The Montreal police hate crimes unit is investigating after electric traffic signs were hacked to display anti-Israel messages.
Road signs on St-Jacques Street near the intersection with Atwater Avenue in the southwest borough were hijacked to read “Globalize the intifada” and “Free Palestine, escalate now” on Wednesday.
“Intifada” refers to an uprising. The second intifada, in the early 2000s, was characterized by suicide bombings and other armed attacks on civilian areas in Israel, such as bus depots, restaurants and movie theatres.
“An investigation is currently underway to determine the circumstances surrounding this event,” a representative from Service de police de la Ville de Montréal told True North. “Investigators from the Hate Crimes and Incidents Unit have been informed of this event.”
Gonzalo Nunez, the city of Montreal’s public relations officer, told True North in French that a city subcontractor is responsible for the safety of the signs.
“The padlocks on the signs were broken, and someone manually wrote the unauthorized messages,” Nunez said. “As soon as the situation was discovered this morning, the subcontractor blacked out the signs and then returned the correct message. The contractor also replaced the padlock.”
Nunez said the city of Montreal “deeply regrets the incident,” calling it an act of vandalism.
Police received a call at 9:20 am reporting the signs which displayed a “hate message” to passersby on Wednesday.
According to police, they received several reports before the contractor in charge of the road sign took down the message.
Police said that when they arrived on the scene, the screen of the traffic signals had been blackened, and the message had been removed.
Clash MTL, an anarcho-communist activist group, claimed responsibility for the break-in on Wednesday.
“During the night, we hijacked traffic signs to send messages of solidarity with Palestine to the population. The genocidal state may try to ignore our anger, but we will never stop,” the group said on Instagram. “Avenge the martyrs and Free Palestine!”
Palestine Action Montreal, another activist group, was tagged in the post. A day later, Palestine Action Montreal still had the post on its page, presumably in support.
Both groups were connected to the McGill University encampment protests and have celebrated the vandalism of campus property, political offices and historical monuments with anti-Israel and pro-Hamas messages.
Members of the Jewish community in Quebec were concerned about the messages.
Well-known professor and author Gad Saad, a Jewish refugee to Canada from Lebanon, took the incident as his cue to leave Quebec and Canada, fearing for his family’s safety as antisemitic incidents in the city continue at an increasing pace.
“This is Montreal. My family and I need to leave. Quebec and Canada will pay a very hefty price for their parasitized suicidal empathy,” Saad said on X.
Some online, including Hampstead, Que. Mayor Jeremy Levi accused Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante of allowing the messages to air on the traffic signs, although her office has denied the allegation.
The Jewish advocacy group Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs noted that the incident disregarded drivers’ safety, preventing important safety information from being displayed on the board.
“Once again, ‘peaceful’ demonstrators are ready to endanger the citizens and motorists of Montreal to broadcast a call for violence,” the group posted to X. “The only reason to do this is to incite violence against Jews and Israelis. Intifadas have resulted in terrorist attacks that caused the death of thousands of civilians, Jews and Arabs alike.”