Hate Crime & Legal Update: Montreal Cases Underscore Hate and Extremism Concerns
- Rochelle Direnfeld
- Aug 22
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 24
Week of August 18, 2025.
Hate Crime Allegations: Montreal Man Charged After Threatening Remarks
On Friday, August 15, 2025, Sid Ali Tamrabet, 28, of Montreal was arrested and charged with:
Criminal harassment of a woman and her family between August 10 and 15; and
Two counts of uttering death threats against three men in total between August 10 and 15 and on August 9.
Montreal police responded to several 911 calls on Friday, August 15 reporting a man making hateful and threatening remarks to people in Montreal’s St. Laurent borough. Tamrabet was quickly apprehended in the area.
A video of part of the alleged incident on August 15 has been widely shared on social media.
In the video, a man can be seen and heard shouting to a visibly Jewish man the words, “We will kill you, you f***ing pig.” A second clip appears to show the man saying, “I’m just waiting for the order of the king...There is one king – Allah.”
Tamrabet was held in custody over the weekend for a brief assessment to determine if he is unfit to stand trial. He returned to court on Monday and was granted a release with conditions pending his trial. In the absence of a criminal record, it is not unusual for an accused to be released on conditions pending trial. No mention was made of the assessment obtained, presumably because it determined that the accused is fit to stand trial.
Conditions of his release restrict his access to several locations in St. Laurent. He is not to possess any weapons and is not to contact or communicate with or be within 500 metres of the complainants.
The circumstances described in the allegations against the accused invite a finding that this crime, if proven, was motivated by hatred, bias or prejudice against Jews.
The accused returns to court in October. We will continue to update our readers on this case.
Montreal Youth Charged with Terrorism-Related Offences
On Wednesday, August 20, 2025, RCMP Federal Policing – Eastern Region arrested a young person from Montreal for terrorism-related offences. Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), a “young person” is defined as an individual between the ages of 12 and 17 alleged to have committed a criminal offence.
Under the YCJA, there is an automatic publication ban on the name of the young person and any information that may tend to identify the young person. That publication ban will remain in force for the entirety of the proceedings unless the young person is subject to an adult sentence. As of August 21, the prosecution has indicated on the record that it will seek an adult sentence, should the young person be found guilty of the offences with which he is charged.
The investigation was conducted by the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET), a multi-agency unit, comprised of members from various law enforcement agencies and led by the RCMP, which is focused on counterterrorism and national security. INSETs operate in major Canadian cities including Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, and Edmonton and are integral to Canada’s counter-terrorism strategy.
It is alleged that the young person intended to carry out at least one attack on behalf of the Islamic State. Among other things, he allegedly posted threatening comments on social media and had been saving money to buy a long rifle, “like an AK-47”, according to Corporal Erique Gasse.
He is charged with the following:
Providing, making available, etc. property or services for terrorist purposes;
Participating in activity of terrorist group;
Facilitating terrorist activity;
Assault with a weapon/causing bodily harm; and
Assaulting a peace officer.
The last two charges were added on August 21, 2025, when the young person appeared in court. His bail hearing has been adjourned, at his request, to Monday, August 25, 2025.
As ALCCA has reported in previous commentary, we are increasingly seeing young people implicated in contemplated Islamist terror activities, and radicalized, often through social media, with alarming rapidity. INSET units should be commended for the number of alleged terror plots that have been thwarted in various Canadian jurisdictions over the last several years.
However, the number of these plots reinforces the need to crack down on extremist criminal rhetoric and focus on deradicalization strategies in partnership with mainstream community leadership and social agencies.
We will continue to follow and report on this case as well.
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.