B.C. man charged with hate crime against Ottawa family doctor
The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) Hate and Bias Crime Unit charged a British Columbia man on Monday for an anti-Semitic, misogynistic and intimidating phone call targeting an Ottawa family doctor.
Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth — a member of Ottawa’s Jewish community, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) trustee and a family doctor — wrote in a social media post on Monday that she had been “living in fear because of threats and antisemetic harassment” since being targeted.
This comes only days after an Ottawa youth was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) for terrorism charges in an alleged plot against the Jewish community.
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Dr. Kaplan-Myrth had previously been the target of harassment for her work with COVID-19 vaccines while advocating for public health measures.
At the time, she received anti-Semetic, threatening and hateful messages to her personal and OCDSB email accounts.
OPS charged a 39 year-old man from British Columbia with the following:
- Indecent Telecommunications;
- Harassment by threatening Conduct; and
- Intimidation-Health Services.
He is scheduled to appear in court sometime in January.
Police encourage the public to report hate-motivated incidents to police on their website or to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
