Updated June 9, 2025 @ 12:55pm
An act of vandalism at the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa is an antisemitic attack, the co-chair of the monument committee said Monday.
The words "FEED ME" were found scrawled in red paint across the face of the monument Monday morning. Red paint was splashed on other portions of the monument as well.
Crews covered parts of the monument in black plastic Monday as they worked to remove the paint.
"When the National Holocaust Monument is defaced, it is the ultimate act of hate and antisemitism," Lawrence Greenspon, National Holocaust Monument Committee co-chair, said in an emailed statement.
Greenspon closed his statement with a call for "immediate action."
"The time for verbal condemnation is past," Greenspon said.
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The Ottawa Police Service said it's investigating and will provide further updates "if required."
The Ottawa Police Service previously investigated a January 2020 vandalism incident at the monument as a hate crime.
Police released photos of a suspect in that incident who allegedly threw eggs at the monument, which is dedicated to the more than six million Jews killed in the Holocaust.
In a social media post Monday, Prime Minister Mark Carney talked about the rise in antisemitism in Canada following his visit to an exhibition on the Nova Music Festival, one of the sites of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
"We can't look away from this hate, or from the rise in antisemitism we've seen in Canada since. We will fight to protect Jewish communities at home, and advocate for long-term peace and security in the Middle East," Carney said in the post.
Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman called the vandalism a "disgusting and cowardly act."
"Parliament is just steps away — that’s where dissent belongs. Defacing sacred ground in honour of the millions of victims of the Holocaust in the middle of the night with spray paint isn’t protest, it’s vandalism," she said on social media.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2025.
