Victim of assault speaks out. SQ looking into other anti-Semitic incidents in Laurentians community this summer

Mendy Haouzi near his Côte St. Luc workplace yesterday. Haouzi was assaulted two weeks ago in Ste. Agathe. "The cut really made me bleed - I got dizzy, like I was getting knocked out,'' he says.

The stares and odd muttered slur were nothing unusual. Walk to synagogue all dressed in black on a summer Saturday in the Laurentians and that's what happens sometimes.

But to have pennies thrown at you? And then get slapped in the face? And then get punched in the head, drawing blood?

Now that's unusual.

And unacceptable, says the young Jewish man who was the victim of the assault two weeks ago on the main street in Ste. Agathe.

"I live in Montreal, in the Côte des Neiges area, and it's extremely multicultural, so nothing happens to you, but up there in the Laurentians, they look at you like you're alien - they stare at you without shame," said Mendy Haouzi, 23, a sophomore engineering student at McGill University.

"Some people in Ste. Agathe are so racist. The older people stare at you and the younger ones make comments."

On Aug. 16, they did more than that. They attacked, Haouzi told The Gazette in his first interview about the incident.

"A group of young guys started staring at us and then, from five metres away, they threw a whole bunch of coins at us - I don't know, maybe thinking, 'Jews are cheap' - a typical joke," recalled Haouzi, who was walking with his father and two younger half-brothers - all visiting from France - when the incident occurred.

"I stopped and asked them 'You have a problem?' And one of them answers me back 'J'parle pas juif (I don't speak Jewish)'. They started laughing and we walked away, but three of the boys started following us. So we stopped again and started talking with them, and then, out of the blue, one of them slaps me on the cheek," Haouzi said yesterday.

"I was really shocked. This kid was younger than me, and I could have really hurt him if I'd wanted to. I moved a bit closer to him and three seconds later I felt, like, 'Boom!' - he cuts me. I didn't see it coming. It was like a sucker punch. I was bleeding. I wanted to punch him back, I was so mad, but my dad told me not to."

The assailant's ring had caught Haouzi on the left temple. At the sight of the injury, the boys started laughing. Then Haouzi asked a woman nearby to call the police.

"It was Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath), so we didn't carry our cellphones on us. But the women wouldn't help us. She was like, 'How do you call the police?' I said: 'You call 9-1-1, it's not that complicated.' The kids heard me say "police,' and 30 seconds later they were all gone."

At the synagogue, Haouzi told his story to the local rabbi, who was outraged. He took Haouzi and his father to the police to file a report.

"The cut really made me bleed - I got dizzy, like I was getting knocked out. I put some ice on it, but had a black eye for a week," said Haouzi, who worked his last shift yesterday at a Côte St. Luc deli before heading back to his studies at McGill.

He lost his kippa in the ordeal. The kids took off with it like it was a trophy.

Since the incident, police have not interviewed Haouzi or his

father. But the Sûreté du Québec told The Gazette it is investigating and could make an arrest soon, possibly of a suspect between 18 and 20.

The SQ also is looking into other anti-Semitic incidents this summer, including youths shouting ''Heil, Hitler'' while riding past a synagogue on bicycles, Jews pelted with eggs, and a kosher food store that was robbed and vandalized in late

July, followed by the spray-painting of several cars nearby.

B'nai Brith Canada's Quebec chapter has urged police to investigate the assault against Haouni as a hate crime.

Ste. Agathe's mayor is away on vacation until next month, but his deputy mayor has denied any problem between locals and the Jewish population, which swells during summer vacation. Most have since returned to the city.

"Things have not got out of hand, but there is a certain intolerance being expressed, and that can lead to more serious things," said Emanuel Carlebach, rabbi of the House of Israel Congregation, the Hasidic group Haouzi belongs to.

His son runs the vandalized store, in Ste. Agathe's Trout Lake area.

Haouzi's father also is a rabbi. In France, where he moved after divorcing Haouzi's mother and starting a new family, anti-Semitism dies hard, he told The Gazette. But it seems just as bad in Canada - if not worse, he added.

"People in France assault you verbally, but over here in Canada we're talking about real violence," Joseph Haouzi said before leaving for Paris last night.

"I'm surprised by what happened," said Haouzi, who has been spending part of the summer in Ste. Agathe for the past 20 years.

"I didn't think it would ever get to this extent."

jheinrich@thegazette.canwest.com

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008