Montreal police say two Jewish schools were hit overnight by gunshots, in what seems to be the latest violent event in the city tied to the war between Israel and Hamas.
Staff members discovered bullet holes on the exterior of the buildings when they arrived Thursday morning. Police said nobody was inside at the time of the shootings.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in the Montreal suburb of Longueuil that Canadians must denounce violent antisemitism in the strongest terms.
"It's with horror that we learned this morning that gunshots hit several Jewish schools," he said.
"I want to be clear … this hate has no place, not here in Montreal, not anywhere in Quebec, not anywhere in Canada. We need to remind ourselves who we are. I know that emotions are strong. People are scared and in mourning. But for Canadians to attack each other, it's not what we do."
The reports of overnight shootings at Jewish schools in Montreal are horrifying. I condemn these violent acts of antisemitism in the strongest terms possible – and I want to be clear: This hate has no place in Canada, and we must all stand united against it.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) November 9, 2023
Quebec Premier François Legault told reporters at the same news conference that what happened to the two Jewish schools cannot be tolerated. The premier also denounced violent acts that took place on Wednesday at Montreal's Concordia University, where three people were injured and one person was arrested in several incidents tied to the Israel-Hamas war.
Legault said he is calling on police forces to act: "We don't want hate and violence in Quebec, and we won't tolerate this."
"I know that we are seeing horrible scenes on television," Legault said, referring to images of the Oct.7 Hamas incursion into Israel that killed about 1,400 people — most of them civilians — and of Israel's retaliatory strikes on the Palestinian Gaza Strip that have killed more than 10,500 people, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
"But here, we have to be able to talk to each other calmly," the premier added.
On Wednesday night, Concordia University president Graham Carr condemned what he said were three separate acts of violence or intimidation at the school that day. He said two security guards and a student were injured in an altercation, swastikas were found on a university building, and a student group published a social media post that could be interpreted as inciting violence.
Montreal police say a 22-year-old woman was arrested at the university in connection with the altercation and released with a citation. Const. Jean-Pierre Brabant says the security guards and student were not seriously injured and that police are investigating.
