Hate Crime & Legal Update: Elkhodary Sentencing, Ottawa Hate Crime Arrest, and Montreal Israeli Flag Arson
- Rochelle Direnfeld
- Sep 7
- 6 min read
Week of September 1, 2025
Elkhodary Sentencing
On February 19, 2025, Omar Elkhodary, 34, was found guilty after a trial of assaulting Vicky Moscoe in relation to an incident on November 2, 2023 (see Facebook video here). He appeared for sentencing on September 3, 2025, before Justice Beverly Brown of the Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto.
The incident that occurred on November 2, 2023, is fully detailed in Her Honour’s Reasons for Judgment dated February 19, 2025. Briefly, the victim, Vicky Moscoe was placing posters of child hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023, on utility poles in North York.
Elkhodary approached her in a confrontational manner and started to tear the posters down in front of her. A verbal dispute, where Elkhodary swore at Ms. Moscoe, was followed by Elkhodary assaulting Ms. Moscoe by pushing her and hitting her on the forehead with his hand. In doing so, he intended to intimidate her and prevent her from protecting the posters from being torn down.
As Her Honour held, “His goal and purpose was laser focused, it was to tear down the posters of the children in front of Ms. Moscoe.” And why was he so focused on tearing down the posters of the child hostages? Because, as captured on video, he regarded the posters to be “stupid-ass propaganda.” He believed the posters’ message was fabricated. In other words, he did not believe that Hamas kidnapped over 250 Israelis including young children, as depicted in the posters. The power and influence of Hamas propaganda was plainly on display in Elkhodary’s conduct.
Elkhodary claimed that he felt swarmed by the victim and two other women (unknown to the victim) who attempted to assist her after she had already been assaulted. The Court rejected outright Elkhodary’s proffered self-defence argument. As Justice Brown held, “he was essentially causing a conflict, a confrontation and then seeking to rely on self-defence when he refused to stop taking down the posters.”
A Victim Impact Statement and 13 Community Impact Statements were read in and filed with the court including those from community agencies like Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, CIJA and CAEF as well as statements from individuals on behalf of the Jewish community.
Justice Brown found that Elkhodary was “genuinely remorseful” based primarily on a personal statement he filed with the court. However, his remorse became highly questionable during the sentencing hearing. He could be seen laughing and snickering as Her Honour quoted portions of the victim impact and community impact statements as part of her sentencing judgment. At one point, Her Honour had to pause and ask Elkhodary whether he found the proceedings funny.
Importantly, Justice Brown found that Elkhodary was motivated by bias, prejudice or hate against the Jewish people who support the hostages. Elkhodary assaulted Ms. Moscoe to intimidate her and prevent her from expressing the views shared by the Jewish people who support the hostages; views which Ms. Moscoe was lawfully entitled to express.
The prosecution’s position as to the appropriate sentence in this case, ultimately accepted by the judge, was a 5-month conditional sentence followed by 12 months of probation. A conditional sentence is a custodial sentence, but it is served in the community, at home, usually under house arrest.
It is important to note that it is highly unusual for a court in any case to impose a harsher sentence than the one proposed by the prosecution. Elkhodary, through his counsel, proposed instead that an absolute or conditional discharge (with no resulting criminal record) be imposed.
Justice Brown rejected the defence proposal, finding that the imposition of an absolute or conditional discharge in this case would be contrary to the public interest. She also held that a suspended sentence would be woefully inadequate in the circumstances and would not be proportionate to the gravity of the offence and the degree of responsibility of the offender.
The preconditions to the imposition of a conditional sentence are set out in subsection 742.1 of the Criminal Code, the most relevant here being:
the court is satisfied that the service of the sentence in the community would not endanger the safety of the community and would be consistent with the fundamental purpose and principles of sentencing set out in sections 718 to 718.2.
Note that section 718.2 requires the court to take into consideration the principle that a sentence should be increased to account for the fact that it was motivated by bias, prejudice or hate based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression, or on any other similar factor.
Her Honour agreed to delay the formal imposition of the conditional sentence until November 5, 2025.
Justice Brown’s reasons for conviction and for sentence were impeccable. Most significantly, she rejected any suggestion that this conduct did not constitute a hate crime against the Jewish community (anti-Zionist advocates regularly attempt to characterize these cases as political protests, rather than hate crimes). She imposed the sentence proposed by the prosecution. As stated above, it is difficult for a judge to impose a sentence that exceeds the sentence proposed by the prosecution. Given the strength of the judge’s findings, specifically on hate motivation, one is left wondering if the judge would have been prepared to impose a real jail sentence, if it had been requested by the prosecution.
In my view, the prevalence of antisemitic hate crimes in our community compels the prosecution to recommend to the court a sentence with a greater focus on deterrence and denunciation.
Arrest in Ottawa Hate Crime
On Wednesday, August 27, 2025, a woman in her 70s was stabbed by a stranger in the Loblaws store at College Square in Ottawa’s west end at around 1:35 p.m. in an unprovoked attack. Joseph Rooke, 71, of Cornwall, is charged with aggravated assault and possession of a dangerous weapon. He remains in custody. On Friday, August 29, the Ottawa Police Service confirmed that the incident is considered a hate-motivated crime and that the Hate and Bias Unit is involved in the investigation.
The victim was shopping in the Loblaws at College Square, which has a large kosher food section when she was attacked (there are conflicting reports as to whether she was in the kosher food section or the produce section when she was attacked). She has been released from hospital and is recovering from her injuries at home.
Social media posts allegedly made by Rooke are rife with antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes. A publication ban remains in effect.
We will continue to update this case as it develops.
Montreal Israeli Flag Arson
On August 27, 2025, Montreal Police arrested and charged Frédéric Biron Carmel, 39 with public incitement of hatred, hate-motivated mischief to property, arson and possession of incendiary materials in relation to two incidents where it is alleged that the Israeli flag in front of the Hampstead Town Hall was set ablaze causing minor damage.
The first incident occurred on August 22 and after the flag was replaced, a second arson attack occurred overnight on August 25, this time also burning the municipal flag.
It is alleged that Biron Carmel posted numerous photos and references to the incidents on social media as well as filming himself committing the second arson with the Britney Spears song, “Oops!...I Did It Again”, playing in the background.
It is also alleged that he posted a video on X, entitled “Manifesto of the Israeli Flag Burner” narrated with an AI voice declaring, “a town hall is not an embassy of genocide,” and accusing Mayor Jeremy Levi of advocating genocide.
Biron Carmel was released from custody with the consent of the prosecution on conditions including a prohibition on the possession of weapons and restrictions on his use of social media.
We will continue to update this case as it develops.
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.