Criminal Law Update: Case Developments, Hate Crime Enforcement, and Police Training
- Rochelle Direnfeld
- Jan 7
- 9 min read
Week of January 5, 2026
This update provides an overview of recent criminal law developments relevant to antisemitism and other forms of hate in Canada. It includes updates on significant court proceedings and sentencing decisions – including the high-profile Aspenlieder case – emerging hate propaganda and terrorism-related cases across multiple jurisdictions, and recent law enforcement training delivered by ALCCA’s leadership to police services and prosecutors nationwide.
Aspenlieder – Sentencing for Holocaust Memorial Vandalism in Ottawa
In July, Iain Aspenlieder entered a guilty plea in an Ottawa courtroom to causing mischief to the National Holocaust Monument. On December 1, 2025, the Court heard submissions on what the appropriate sentence should be for this offence.
At the request of the prosecutor, ALCCA coordinated a Community Impact Statement (CIS) on behalf of a broad coalition of community organizations and members, Jewish and non-Jewish. It was important to convey the message to the Court that this crime severely impacted not only the Jewish community, but all Canadians of good will. Representatives of a number of these organizations read their portions of the CIS to the Court.
The Court delivered its decision on sentencing on January 7, 2026. It concluded that the appropriate sentence was five months imprisonment (already served because of pre-trial custody and bail restrictions). He was also placed on probation.
Although the Court was unable to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the crime was motivated by hatred of Jews, instead of by his political views, the Court nonetheless found his moral culpability to be high based on his calculated decision to vandalize the Holocaust memorial site, despite knowing that his actions would cause fear, upset, and trauma to the Jewish community, especially at a time when antisemitism was on the rise and the Jewish community was particularly vulnerable.
The Court found that Aspenlieder continued to be proud of what he did, even after he heard the “eloquent” voices of those victimized by his conduct. This represented another seriously aggravating factor emphasizing the importance of denunciation.
Perhaps most significantly, the Court explained at some length how criminal conduct, committed to promote a political objective undermines the rule of law and threatens democracy. The Court said that “the end justifies the means” mentality must be denounced in the strongest terms.
Indeed, the Court analogized Aspenlieder’s conduct to the January 2021 Washington, D.C. incursion on the Capitol, citing the violence perpetrated when the rule of law is abandoned for political ends. The Court also found that as a lawyer, Aspenlieder’s moral culpability was higher because he undertook, as a member of that profession, to uphold, rather than repudiate the rule of law.
In imposing sentence, the Court was required to take into consideration as mitigation, the absence of a prior criminal record, documented mental illness preceding the offence, and the fact that Aspenlieder was an upstanding, pro-social person prior to the offence. The five-month sentence of imprisonment (already served) fell within a range of sentences cited by the prosecution and defence.
In my view, however, the sentence failed to adequately address Aspenlieder’s continuing pride in what he did. This isn’t simply about absence of remorse, but an attitude that reinforced the need for a truly denunciatory, deterrent sentence.
It is also my view that the Court approached the question of hate motivation incorrectly. The Criminal Code states that it is an aggravating factor on sentence if a crime is motivated by “bias, prejudice or hate.” The Court focused almost exclusively on whether Aspenlieder intrinsically “hates” Jews, an overly narrow approach to motivation. Where someone targets a community, knowing one’s actions will cause fear, harm and trauma (as he did), it is no answer to say that he doesn’t hate Jews.
By selecting Jews as a target and by choosing to traumatize them to make a political point, he is, in my respectful view, motivated by bias or prejudice against that community.
Case Update: Matthan Runighan – Charlottetown
The PEI RCMP received several complaints concerning numerous postings on social media by 25-year-old Matthan Runighan. A lengthy investigation revealed Runighan published postings that were antisemitic.
As part of the investigation, police learned that Runighan had illegally obtained a firearm. As a result, he was arrested on August 7, 2025, for unlawful possession of a firearm. A public safety warrant was executed at his residence and police seized a 12-gauge shotgun and ammunition. He was then charged with possession of a weapon dangerous to the public peace, improper storage of a firearm, possession of a firearm without a licence and possession of a non restricted firearm without a licence.
