Police investigating threats against Jewish community in Waterloo Region and Guelph

A person holds a cellphone in this undated stock image. (Greta Hoffman/Pexels.com)

A teenager has been arrested after a Jewish organization said they received more than one hundred threats over the weekend.

Hillel Ontario operates at nine universities across the province, including University of Guelph, University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University.

According to their website, their mission is to “amplify Jewish campus life.”

However, over the weekend, they received a flood of hateful messages.

“Over the weekend we received, through our website, over a hundred deeply disturbing messages which we reported to law enforcement. It’s unfortunate. This has been a challenging time for the Jewish community. The Jewish community is the most frequently targeted religious minority for hate crimes in the country. Jewish students on university campuses across the province have really been at the brunt of that over the course of the last almost two years. Unfortunately, this most recent incident is a stark reminder of what Jewish students have been facing,” Jay Solomon, Hillel Ontario’s Chief Advancement Officer, said in an interview with CTV News on Thursday.

Hillel Ontario representatives confirmed the threats were aimed at University of Guelph and University of Waterloo.

“The Jewish community should be no different than any other community operating in this country. Jewish students should be able to go to school free from harassment, free from intimidation, free from hatred and certainly free from violence. When we have violent threats directed at Jewish students that is deeply disturbing. We give a lot of credit to local police and campus security officials who acted very quickly and apprehended someone,” Solomon said.

Waterloo Regional Police Service confirmed a 17-year-old boy was arrested on Wednesday as part of a police investigation. He has been charged with uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm.

Police said there is no ongoing threat to the public, but their investigation continues.

“Threats against the Jewish community don’t always stop at the threat,” Solomon said. “We’ve seen time and time again where Jewish communities around the world have been targeted and that can’t be left unchecked.”

Solomon said Hillel Ontario has been experiencing an increase in hateful messages over the last few years.

“Last year we logged over 500 reports of antisemitism from Jewish students across the nine universities we operate on. It’s deeply disturbing and really unacceptable.”

Solomon called on all Canadians to stand with the Jewish community and uphold Canadian values of inclusivity.

“Jewish students just want to go to school and just want to study and meet friends and be like any other university student. They don’t deserve this. We’re calling on university officials, government officials, policing officials to ensure they are taking immediate steps to ensure the safety and security of the Jewish community.”