Prosecutors want Toronto man charged with advocating genocide to be handled as case of terrorism

Crown attorneys pursuing charges against a Toronto man accused of promoting genocide against Jews and vandalizing multiple synagogues want the case prosecuted as terrorism.

Amir Arvahi Azar, 32, faces nearly 30 criminal charges. Prosecutors allege that he set fire to signs outside of Jewish temples, incited hatred on social media and had an arsenal of illegal weapons, including handguns and brass knuckles.

Toronto Police arrested Mr. Azar earlier this winter and announced the case against him on Monday. Court documents obtained by The Globe and Mail provide more details about the charges, including that prosecutors will seek to prove that his alleged crimes constitute terrorism. Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General signed off on the approach earlier this month, the documents show.

The documents contain unproven allegations that have not been tested in court.

Toronto criminal defence lawyer Kim Schofield, who is representing Mr. Azar, could not be reached on Monday. Her legal assistant, Aaron Ramsay, said in an e-mail that her office is “not in a position to make any comments.”

Prosecutors allege that Mr. Azar attempted to incite hatred and intimidate the public, the court documents show. Many of the alleged offences occurred between April, 2024, and January, 2025, amid a rise of antisemitism and hate crimes in the GTA, against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war.

It is rare for prosecutors to pursue charges for promoting genocide. Statistics Canada data show the charge has only been laid a handful of times across the country in recent years.

Stephanie Sayer, a spokeswoman for the Toronto Police Service, said that the “charges are the result of meticulous work by our Hate Crime Unit,” but would not provide details about what led authorities to pursue the rare charge of promoting genocide.

Prosecutors allege that Mr. Azar used social-media posts to “willfully promote hatred” and “incite hatred” against Jews, according to the court documents, which did not include details about the content of the posts that led to those charges.

He is accused of vandalizing a series of synagogues and Jewish community centres, as well as a Jewish-owned café in the Greater Toronto Area over several months.

In April, 2024, police allege he lit fire to a sign at Beth Tikvah Synagogue. In June, he is alleged to have phoned in a voice mail threat to the Forest Hill Jewish Centre “to cause bodily harm or death to the employees,” according to the court documents.

Police allege that in July he set fire to signs at the Kehillat Shaarei Torah Synagogue and Temple Sinai. And then in August, police say, Mr. Azar allegedly set fire to a sign at the Tiferet Israel Congregation.

He is also accused of damaging windows at several synagogues and at a Cafe Landwer location in December.

The weapons charges stem from searches related to Mr. Azar in January, the court documents show. Police allege they found several illegal firearms, including a Glock handgun with its serial number removed, as well as brass knuckles and a butterfly knife.

Police allege they also found evidence through searches that he was caught with unlawfully held credit-card data and a credit-card embosser.

The criminal charges were sworn on March 10. On that same day, court-filed records show, a senior law-enforcement official in Ontario’s Attorney-General’s office consented to the terrorism enhancement considerations against Mr. Azar in relation to the charges alleging advocating genocide and circulating hate speech.

If Mr. Azar is convicted of any of these charges, and if a judge agrees that he was motivated by a terrorism mindset, he could face a stiffer sentence.

Mr. Azar has made several court appearances over the past week including a bail hearing, the court documents state. He is to be released on house-arrest conditions with a $300,000 bond with a GPS monitoring device, pending his next scheduled court appearance in April.

With a report from Stephanie Chambers