Police have charged Abdirazak Mahdi Ahmed, 20, of Les Cèdres, for allegedly shooting up a Jewish school in Montreal in November. The charges were laid just about 48 hours prior to yet another attack on a Jewish institution, this time at an all-girls school in Toronto. On November 12, shots were fired at Yeshiva Gedola school at about 5 a.m. It was the second time in four days the school was shot at. Ahmed appeared in court Wednesday, where he was charged for intentionally discharging a firearm at a location knowing that a person might be inside, the Montreal Gazette reported. He was also charged with theft, mischief and receiving stolen vehicles for crimes allegedly committed November 9, just days before the shooting. The same school was shot at November 9, as was Montreal’s Talmud Torah Elementary School.The week before that, assailants tossed Molotov cocktails at a Montreal synagogue and Jewish community centre. Police continue to investigate to identify any of Ahmed’s accomplices. .Meanwhile in Toronto over the weekend, shots were fired at Toronto Bais Chaya Mushka Girls Elementary School. Police say the suspects are still at large. Blurry surveillance footage shows two assailants shooting at the school in the dark of night early Saturday morning. There were no injuries, but there is damage to the school building. The hate crime unit and the guns and gangs task force are on the case, CBC reported. .Insp. Paul Krawczyk confirmed the 5 a.m. local time shooting in a press conference Saturday.Police were called at approximately 9 a.m. on reports of "evidence of a firearm discharge" at the school. "I completely understand that this can cause concern and fear and anxiety in the community, especially when it happens at a school like this," said Krawczyk to the CBC."We're not going to ignore the obvious, you know, what occurred here and what the target of the shooting was. But at the same time, it will be wrong to just guess at this point."Ontario Premier Doug Ford called the attacks a "gross display of antisemitism.""It's beyond belief that anyone could be this hateful. Every student deserves to feel safe at school. These cowards need to be found and brought to justice," wrote Ford on Twitter. .The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs in a statement called the Toronto school shooting "clear, calculated and premeditated targeting of a Jewish school for girls.""The fact a school was targeted regardless of whether kids were present or not represents another worrying escalation in the violence Jewish Canadians have been experiencing. We demand justice. We demand swift action," wrote the group. Quebec VP of the centre Eta Yudin said the “Hamas attacks” since October 8 instigated a “significant change in the threats experienced by the Jewish community in Quebec since Oct. 7 and well before.”“The stress and anxiety it caused the Jewish community since then cannot be underestimated, as we have had to endure intimidation after intimidation, as well as serial violence and antisemitism,” said Yudin, adding the charges laid was a good sign — but police need to do more. . “While the escalation of violence and hatred against our community only continues, we are nonetheless pleased that further charges may be brought against the suspect. This senseless act, this act of terror, must lead to more serious charges, as we have often repeated since the Hamas attacks. This will send a strong message that targeting a community with such acts is unacceptable. We must remember that some politicians had rightly declared that shooting at schools was a form of terrorism.”“The safety of Jewish Quebecers is at stake, but so is the safety of all Montrealers.”.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau slammed the “reports of shots fired at a Jewish elementary school in North York” as “despicable — a brazen act of antisemitism.”“Its perpetrators need to be brought to justice,” declared the prime minister on social media. By late Sunday afternoon, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland condemned the shooting. “We should all be shocked and disgusted by shooters opening fire at a Jewish girls’ school, this weekend. There is no place in Canada, or anywhere, for antisemitism. The girls of Bais Chaya Mushka Elementary have a right to study in safety—free of violence, intimidation, and hate,” wrote Freeland.
