Youth, 17, receives two-year custodial sentence for March synagogue shootings
· Toronto Sun
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A 17-year-old boy has been sentenced to two years in custody as well as community supervision for his involvement in a pair of shootings that targeted synagogues in the city’s north end .
The sentence confirmed on Thursday by York Regional Police Chief Paulo Da Silva includes two years in a custodial facility followed by a year of community supervision. The teen, who Da Silva said pleaded guilty this month to charges including discharging a firearm into a place of worship, was also given a two-year firearms prohibition and was ordered to provide a DNA sample.
Da Silva stressed that the sentence “reflects the maximum custodial sentence available under the Youth Criminal Justice Act,” which protects the identity of people under 18 years old who are charged with a crime or convicted of one.
“This significant sentence recognizes the fear, trauma and harm these acts of violence caused to the Jewish communities in York Region, Toronto and in surrounding areas,” he said.
“I would like to thank the officers who responded to these incidents, the investigators who worked tirelessly to identify and arrest the suspect and the Crown attorneys who prosecuted the case.
“I would also like to thank the Toronto Police Service for their diligent work and partnership in this investigation.”
Case part of ‘evolving threat environment:’ Demkiw
Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw also thanked his officers and York cops for “their important work in bringing this individual to justice.
“This case demonstrates the importance of strong collaboration between law enforcement partners and community as we respond to an increasingly complex and evolving threat environment,” Demkiw said in a statement released Thursday evening.
“We will continue to strengthen our response to violent extremism and hate crimes.”
The sentence came after a pair of shootings on back-to-back nights in early March that targeted the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto synagogue in Thornhill and the Shaarei Shomayim synagogue in North York.
Two synagogues targeted
Officers found the front doors of both synagogues damaged by gunfire after the midnight shootings on March 6 and 7. No one was physically injured, although two people were inside the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto synagogue at the time of the March 6 shooting.
Police had arrested a teen from Waterloo and an unidentified 18-year-old in May over their alleged involvement in the shootings and charged them with at least a half-dozen offences each, most of which were firearm related.
Chris Perreira, 23, of Barrie, was then arrested in August in connection with the case and charged with multiple offences including two counts of mischief related to religious property and four counts of reckless discharge of a firearm.
An update on the status of the two other cases was not immediately available.
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‘Step toward justice’ for Jewish community
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs hailed the youth’s conviction as an “important step toward justice” for the GTA’s Jewish community, but also warned that the shootings came after years of “escalating antisemitism, intimidation, harassment and violence against Jewish Canadians” in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel by the Hamas militant group.
“What began as intimidation has, in the most disturbing cases, escalated to gunfire directed at places of worship and schools,” the CIJA said in a release issued on Tuesday. “Today’s sentence sends an important message that this violence carries serious consequences. But it cannot be where accountability ends.
“The young offender has been sentenced. The question now is who put him up to it?”