Montreal man, 24, charged with posting threatening anti-Muslim video

CTV Montreal: 'Joker' threatens Muslims A 24-year-old Montreal man is facing serious charges in connection with a video posted to YouTube on which a masked man threatens to murder.

A 24-year-old Montreal man has been charged with multiple crimes after police arrested him on suspicion of posting a video calling for the murder of Muslims and Arabs in the wake of last week's attacks in Paris.

The video shows a man wearing a mask and dressed as the famous Batman villain The Joker.

While holding what appears to be a toy pistol the man promises that he and a gang of more than 10 Quebecers will murder one Arab a week in order to "clean Quebec."

"I will shoot an Arab in the head, once each week, starting next week," declares the man in the video.

The video was originally posted under the name "Jack Napier" -- the name of The Joker in the 1989 movie.

The Sureté du Quebec confirmed Tuesday that it was aware of the video, and SQ officers worked with Montreal police to arrest 24-year-old Jesse Pelletier early Wednesday morning at a home on Monselet St. in Montreal North.

At the time police seized a toy gun that worked on compressed air.

Pelletier is now charged with uttering threats, incitement of hatred and perpetrating a terror hoax.

Pelletier’s mother-in-law Chantal Plante said she believed the video was made as a joke.

Pelletier is a good husband and good father to his 11-month-old son, she said.

She then added, “He is a bit racist.”

She believes Pelletier made the video while his partner was away and the mask he wore was from his Halloween costume.

Other threats and attacks

Earlier this week a mosque in Peterborough, Ont. was burned in what police are treating as a hate crime, and a Hindu temple in Kitchener was vandalized.

In Toronto on Monday a Muslim woman wearing a hijab was pummelled in front of her children as she picked them up from school.

Mehmet Deger of the Dorval mosque said he received a threatening phone call on Tuesday.

"The lady said we don't want Muslims in Quebec, we are going to look after you, we hate you and we are going to do something. I don't know what they are going to do. And she said they are very unhappy that these Syrian refugees are coming here. They don't want them either," said Deger.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has urged Canadians not to turn to "acts of hatred and racism" in the wake of the deadly shootings and bombings in Paris.