Sentencing for former city lawyer who vandalized Holocaust memorial to come early next year
A sentence for a former
city lawyer who pleaded guilty
to vandalizing the National Holocaust Monument in June will be handed down early next year.
Iain Aspenlieder was
arrested on June 27 and charged
with mischief to a war monument, mischief exceeding $5,000 and harassment by threatening conduct.
It came after Ottawa residents woke up on June 9 to news that the memorial at 1918 Chaudière Crossing had been defaced with the words “FEED ME” in red paint.
Aspenlieder pleaded guilty to one count of mischief for defacing the Holocaust memorial on July 25 and was released on bail pending sentencing.
Crown attorney Moiz Karimjee proposed a two-year sentence with credit for time served, followed by three years of probation.
He told the court that Aspenlieder’s actions harmed the Jewish community in Ottawa and Canada by blaming them for the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The desecration of the National Holocaust Monument caused many in the Jewish community to fear for their safety and the safety of their loved ones in Ottawa and across the country, he added.
“There are daily lawful protests in Ottawa and across Ontario with respect to Israel, and no one is prevented from criticizing Israel lawfully. … This offence harmed the Jewish community and all Canadians because of a foreign conflict,” Karimjee told the court Monday.
Defence lawyer Michael Spratt agreed that Aspenlieder should be punished for his actions and given a criminal record, given the gravity of the offence.
Spratt said Aspenlieder acknowledged that his actions have impacted the Jewish community, but disagreed that the Crown proved beyond a reasonable doubt that they were hate-motivated.
Instead, they were motivated by a genuine concern for the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and he was attempting to make a statement unlawfully, he said.
During a bail hearing on June 28, the court heard that Aspenlieder was participating in a hunger strike until Prime Minister Mark Carney called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal” who was “complicit in a genocide.”
But Spratt said it did not excuse his client from the crime.
“That sort of sentence reflects that he’s guilty, that jail is appropriate, that he should get a criminal record and there should be serious consequences,” he told the court Monday.
“There is no denying that the effects were completely inappropriate. … Even if the court doesn’t find that Mr. Aspenlieder was motivated by hate or bias or prejudice, the effect that it has on members of the community is not diluted or diminished.
“The plea is an acceptance of responsibility and a starting point to providing some sort of reparation.”
Aspenlieder requested to be put back into custody on Monday, due to the onerous nature of his bail conditions and their impact on his family, Spratt said. Previously, he was granted bail pending sentencing under strict conditions after he pleaded guilty in July.
The defence lawyer also asked the court to consider Aspenlieder’s family separation and job loss as collateral consequences.
The City of Ottawa
previously confirmed that it had fired Aspenlieder
, who worked there as legal counsel, and that he was on leave at the time of the incident.
Aspenlieder addresses the court
In a statement late Monday afternoon, Aspenlieder said his actions were motivated by the violence and humanitarian crisis in Palestine.
Standing next to his lawyer, Aspenlieder said he was proud of what he had done, which he believed was right.
“In my mind, I was making a connection between the two tragedies: the Jewish Holocaust and the current genocide and starvation in Palestine,” he said.
“My decision to splash red paint on the Holocaust monument was an intentional use of a powerful symbol to speak my belief that the current Israeli genocide is wrong. My decision was intentional, to invoke the Holocaust monument as the site of my message.
“My message was not intended to provoke the hatred towards Jewish people or anybody. My message was intended to disturb and to disrupt Canadians because of my belief that our silence has complicity.”
But Aspenlieder said he accepts his punishment and acknowledged that he broke the law.
He noted he was aware that Canadians, specifically Jewish Canadians, would be upset, frightened and traumatized by the desecration of the monument.
He noted that he wasn’t aware of the significance of the red hand, which is often seen as a symbol of hate towards Jewish communities.
Earlier, the court heard that Aspenlieder left a red handprint on the National Holocaust Monument. Several victim impact statements highlighted the fear Jewish communities felt when they learned about the red handprint.
“I’m not saying that I’m innocent, but for me to say other things that undermine what I did, I think does a disservice to what I intended to do and what I did,” he concluded in his statement.
Victim impact statements describe widespread pain, generational trauma
Several victim impact statements from Jewish organizations highlighted the widespread pain and fear that they felt after the memorial was vandalized.
Lawrence Greenspon and Joel Diener, co-chairs of the National Holocaust Monument Committee, said the vandalism treated the memory of Holocaust victims and the genocide as something unimportant and contemptible.
“This was not an attack on stone. It was an attack on dignity and the historical truth. For survivors, their families and for our broader community, this act incites religious fear, anguish and generational trauma,” their submission read.
“While the words may well have been with a humanitarian plea, it was a hallowed place where the message was brought that carried the hateful intent.
“We ask this honourable court to recognize that this was not simply vandalism, but a hate-motivated act that shapes the foundation of our community standards and community and belonging.”
Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, senior director of policy and advocacy at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said the National Holocaust Monument is a sacred space of remembrance and reflection to honour the courage and resilience of survivors and those murdered under the Nazi Germany regime.
It is also a public reminder of Canada’s commitment to antisemitism, she said, and Aspenlieder’s actions held Jewish people responsible for Israel’s actions in Gaza.
“This targeting, this conflation of Jews around the world and across time with the modern-day acts of the State of Israel, makes this act one of explicit antisemitism. It was an attempt to weaponize a sacred memorial, transforming it from a place of remembrance to a platform for hate, for Holocaust survivors and their families,” Kirzner-Roberts said.
“Nazi propaganda notoriously portrayed Jews as the root of all evil, of all ill, and their ideology held that the world’s problems can only be solved through the struggle against Jews. By defacing the Holocaust monument with a message that holds Jews accountable for a present-day conflict, Mr. Aspenlieder invoked the same poisonous logic.
“It sends a chilling message that Jewish Canadians remain perpetual targets of hostility and suspicion, regardless of their actual connection to the conflict.”
Jewish community members weren’t the only ones impacted by the vandalism.
Harry LaForme, an Anishinaabe lawyer and a member of the Mississaugas of the Credit, said the impact of Aspenlieder’s actions extends to the broader community.
Jewish Canadians are welcome treaty partners, he said, and the Mississaugas of the Credit have objected to antisemitism and bigotry towards Jewish communities.
The court now plays an important role as a bulwark against anarchy and chaos and the judge must pay attention to how minority groups are treated in Canada, LaForme said.
“I can feel myself diminished as a human being by such bigotry and hate. It erodes the soul of our nation,” he said in his victim impact statement.
“I fail to see how the desecration of the Holocaust memorial is a message that would resonate with a foreign government or advance peace and alleviate the suffering of people in the Middle East.”
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