Staff Reporter.
Canadian federal police on Saturday charged an Ottawa youth with directing terrorist activities against Jewish people, and giving instructions on explosives.
The accused, because of their young age, cannot be identified under Canadian law. No details were released.
In a statement, police said they were monitoring a “concerning trend of violent extremism and terrorist use of the Internet.”
Global News reported that an explosives team was sent to the site of Friday’s arrest.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, an advocacy group representing Jewish organizations across Canada, said on X, formerly Twitter, it was thankful authorities were “able to foil the threat and that no one was hurt.”
Tensions have spiked in Canada over the Israel-Hamas war — with gunshots fired at Jewish schools, and other institutions firebombed in recent weeks.
“I was shocked to learn the details of a planned attack against Ottawa’s Jewish community,” Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “There has been a rise in antisemitism in Ottawa in recent weeks.”
He added he was grateful that strong investigative work by the RCMP and Ottawa police was able to avert an attack. He said police would continue to patrol synagogues and other Jewish institutions.
Several countries around the word, notably in Europe, have seen attacks on Jewish targets increase amid the intense Israeli strikes on Gaza in response to the bloody October 7 attack by militants of the Palestinian group Hamas.
Source: Fullview and News Agencies.