A viral video depicting a man saying “Hitler should have wiped” every Jew “off the planet” is now being investigated by the Toronto Police as a possible hate crime.
“The comments in the video are vile,” said Toronto Police spokesperson Stephanie Sayer. “The Hate Crime Unit is actively investigating the matter.”
It’s a shocking and disturbing collection of anti-Semitic smears captured in a video last week outside a mechanic’s garage on Geary Ave. near Dupont St.
Witnesses say the incident started as an argument emanating from a dispute over public parking. In the video it shows a large, agitated man approaching another while saying “because (you’re) a fake f****** Jew you have the right to f****** park there and I don’t?”
The angry man then says “f*** you and f*** your mother and your grandmother and your great grandmother, you fake f****** Jew.”
The man added: “I said Hitler should have wiped every f****** one of you off the planet.”
Later the man in the video can be seen talking to two Toronto police officers in which the audio captured the words “you know what, he’s a hook nose” and “motherf****** Jew” and “Hitler should have wiped those motherf****** out” and “should have killed every last one of them.”
It’s hard to believe something like that could be said in Toronto in 2024. However, in a year of protests where anti-Semitism has become normalized in the wake of the Oct. 7th Black Sabbath attack that saw the slaughter of 1,200 Israelis by Hamas, it perhaps should not surprise us.
Anti-Jewish rhetoric has been on the rise.
Many Jews in Toronto have expressed that they don’t feel safe anymore. This is an example of why they may feel that way. This video is as ugly as can be, which is saying something since this year has seen gunshots into schools and other violence that has been investigated.
B’nai Brith said this is not a coincidence.
“This heart-breaking display of grotesque antisemitism is the result of a year of inadequate responses to the rising levels of anti-Semitism fomenting across Canada and across Toronto,” said Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy of B’nai Brith Canada. “Inaction has enabled a climate in the city where Jewish persons can be verbally attacked for merely going about their daily business.”
Meir Weinstein of Israel Now said the remarks has shaken many in the Jewish community who are already shocked at plans for pro-Hamas supporters to celebrate the Oct. 7 barbarism at Queen’s Park on the one-year anniversary.He said this kind of thing can’t be swept under the carpet.
“The level of anti-Semitism heard here actually surpasses Ernst Zundel,” said Weinstein, who was heavily involved in the battles with the notorious Holocaust denier in the 1980s.
Zundel, now deceased, was prosecuted and now this case, decades later, is being looked at by police as well.
“Such caustic vitriol must not be tolerated. This is a hate crime,” said Robertson. “We thank the Toronto police for investigating this matter and urge them to lay the appropriate charges. This is an affront to all Canadians and to all Torontonians.”
It’s even an affront to those in the shop, where this allegedly occurred out front.
“We talked to him and told him to calm down,” said Alex, owner of Alex’s Wing Tat Auto Service and Body Repair Inc.
Alex said they told him when he was complaining about people being racist, the words being used were racist. He said reports of this man working at his shop or his neighbour’s shop are inaccurate.
“He hangs around here,” he said, adding the man is a “client” and comes in “when he needs his car fixed.”
Alex said he so far as not seen him since Monday but said did speak with police about the incident himself. The man has not been charged with a crime and the allegations have yet to be tested in court.
Meanwhile, B’nai Brith is calling for meaningful action.
“It is imperative that a strong message be sent, such hate will not be tolerated in our community,” said Robertson. “We thank the Toronto police for investigating this matter and urge them to lay the appropriate charges.”
Toronto police say they are on it. Stay tuned.