{"id":723705,"date":"2026-06-08T20:32:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T20:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/723705\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T20:32:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T20:32:23","slug":"man-charged-in-attempted-arson-of-montreal-area-synagogue-awaiting-psychological-evaluation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/723705\/","title":{"rendered":"Man charged in attempted arson of Montreal-area synagogue awaiting psychological evaluation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A Quebec court judge postponed the hearing of the man accused of starting a fire at a Westmount synagogue last week, because a psychological evaluation requested by the Crown had not yet been completed.<\/p>\n

Shortly after midnight on Friday, police received a report from someone trying to set a fire at the Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom<\/a>, on Sherbrooke Street West between Wood and Elm avenues. When officers arrived at the scene, they arrested the suspect nearby.<\/p>\n

Steven Luu, 38, faces a total of six charges in connection with the incident, including arson, possessing incendiary materials, using an explosive substance and possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose.<\/p>\n

Luu was arraigned on Friday, and was supposed to have a bail hearing Monday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to police’s early findings, the suspect broke a window with the intent of setting a fire inside the building. There was minor damage to the building, and firefighters intervened quickly to stop the fire from growing. No one was injured in the incident.<\/p>\n

Montreal police told CBC on Monday that the investigation into the incident is still ongoing. Whether crime was motivated by hate is still a “hypothesis” being examined, according to a police spokesperson.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Rabbi says \u2018we\u2019re not going to be afraid\u2019 after incendiary device thrown at building:\"\"<\/p>\n

Rabbi offers words of strength following attempted arson at synagogue in Westmount, Que.<\/p>\n

Steven Luu, 38, faces six charges, including arson and possession of incendiary and explosive materials. Montreal police say they haven\u2019t ruled out whether the incident was a hate crime.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Rabbi Lisa Grushcow wrote in an email to the synagogue\u2019s members that more needs to be done to address the “scourge of antisemitism.” <\/p>\n

The synagogue was also targeted by antisemitic vandalism<\/a> in February 2025. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-723705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}