MONTREAL — Was it a hate crime? That’s what Montreal police investigators are trying to figure out.
Sometime over the weekend, someone fired what appeared to be shots from a pellet gun at a Muslim school in a Notre-Dame-de-Grace neighbourhood.
Police said that there was no one inside the building, but several windows were damaged.
The school contacted authorities early Monday morning to report the incident.
It’s unclear why the school was targeted.
Adil Charkaoui, the coordinator for the Quebec Collective against Islamophobia said he condemns the incident.
“This hate act takes place in the wake of a series of highly mediatized reports.”
“The investigations on Muslim schools and other Muslim community institutions are a further sign of a deteriorating social climate for Quebec’s Muslims,” Charkaoui noted.
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Police would not confirm if the vandalism could be qualified as hate motivated.
Montreal police spokesperson Raphael Bergeron told Global News that investigators would review surveillance camera footage.
“Investigators will take a good look at that video surveillance,” he said.
“At this moment, we’re trying to identify a possible suspect and the motive why that mischief was committed to that specific school.”
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The incident coincides with a controversial imam hoping to open a community centre in the Montreal, and the federal government’s recent tabling of anti-terrorist legislation, Bill C-51, after attacks in Ottawa and St-Jean-sur-Richelieu by radicalized Canadians.
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