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WARNING: The story below contains antisemitic remarks.
The Quebec Crown prosecutor’s office has dropped all charges against a woman who was filmed making antisemitic remarks and performing a Nazi salute during a protest in Montreal in November 2024.
Mai Abdulhadi, 41, was arrested in December of the same year and eventually charged with three counts of uttering threats.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Crown prosecutor’s office said the charges were dropped after Abdulhadi completed the General Adult Alternative Measures Program.
The program, according to the Quebec government website, allows “adults accused of certain criminal offences the opportunity to take responsibility for their actions and resolve their conflict with the justice system other than by being subject to the usual judicial procedures provided for by the Criminal Code.”
In addition to taking an active part in repairing the harm they have caused, the program aims to reduce the risk of participants having further involvement with the justice system.
The incident, which occurred on Nov. 21 outside Concordia University, led to the termination of Abdulhadi’s franchise agreement with Second Cup and the closure of the two café locations she operated at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital.
The protest Abdulhadi attended was organized in the context of CEGEP and university students in Montreal striking and calling for Quebec post-secondary institutions to divest from companies with ties to Israel and urging the federal government to take a stance against the war in Gaza.
‘Unacceptable and outrageous,’ Jewish groups say
In a joint publication on X, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and Montreal-based Federation CJA, blasted the decision, calling it “unacceptable and outrageous.”
“The notion that doing a Nazi salute and threatening Jews with ‘the final solution’ can happen in a diverse city like Montreal without significant consequences is deeply shocking and an affront to the shared common values of our city,” the statement reads.
The groups say decisions such as this one “contribute to a climate of impunity where extremist agitators have been emboldened by the lack of clear consequences which sends a message that creating the disorder and chaos we have seen in our streets over the last two years is acceptable.”
Montreal’s Jewish community has reported an increase in antisemitic incidents in recent years. The groups say the only way to stop it is “with serious consequences for those who break the law.”
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