He was released on bail but breached conditions three times in August and September, resulting in a further arrest in September. He was released again by the court after a bail hearing. On October 10, 2025, Runighan was arrested again for breaching his conditions by posting hate propaganda online. He was taken into custody and charged with breach of his conditions. He will appear in the PEI Supreme Court on January 13, 2026, to answer to four charges of breaching his bail conditions and four firearm charges.
On December 23, 2025, after further investigation, additional charges were laid in connection with Runighan’s social media posts. With the consent of the Attorney General, Runighan is now charged with the following hate propaganda offences:
wilful promotion of hatred towards Jews, and
wilful promotion of antisemitism (condoning, denying or downplaying the Holocaust)
Chief Superintendent Kevin Lewis, Commanding Officer, PEI RCMP noted: “The recent attacks in Australia clearly show the impacts of hate-motivated crime. In the Runighan case, an extensive investigation was conducted that has led to what I believe are the first ever hate crime charges in PEI. Promotion of hatred is a toxic, dangerous, and hurtful crime that deeply impacts our communities. Everyone can play a part in fighting against hate by reporting it to police, or Crimestoppers,”
Runighan’s next court appearance to answer to the hate propaganda charges is January 13, 2026.
In November, ALCCA’s Chair, Mark Sandler conducted hate crime training in two separate sessions for law enforcement officers across the Maritimes, most particularly PEI law enforcement, including RCMP and Chiefs of Police. The training focused on the full range of legal measures to combat all forms of hate and contemporary antisemitism.
Case Update: Brandon Taylor Moore – Saskatoon
On December 18, 2025, Brandon Taylor Moore, 45, was arrested following an investigation by the Saskatoon Police Service Hate Crime Unit.
In 2024, Saskatoon Police received a complaint about an individual making antisemitic comments online. The posts (on Moore’s X account) were replete with antisemitic conspiracy theories and included posts questioning the Holocaust. A subsequent investigation by the Hate Crime Unit identified the individual, and a search warrant executed at a residence resulted in the seizure of digital evidence as well as a firearm.
Moore is charged with public incitement of hatred and unsafe storage of a firearm. He was released from custody on bail and is appearing on January 13, 2026, in a Provincial Courtroom in Saskatoon.
Case Update: Waleed Khan et al – Toronto
On October 19, 2025, we reported on the arrests of Waleed Khan, 26, Osman Azizov, 18, and Fahad Sadaat, 19, all of Toronto in late August: Terrorism in Canada: From Recent Cases to ALCCA’s Calls to Action.
Notwithstanding the serious charges that were laid, including conspiracy to commit kidnapping, hostage taking, impersonating police, sexual assault, sexual assault with a weapon and possession of firearms, Khan was initially released on bail following a contested bail hearing shortly after his arrest. As a result of search warrants executed at the residences of the three accused, further charges were laid against all three accused, who were re-arrested. Khan was ordered detained in custody on October 3, 2025. He remains in custody, as does Sadaat.
Azizov was released on a surety bail, with his parents acting as sureties on October 20, 2025. On December 19, the Toronto Police Service and the Peel Regional Police issued a joint media release setting out all of the charges the three accused are facing: Project Neapolitan: Police arrest three and lay seventy-nine charges in major hate-motivated criminal investigation.
Additionally, the RCMP issued a further media release in relation to Waleed Khan, who is also charged with six terrorism offences and conspiracy to commit murder (Sadaat and Azizov are not charged with these offences) after an extensive investigation by the RCMP’s Central Region Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET). The terrorism offences, are alleged to have taken place between June and August 2025 and include:
Providing funds knowing it would be used by or would benefit a terrorist group, namely ISIS;
Providing social media accounts knowing they would be used by or would benefit a terrorist group, namely ISIS;
Participating in the activities of a terrorist group by providing property to be used to carry out terrorist activity or benefit any person facilitating or carrying out terrorist activity;
Participating in the activities of a terrorist group by making himself available to facilitate or commit a terrorism offence or an act or omission outside Canada that, if committed in Canada, would be a terrorism offence;
Facilitating terrorist activity by providing property used to carry out terrorist activity or benefiting any person facilitating or carrying out terrorist activity; and
Conspiring to commit murder, for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with a terrorist group.
