2 arrested after activists spray paint Tesla car dealership in Montreal

Two young adults were arrested after a Tesla car dealership in Montreal was vandalized Wednesday morning.

Montreal police say they received a 911 call at around 10 a.m. about the front of the building being covered in pink spray paint.

When officers arrived at the dealership on Ferrier Street, in the city’s Côte-Des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-De-Grâce borough, they arrested two men aged 21.

Police said the two men were released from custody on a promise to appear in court in May with conditions.

Last Generation Canada, an environmental activist group, said two of its members used washable paint to send a clear message to Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

“The group is demanding that Canada stand up to Tesla’s billionaire CEO, Elon Musk, who is destroying democracies and spreading climate denial,” the group said in a press release on Wednesday.

“Last Generation Canada is also calling on the Canadian government to create a Climate Disaster Protection Agency to help Canadians whose homes, communities, lives and livelihoods have been destroyed by extreme weather caused by fossil fuels. The group wants the government to pay for the agency by levying punitive taxes against the ultra-rich, who are overwhelmingly responsible for the climate crisis.”

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Spate of attacks against Tesla in the U.S.

The company’s CEO has faced backlash for his close relationship to President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to annex Canada and unleashed a trade war against its closest ally.

There has been a wave of attacks and protests at Tesla dealerships across the United States and parts of Europe in recent days. In Colorado, Molotov cocktails were thrown at vehicles and the words “Nazi cars” were spraypainted on a building.

In South Carolina, a woman set fire to Tesla charging stations near Charleston.

On Tuesday, the Vancouver International Auto Show announced it was removing Tesla from the event due to concerns about the “the safety of attendees, exhibitors, and staff.”

Last Generation Canada was also involved in the closure of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge in Montreal last October after two activists climbed the structure, resulting in it being shut down to motorists during the height of the morning rush hour.

Laura Sullivan, a spokesperson for the activist group, told CTV News that activists' previous attempts to get their message across that didn’t involve committing a crime went nowhere and they felt the need to take further, non-violent action.

“They’ve written petitions, they’ve talked to their MPs, they’ve gone on marches. Here in Montreal in 2019, we saw 500,000 people in the streets marching to get the government to do something on the climate crisis. But here we are in 2025 and our climate is being decimated,” Sullivan said, pointing to evacuations due to wildfires and severe flooding as recent examples in Canada.

“And right now, what we’re seeing south of the border is the fall of our democracy.”

On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi condemned the recent acts of vandalism on Tesla properties in a statement, saying “The swarm of violent attacks on Tesla property is nothing short of domestic terrorism.”

Sullivan pushed back on those remarks.

“I don’t think the ordinary people who are speaking truth to power are the real criminals here. I do think it is the elites and the governments that are allowing them to continue holding this power,” she said.