Sentencing hearing underway for man who vandalized National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa

Victim impact statements were read as the man who admitted to vandalizing the National Holocaust Memorial awaits his sentence. CTV’s Katie Griffin reports.

The Crown is seeking a sentence of two years in jail, with credit for timed served, for the former City of Ottawa lawyer who defaced the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa in June 2025.

Iain Aspenlieder pleaded guilty in July to a charge of mischief to a war memorial in connection with the vandalism.

The words “feed me” were painted on the side of the memorial west of downtown Ottawa on June 9. The paint was quickly removed, but the act prompted widespread condemnation from residents, Jewish groups, and political leaders.

As a sentencing hearing got underway at the Ottawa Courthouse, the Crown recommended a sentence of two years in jail, followed by three years of probation.

“This was a conscious, deliberate act by an educated man and I’m submitting his action was antisemitic in nature. He generalized all Jews with the actions of Israel,” said Crown attorney Moiz Karimjee. “He knows the law, he knows about antisemitism, he knows about the symbolism of the Holocaust and he still decides to cause harm to the local community. So all that justifies a significant sentence.”

Several victim impact statements were presented in court Monday morning.

“When a national monument to atrocity and human loss is desecrated, it undermines the values of respect, inclusion and remembrance that Canada strives to uphold,” said Amanda Ross, reading a statement on behalf of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

“For the Jewish community it is not just symbolic damage but a direct assault on their history, dignity and sense of belonging.”

Ross added that the words scrawled in red paint “carry a menacing and dehumanizing undertone that intensifies fear, sending a message of hate and denial at a time when antisemitism, which historically led to horrific violence against Jews, is still alive today.”

Reading a statement on behalf of the Alliance of Canadians Combatting Antisemitism, Janice LaForme said Aspenlieder could have made his views known by protesting outside the Israeli embassy or Parliament Hill but instead made a “calculated choice” to vandalize the Holocaust memorial.

LaForme said that Aspenlieder leaving his bloody handprint, “reinforced the deep pain, fear and lack of security felt by the Jewish community, as one of its sacred sites was vandalized.”

The Crown told the court that the Ottawa Police Service received 170 hate-motivated crime reports between Jan. 1 and Nov. 11, with 66 of them against the Jewish community.

According to the agreed statement of facts, National Capital Commission surveillance footage showed Aspenlieder arriving at the monument on a bicycle at 2:59 a.m. on June 9. He was captured carrying red bags, throwing paint on the monument and painting the words “feed me” with a paintbrush on the monument. He left the area at 3:08 a.m.

At the time of the vandalism Aspenlieder had been “on a hunger strike protesting what he believed was a genocide on Palestine, he’d written letters to Canadian politicians,” lawyer Michael Spratt said.

Spratt said the Crown had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Aspenlieder’s actions were motivated by hate, prejudice or bias.

Instead, Spratt said Aspenlieder was “motivated by an overwhelming grief, an undeniable tragedy on a human scale” and that he’s “fundamentally decent, empathetic” and that this was out of character.

Spratt said Aspenlieder is a father of two and has used time since the vandalism “to reflect about the consequences of his actions.”

Aspenlieder was a legal counsel with the City of Ottawa. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said in late June that he had been terminated.

Addressing the court, Aspenlieder said he chose the monument intentionally because he was “making a connection between two tragedies,” he said, referring to the murder of six million Jewish people during the Holocaust and what’s happening to Palestinian people during the war in Gaza.

Aspenlieder said his intention was not to incite hatred of Jewish people but to shock and disturb Canadians.

“I know that what I’ve done has hurt people and made them afraid and that was an unavoidable consequence, in my mind, of what I decided to do.”

Aspenlieder had been out on bail and in an usual move, asked the court to go back to jail until he was sentenced because of the emotional stress it’s causing his parents and family members.

A date for sentencing is expected to be set on Friday.

The National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa commemorates the six million Jewish men, women and children who were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust, and the millions of other victims of Nazi Germany and its collaborators.

The monument was inaugurated by former prime minister Justin Trudeau in September 2017.

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Ted Raymond