The Nobility of Defacing a Holocaust Memorial

"[I had discussed my hunger strike with family to prepare them in advance -- it was not an] impulsive decision."

"I thought about it a long time. It wasn't some sort of product or symptom of mental illness."

"It's a product of a deeply found or held moral belief in what's right."

Iain Aspenlieder, 46, Ottawa resident

 

"There is an undeniable humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza. As Prime Minister Mark Carney stated, Israel’s handling of humanitarian aid in Gaza constitutes ‘a violation of international law.’ People are starving. Children are dying."

"Mr. Aspenlieder has accepted responsibility for his actions. When he is sentenced later this year, the court will hear that his conduct, while unlawful, was driven by a profound sense of compassion and moral urgency—not by hatred or prejudice. He looks forward to demonstrating that his motivation was rooted in a desire to call attention to human suffering, not to cause harm or spread intolerance."

Michael Spratt, lawyer for Iain Aspenlieder 

 

"The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) is investigating an act of vandalism that occurred overnight at the National Holocaust Monument, located at 1918 Chaudière Crossing."

"The monument was defaced with red paint."

"The Hate and Bias Crime Unit is actively leading the investigation and urges anyone with information to contact their tip line at 613-236-1222, extension 5625."

"The OPS treats incidents of this nature seriously and recognizes the profound impact they have on the community."

"We encourage anyone who witnesses or experiences such incidents to report them to police. Reporting hate-motivated incidents is an important step in stopping cycles of hatred."

Ottawa Police Service, June 9, 2025

 

"That person is no longer an employee [in the legal department] at the City of Ottawa."

"The National Holocaust Monument is a sacred place in our city, an important place in our city."

"And I know that members of the Jewish community were very distraught and disturbed to see it vandalized."

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, June 29, 2025 

The City of Ottawa has fired one of its lawyers after he was charged earlier this month with vandalizing the National Holocaust Monument. He was on leave at the time of the incident. CBCNews

 

According to the Law Society of Ontario website, a man named Iain David Aspenlieder -- who was until recently employed by the City of Ottawa as a legal counsel, and released from his position when he was arrested on June 27 and charged with mischief to a war monument, mischief exceeding $5,000 and harassment by threatening conduct -- has been "suspended administratively" and is no longer permitted to practice law.

 

The Ottawa Holocaust memorial, dedicated to the memory of the six million Jews who were murdered during World War II by state action of the Nazi government in Germany, was defaced with red paint, the words "FEED ME" scrawled in large block letters across its austere side. The man who perpetrated this unspeakable act of malicious disrespect to the memory of millions of innocent people sacrificed to the excesses of racist hatred pleaded guilty on Friday to the charges brought against him.

 

Court documents register "an acknowledgement of criminal responsibility". Imprisoned since his arrest, the man who professes a 'deeply held moral belief in what's right' as his motivation for scorning and defacing a memorial to man's inhumanity to man, is to be under strict house arrest now, with GPS monitoring in line with a plan proposed for his release on bail, pending sentencing.

 

Aspenlieder was caught by surveillance cameras on his arrival by bicycle at the monument at 2:59 a.m. on June 9, along with bags containing cans of paint. The video shows him throwing paint cans at the monument and brushing his "FEED ME" malice on the monument, then evacuating the area at 3:08 a.m. He had left behind his red-painted handprint for good measure. But this act of contempt is not to be viewed as anything but the expression of moral outrage over Israel's response to the Hamas carnage in southern Israel that necessitated a siege of Gaza.

 

When he was arrested, Aspenlieder wore a shirt with red paint spattered on it informing police he was wearing 'incriminating evidence'. Police seized a backpack, a Palestinian flag, a floral cap and running shoes, all of which were, given the red paint each revealed, 'incriminating evidence'. A bicycle, also sporting red paint, along with booklets and magazine  with titles sch as "Why does Canada choose to be complicit in Israel Apartheid?" and "Five Principles for Dismantling Antisemitism" were also taken as evidence of the man's moral outrage.

 

While affirming to police that he accepted responsibility, he deigned not to provide information of his beliefs, ideology or the disposal of the paintbrush he had used, while denying mental health disorders prompted his behaviour. Court was informed during a June 28 bail hearing that Aspenlieder was engaged in a hunger strike that would end only when Prime Minister Mark Carney stated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a 'war criminal', 'complicit in genocide'. Presto, Carney obliged without any prompting on this criminal's part, and the hunger strike is over. 

 

According to Justice of the Peace Stephen Louis Dibblee, the painted message "FEED ME" lacked context and it appears to him to represent Aspenlieder's hunger strike as "he takes a radical means of voicing his position on the (Israel-Palestine) conflict". For his part, Carney wrote on Twitter that Israel was violating international law by imposing blockades on desperately needed humanitarian aid reaching starving Palestinians, accusing the Israeli government of failing to prevent the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. No mention, evidently of Hamas.

 

No one has yet recommended that Carney and his foreign minister be stripped of their official duties as morally incompetent and politically focused on the reactions to be evidenced on the part of newly-arrived Gaza 'refugees' joining the cohorts already present in Canada and working ferociously day and night to foment civil unrest, and divisions between Canadian communities as they fire up the sleeping embers of antisemitism into a  blast furnace of hate against Canadian Jews.

 

Police investigating vandalism to the National Holocaust Monument in downtown Ottawa on June, 9, 2025. Photo by Jean Levac /Postmedia

 

"My father is a Holocaust survivor. His sister and his mother and father were all killed. My daughter is named after his sister" said Lawrence Greenspon, co-chair of the monument committee.

"When somebody defaces the National Holocaust Monument, it is personal and it hurts, and particularly when it is such an act of hatred and antisemitism."

Greenspon called on world leaders to go beyond 'bland and banal' condemnations and take action against antisemitism. He also said government leaders should "stop blaming Israel for the current conflict in the Middle East" — a clear shot at Carney. 

"Every time that a leader, including our own prime minister, stands with the leaders of France and Britain and condemns Israel for the situation in Gaza, it just feeds the fuels of antisemitism."

Toronto Sun