Republished November 19, 2016 - 5:46 PM
Original Publication Date November 19, 2016 - 1:05 PM
Ottawa police say they've made an arrest following a recent spate of racist graffiti.
At a solidarity event at a south-end synagogue, Chief Charles Bordeleau said a young man was arrested Saturday morning after he was allegedly found trying to deface the Jewish Community Centre.
The man appeared in court Saturday morning and is facing several charges, including uttering threats of a dangerous weapon and mischief to religious buildings.
Bordeleau says it's important to remember these acts do not represent this community.
Earlier in the week, an Ottawa mosque and a church with a black pastor were vandalized with swastikas and hateful graffiti, days after a number of similar attacks on Jewish institutions in the city.
The incidents were addressed in the House of Commons, and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne visited one of the affected synagogues on Saturday.
"It is absolutely never acceptable to have that kind of hate expressed in communities," she said. "By doing these things, by defacing people's property and religious sacred sites really to instill fear in communities, it's reprehensible."
Ottawa's largest synagogue thanked police for their "considerable efforts" in investigating the graffiti attacks on religious institutions, including Kehillat Beth Israel.
"We are incredibly grateful for all of the support we have received from our Ottawa community," Rabbi Eytan Kenter said Saturday in a release.
(CFRA, The Canadian Press)
News from © The Canadian Press, 2016