Terry Newman: Apparent arson attack triggers more fear for a Montreal Jewish neighbourhood

Early Saturday, Nöam, a kosher Jewish restaurant in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood was completely destroyed by fire; it is being investigated as a possible arson and the motive has not yet been determined. This same neighbourhood is still reeling from an attack that shut down the entire area just over 40 days ago.

I visited the site of the former restaurant, now burnt to cinders. The mood was sombre.

Nöam is only a four-minute walk from the Hilton where, in late June, Seth Hatfield — a 25-year-old Albertan with grand delusions that capitalism and elites (including Zionists) were the cause of his dating woes — unleashed terror on the same community, resulting in the deaths of Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, a Muslim Montreal police officer, and a Jewish bystander, Michel Mizrahi.

In the short walk between the two locations, I noticed that a large sign memorializing both men lost to the Côte-des-Neiges community had been erected by the Jewish Community Council. As is customary in the Jewish community, it reads: “May their memories be a blessing.”

Upon arrival at Nöam, I noticed a chemical smell, likely an accelerant of some kind. The building Nöam was in also housed another business, which I was told was untouched by the fire.

The Liberal MP for Mount Royal, Anthony Housefather, was on scene when I arrived. I asked him to say a few words about what he thought was happening.

In a recorded interview, he told me that the owners had just put a lot of money into renovations for the restaurant, and called it a “horrific tragedy” for the owners and their customers as well as the entire community.

Housefather told me, “It was clearly an arson attack,” based on the footage he’d seen, and that now the police need to investigate the motive. Housefather said that he also contacted the minister of public safety, Gary Anandasangaree, who he said was in touch with his local counterparts in the area.

Housefather told me that “Montreal police checked out all the cameras in the area,” and that the owners would be adding their footage later Saturday, after Shabbat. Housefather told me, “hopefully, there’ll be very clear footage of the guy who did this, and he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

I spoke to the owner of the building, who shared a video with the Post, which appeared to be a recording of surveillance video showing an individual running.

The mayor of the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough, Stéphanie Valenzuela, posted a message to her Instagram account saying she was concerned about recent incidents in the area, and that members of the community should continue to look out for one another.

It doesn’t mention this is in her message, but, in addition to this apparent arson, early on Friday gunshots were fired in the neighbourhood at around 2:50 a.m. A house on Méridian Ave. near Ponsard Ave. was struck by gunfire. Reportedly, someone was seen at the residence before fleeing the scene.

Let’s hope that, if the Nöam fire was, indeed, an arson, that the courts do not entertain the kind of unbelievable excuse that admitted Montreal arsonist Mohamed Ilyess Akodad gave the court here, that he was unaware that the institution he was setting fire to was a synagogue.

The Jewish community in Montreal will find out whether the judge believed Akodad’s fantastical story, and just how seriously the justice system here takes attacks on the Jewish community when court reconvenes for his sentencing on Sept. 10.

National Post