Vaughan, Ontario man sentenced to one year in jail and two years’ probation after assaulting a Jewish couple in a hate-motivated attack while they walked home from synagogue. Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center welcomes the sentence.
A Vaughan, Ontario man has been sentenced to one year in jail and two years of probation after being found guilty of assault in connection with a hate-motivated attack on a Jewish couple walking home from synagogue, Newmarket Today reported.
The Ontario Court of Justice handed down the sentence on Monday, following the March conviction of 36-year-old Kenneth Jeewan Gobin on two counts of assault and one count of breach of probation. The sentencing followed a hearing that included multiple victim and community impact statements.
The incident occurred on January 6, 2024, at approximately 1:45 p.m. in Thornhill, just north of Toronto. The victims, four Jewish adults, were returning from synagogue when Gobin, riding an electric bicycle, approached them and launched into a hate-fueled tirade.
According to court evidence, Gobin deliberately mounted the curb and rode directly at the couple walking on the sidewalk. He then shouted antisemitic slurs, including “Hitler should have killed you all” and “You should have died in the Holocaust,” performed a Nazi salute, and spat on them, striking one of the women.
At the time of the attack, Gobin was on probation for a previous conviction and has a lengthy criminal record, according to the report.
His actions were described as an “unprovoked, hate-motivated assault” by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC), which submitted a Community Impact Statement to the court. The presiding judge, Justice M. Townsend, cited that statement at length during the proceedings.
“When expressions of hate are paired with physical acts of aggression, they pose a grave threat to public safety and social cohesion,” said Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, FSWC’s Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy.
“History has repeatedly shown that when this kind of hatred is ignored or minimized, it paves the way to more widespread and dangerous violence. These acts are not isolated incidents – they’re part of a deeply troubling historical pattern whose gravity must be taken seriously. Today’s sentence sends a strong and necessary message: hate-fueled violence cannot and will not go unpunished.”
Canada has seen a sharp rise in incidents of antisemitism since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the war in Gaza which followed.
Data released last week by the Toronto Police Service (TPS) reveals that the city experienced a historic high in reported hate crime incidents in 2024, with the Jewish community, once again, being the leading target.
According to the TPS’s 2024 Annual Hate Crime Statistical Report, 443 hate-motivated occurrences were reported to police last year – a 19 percent increase from 2023 and a 203 percent rise from 2014.
In March, Toronto Police charged a local man with 29 offenses, including multiple hate crimes, in connection to a surge of antisemitic attacks and threats that have unsettled the city’s Jewish community since October 7.According to the TPS’s 2024 Annual Hate Crime Statistical Report, 443 hate-motivated occurrences were reported to police last year – a 19 percent increase from 2023 and a 203 percent rise from 2014.
In March, Toronto Police charged a local man with 29 offenses, including multiple hate crimes, in connection to a surge of antisemitic attacks and threats that have unsettled the city’s Jewish community since October 7.
