti, Smollet said, officers had staked out the area in response to Chief Julian Fantino's city-wide alert for police officers to be vigilant for anti-Semitic vandalism.
As well, there are extra patrols during evening and nighttime hours.
Reza Safaei, 46, is charged with three counts of mischief under $5,000 and was released on bail yesterday.
The UJA Federation and Canadian Jewish Congress are holding a meeting tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at the Leah Posluns Theatre, 4588 Bathurst St.
files from Phil Mascoll, Catherine Porter and Richard Brennan