January 7, 2026
OTTAWA – B’nai Brith Canada is questioning an Ontario Superior Court decision because it failed to identify the hateful motivations behind a man’s vandalism of Canada’s National Holocaust Monument last summer.
“How can you intentionally target the National Holocaust Monument without being motivated by hatred?” asked Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s Director of Research and Advocacy, who read a statement into the Court record, explaining the incident’s impact on the Jewish community. “[Ian] Aspenlieder chose to target the Holocaust monument because he knew it would traumatize the Jewish community, demonstrating clear antisemitic motivations.
“This sentence brings into question the sanctity of Canada’s Holocaust monument and the memory of the victims and survivors of the Shoah.”
On Wednesday, an Ontario Superior Court justice sentenced Ian Aspenlieder, 46, to five-months of incarceration, which amounted, in effect, to time-served.
A former City of Ottawa lawyer, Aspenlieder defaced the National Holocaust Monument last June with the words “FEED ME” in red paint, in what he described as an act of protest against what he perceived as Canada’s “complicity” in the Israel-Hamas conflict. He later pleaded guilty to the charge of mischief to a war memorial.
During the trial, he acknowledged that targeting the Holocaust monument would offend Jewish Canadians but demonstrated little remorse for his actions.
After Aspenlieder’s vandalism, B’nai Brith Canada urged the Federal Government to enhance its antisemitism training for civil servants. This is also a component of B’nai Brith Canada’s 7-Point Plan for Combating Antisemitism in Canada, a policy guide, which we have shared with leaders throughout the country.
“Collectively punishing Jews for a foreign nation’s policies is antisemitism,” said Simon Wolle, B’nai Brith Canada’s Chief Executive Officer. “Canadian Jews are not responsible for events in the Middle East. Aspenlieder’s behaviour illustrates the degree to which antisemitic attitudes have become normalized in our society.”