Man accused of threatening Ottawa rabbi

Ottawa police have laid several charges against a 29-year-old man after a local rabbi reported a threatening phone call.

Police said in a news release that they received a complaint Friday about a threatening phone call to a religious leader. A man was arrested on Saturday.

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Rabbi Idan Scher, the Senior Rabbi of Congregation Machzikei Hadas in Ottawa, told CTV News Ottawa that he had received the threatening phone call and reported it to police.

"They went on a diatribe on how our community supports Israel, our community are Zionists, which means we are Nazis, which means we all need to be killed," Scher said.

Ottawa police did not identify the accused in a news release Monday. Police said he is charged with "various hate-motivated offences" and is due in court Monday.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, Ottawa police have stepped up patrols around Jewish and Muslim institutions in the city and have investigated reported hate-motivated incidents and crimes, including a bomb threat to a local Jewish school and a social media image of a man with a sign on Parliament Hill comparing Israel to the Nazis.

Scher said the sign on Parliament Hill was troubling to see.

"Anytime we see a swastika it is traumatic because of what it represents. It represents six-million Jews. These are our grandparents, our great-uncles, our great-aunts, family members that were killed in a genocide," he said.

The sign had a picture of the Israeli flag next to a picture of a Nazi swastika, with the words "Zionism = Nazism" underneath. 

"To see it being used in this ignorant, deliberately dangerous way, that just adds a whole new level of trauma and pain and fear for our community that is currently reeling from already increased attacks against us in the past month," Scher said.

Scher added that he hopes Ottawans will come together to denouce hatred. 

"Something that should be absolutely be shocking is no longer shocking. And I think every member of our city can actually do their part to once again make it shocking when we see a swastika on Parliament Hill," he said. "The way to do that is by showing your solidarity, sharing your voice, sharing your connections. Anything you can do to show your support for the Jewish community right now is exactly — the only thing — that can make it so it shocking when we see a swastika on Parliament Hill." 

Police are encouraging anyone who experiences or witnesses a hate-motivated crime to report it.  

--With files from CTV News Ottawa's Leah Larocque.

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