OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decried an apparent act of vandalism against the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa this week, calling it a reminder that everyone must keep fighting against anti-Semitism.
Police in Ottawa are looking for a man believed to have thrown eggs at the monument, a large installation a short distance west of Parliament Hill.
They’re investigating the apparent vandalism as a hate crime.
“The anti-Semitic defacing of the National Holocaust Monument is completely unacceptable,” Trudeau said Friday on Twitter.
“The fact that this act of hate took place just days after International Holocaust Remembrance Day reminds us that we must all continue to be vigilant & fight anti-Semitism,” he said.
Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly says such incidents are deeply disturbing to many communities, regardless of whom they target.
Police say they’re looking for a white man in his early 20s, based on images from a nearby surveillance camera.
The two-year-old monument, which has several distinct areas a person can walk through, commemorates the deaths of an estimated six million European Jews at the hands of Nazi Germany, before and during the Second World War.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 31, 2020.
The Canadian Press