All charges against all three accused are being prosecuted in Toronto. Their next appearance in court is on January 29, 2026 at the Ontario Court of Justice at 10 Armoury St.
Case Update: Youth arrested on terrorism charges – Toronto
On November 4, 2025, RCMP officers from Central Region (Ontario) Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA-INSET) arrested and charged a young person with the following: participating in the activities of a terrorist group by the editing and public posting of ISIS propaganda videos and inviting a person to provide property, i.e., firearms, intending that they be used, in whole or in part, for the purpose of facilitating or carrying out a terrorist activity.
In its media release, the RCMP thanked the New York Police Department, Peel Regional Police, Toronto Police Service and the Ontario Provincial Police for their collaboration on the investigation.
Case Update: Hate-motivated threats and public incitement of hatred – Toronto
On Thursday, December 18, 2025, Andrew Howes, 35, of Toronto, was arrested and charged with: public incitement of hatred and seven counts of uttering threats.
It is alleged that, between October 13, 2025 and November 28, 2025, threats were made via social media targeting members of the Muslim community.
His next appearance in court is January 16, 2026, at the Ontario Court of Justice, 10 Armoury St. in Toronto.
Case Update: Wilful promotion of hatred – Toronto
On Tuesday, December 16, 2025, Oliver Couto, 62, of Toronto, was charged with: wilful promotion of hatred targeting the Jewish community. On Thursday, January 2, 2026, Toronto Police received a call for a hate crime in the Bloor St. West and Lansdowne area of Toronto. It is alleged that the suspect disseminated flyers promoting hatred against members of the Jewish community.
He is scheduled to appear at the Ontario Court of Justice, 10 Armoury Street, on Tuesday, February 3, 2026, at 2:00 p.m., in courtroom 201.
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ALCCA will continue to monitor these and other criminal proceedings and provide further updates as cases progress or as new matters arise.
Law Enforcement Training and Capacity Building
In the past several months, Mark Sandler, ALCCA’s Chair, and Rochelle Direnfeld, ALCCA’s Senior Criminal Counsel, have provided training to officers representing multiple police services across the country, including the OPP, a number of Maritimes police services, and police and prosecutors in Manitoba on the full range of criminal law measures to combat hate, and on contemporary antisemitism. This training has already been provided to officers from many police services across Canada and a number of prosecutors. We are deeply appreciative of those officers who have not only welcomed this training but shown a commitment to addressing hate crimes in their jurisdictions.
About the Author
Rochelle Direnfeld is ALCCA's Senior Criminal Counsel. She was called to the Ontario bar in 1990 and has served in the Ontario Public Service for over 32 years as an assistant crown attorney, deputy crown attorney, crown counsel, and finally as a deputy director for Toronto Crown Attorneys in the Criminal Law Division of the Ministry of the Attorney General. Rochelle retired from public service at the end of 2023. During her career, Rochelle prosecuted a wide variety of Criminal Code cases in the Ontario Court of Justice, Superior Court of Justice, and the Ontario Court of Appeal.
Rochelle focused a large part of her career on youth criminal justice, developing policy as well as training and lecturing crowns, the defence bar, the judiciary, and the police. Since 2018, Rochelle has been committed to battling hate-motivated offences and has sat on the Attorney General’s Hate Crime Working Group, providing legal advice to crown counsel and police on hate crimes. In the aftermath of October 7, Rochelle returned to work with the Hate Crime Working Group at Crown Law Office - Criminal until November 2024. Rochelle also serves as vice-chair of the Board of Directors of BOOST Child and Youth Advocacy Centre, a wrap-around agency serving children and youth who have been victims of abuse, as well as their families.