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A Winnipeg cafe owner and her family were believed to have been attacked, with the café trashed and anti-Semitic graffiti, sparking community shock and an outpouring of support. Police, however, say the incident was staged and have charged Oksana Behrendt, Maxim Behrendt, and Alexander Behrendt with public mischief. The family maintains their story, insisting they were victims of hate, and speaking on CBC Radio after the charges were filed. They described themselves as targets and said they did not stage anything, with statements like “In this moment, somebody grabbed me” and “They can find any evidence against anybody.” They also expressed that their business and home were under threat and emphasized their belief that the attack was real.
Police maintained that the incident in Winnipeg was staged and that there was evidence of a crime, though not a hate crime. The cafe’s interior still bore signs of investigation as officers worked the scene. The backlash was swift: a Jewish LGBTQ advocacy group moved out of the building, and there was broad concern that the alleged stunt could undermine support for legitimate hate crimes. Community leaders and residents described feelings of betrayal and worry about future incidents, with comments such as “This is a betrayal of the community and a betrayal of also the police” and concerns that people might doubt genuine cases in the future.
Court records show the Behrendts faced lawsuits over debts, and the family denied staging the incident for financial gain. They insisted they did not deserve judgment based on what they say is their truth, stating, “I don’t want people to judge us wrongly because we didn’t do it.” The charges were upheld by the court, and the broader community expressed disappointment and anger about the situation. Meanwhile, excerpts noted that hate-crime cases in Canada had risen to an all-time high in 2017, with nearly 2,100 incidents—a 47% increase from the previous year. Attacks on Jewish people accounted for 18% of all hate crimes, with attacks on Muslims a close second.
Other items mentioned included international incidents: in Israel, police announced the arrest of an 18-year-old American-Israeli behind a series of bomb threats targeting Jewish communities worldwide; authorities said he used the Internet to mask his location, and the suspect faced a medical examination and legal scrutiny. In North York, a 67-year-old man, Avram Babrovsky, faced arson charges for allegedly setting a fire inside a synagogue, with a history of using his own access card to gain entry. In Schenectady, a man was accused of spray-painting swastikas on his own home, later charged with falsely reporting an incident and harassment.
In West Bloomfield, Michigan, police credited technology for solving a case in which Sean Sammett allegedly fabricated an attack on leaving a synagogue; investigators found inconsistencies in his account, including elevated heart rate on an Apple Watch prior to the claimed assault, and evidence suggested he stabbed himself with a knife and used bloody tissues. Sammett was charged with filing a false police report, with authorities noting the impact on real victims and the community’s sense of safety.
In Brooklyn and Manhattan, authorities reported 56-year-old David Haddad, who is Jewish, as the suspect in a string of antisemitic messages and swastika incidents, with additional phone threats to kill Jews. In Vancouver, a defamation suit was filed against HillelBC by UBC’s Social Justice Center over “iHeartHammas” stickers on campus; the stickers had circulated during a walkout for Palestine and a contractor who helped distribute them had been terminated. UBC stated it would not comment on the suit, and RCMP said no charges were laid after investigation.
Additionally, Amsterdam’s mayor walked back the use of the term pogrom after violence following a match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, amid political fallout from comments by a government official blaming Moroccans for the unrest. A separate report discussed viral video miscaptioning of footage from Amsterdam, showing Maccabi Tel Aviv fans fighting in a way that media outlets had miscaptioned as Jews being attacked; fact-checkers confirmed the video actually showed Maccabi fans chasing a Dutch man, and several outlets issued corrections.