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This story includes details that some readers might find disturbing.
The Montreal police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police launched investigations Wednesday after a threatening email was sent to more than 100 Jewish institutions across Canada, including several synagogues in Montreal.
The email was sent around 5 a.m., warning the institutions that explosives had been placed in black backpacks and would be set off in a matter of hours.
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“You will all end up in a pool of blood, none of you deserve to keep living,” the email read.
The Montreal police say they were alerted about the email shortly after 7 a.m., at which point they began ensuring there were no signs of serious threats at targeted synagogues on the island.
Officers first conducted searches early Wednesday at a synagogue on Harrow Crescent in Hampstead, but found nothing out of the ordinary.
Montreal police spokesperson Sabrina Gauthier said the department consulted with its anti-terror squad and the force’s hate crimes division about the email.
While the police department will carry out any local searches, the investigation was transferred to the RCMP by the end of the morning.
In an interview Wednesday, Rabbi Reuben Poupko, of the Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation in Côte-St-Luc, said he’s aware of about a dozen local synagogues that received the email.
Given the number of institutions that were threatened across the country, Poupko said the synagogue followed protocol and searched the building but didn’t believe it was in immediate danger.
What makes the email more troubling, Poupko said, is the context of an increase in antisemitic acts seen in Montreal since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
“Synagogues and schools have been shot at or firebombed, individuals have been targeted, students have been harassed,” Poupko said. “So it’s hard not to associate this with all the rest that is going on.”
Still, Poupko said synagogues and other Jewish institutions in Montreal remained open on Wednesday.
“Jewish life continues as normal today,” he said. “With a little more vigilance, but Jewish life continues.”
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