{"id":26438,"date":"2025-06-30T06:22:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T06:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/26438\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T06:22:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T06:22:13","slug":"city-of-ottawa-lawyer-charged-with-defacing-holocaust-monument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/26438\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Ottawa lawyer charged with defacing Holocaust monument"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Workers spread a tarp to cover the words ‘FEED ME’ on the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa, June 9.Sean Kilpatrick\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

A lawyer who had been working for the City of Ottawa is facing multiple charges in connection with <\/b>an act of vandalism on the National Holocaust Monument that occurred earlier this month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ottawa police announced on Friday that they had arrested a 46-year-old on charges of mischief to a war memorial, mischief exceeding $5,000 and harassment by threatening conduct.<\/p>\n

The police service did not name the individual, but a source with knowledge of the investigation confirmed media reports that the man is Ottawa lawyer Iain Aspenlieder. <\/p>\n

The Globe and Mail is not identifying the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the case. <\/p>\n

On Sunday, interim City Solicitor Stuart Huxley said in a statement that the city employee who is alleged to have carried out the vandalism was on leave at the time of the incident and is no longer employed by the city.<\/p>\n

Man charged with vandalism of National Holocaust Monument<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe recent act affecting the National Holocaust Monument was deplorable and is counter to the values we seek to uphold in our community,\u201d Mr. Huxley said in the statement. \u201cWe extend our deepest sympathies to members of our community impacted by this disgraceful act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Huxley added that as the issue is now before the courts, the city has no further comment. <\/p>\n

On June 9, the National Holocaust Monument in downtown Ottawa, a 15-minute walk from Parliament Hill, was defaced with red paint. The words \u201cFEED ME\u201d were painted in giant letters across the monument, which was inaugurated in September, 2017, in commemoration of the six million Jewish people murdered by the Nazi regime.<\/p>\n

The Ottawa Police Service\u2019s Hate and Bias Crime Unit launched an investigation. <\/p>\n

Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture Steven Guilbeault<\/a> issued a strong condemnation that day. \u201cActs of antisemitism, hatred and intolerance are attacks on us all \u2013 and they will never be tolerated in Canada,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> said at the time that he was \u201cappalled\u201d by the vandalism. He called the monument \u201ca space for mourning and remembrance, and its defacing is reprehensible.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Ottawa defence lawyer Lawrence Greenspon, who is co-chair of the National Holocaust Monument Committee, said he was \u201cdeeply saddened\u201d by the events at the monument.<\/p>\n

Public-sector salary records suggest Mr. Aspenlieder began working for the City of Ottawa about a decade ago. The disclosure shows Mr. Aspenlieder, whose job is listed as \u201cLegal Counsel,\u201d earned $148,246.65 last year. <\/p>\n

Mr. Aspenlieder could not be reached for comment. An e-mail sent to his city account returned an out-of-office message: \u201cDuring this period, I will not have access to my e-mail.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawyer\u2019s status is also listed as \u201cSuspended Administratively\u201d on the Law Society of Ontario\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe confirmed on social media that the individual who had been charged no longer worked with the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it\u2019s encouraging to see that the police investigation into the incident at the National Holocaust Monument has progressed, I\u2019m very disturbed to learn that the person charged is a city employee who was on leave,\u201d he wrote on the social-media website, X. \u201cAs a community and as an employer, the actions at the Monument do not represent our values.\u201d<\/p>\n

He thanked the Ottawa Police Service for their work investigating the case. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Workers spread a tarp to cover the words ‘FEED ME’ on the National…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2148,2138,671,104,2132,692,2147,2131,2143,2144,2140,2133,2130,79,407,746,2142,2137,2159,2134,2135,454,2139,1165,728,2149,108,2154,2155,50,2157,2152,2156,2150,2153,2136,85,2146,80,2145,2151,1458,158,1164,2141,1154,107,2158],"class_list":{"0":"post-26438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-news","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}