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Toronto (May 13, 2025) – The Ontario Court of Justice today sentenced a Vaughan man to one year in jail and two years of probation after being found guilty of assault in connection with a vile, antisemitic attack on a Jewish couple.

The unprovoked, hate-motivated assault took place on January 6, 2024 as the couple was walking home from Chabad Flamingo synagogue in Thornhill, just north of Toronto. According to evidence presented in court, the 35-year-old assailant, Kenneth Gobin, mounted the curb on his electric bike and headed directly at the couple who were walking on the sidewalk. He nearly crashed into them while shouting antisemitic slurs – including “Hitler should have killed you all” and “You should have died in the Holocaust” – performed a Nazi salute and spat on them, hitting the woman.

In March, Gobin, who has a lengthy criminal record and was on probation for a previous conviction at the time of his January 2024 attack, was convicted of two counts of assault for spitting on the couple. Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC), which presented a Community Impact Statement to the court and whose statement the judge cited at length during the proceedings, welcomed today’s sentencing.

“When expressions of hate are paired with physical acts of aggression, they pose a grave threat to public safety and social cohesion,” said Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, FSWC’s Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy. “History has repeatedly shown that when this kind of hatred is ignored or minimized, it paves the way to more widespread and dangerous violence. These acts are not isolated incidents – they’re part of a deeply troubling historical pattern whose gravity must be taken seriously. Today’s sentence sends a strong and necessary message: hate-fuelled violence cannot and will not go unpunished.”