Four counts, including forcible confinement and assault with a weapon, were filed Wednesday against the man arrested after he smashed the window of a Montreal mosque and chased a Muslim boy earlier this week.
After initially being released on a promise to appear, 32-year-old Cory Anderson was finally arrested a second time on Wednesday after information obtained as part of the police investigation into him led to the filing of news charges.
His behavior was described as “aggressive” by an officer present in the room from which he appeared by videoconference on Wednesday. Rarely, three special constables were present at his side in the small courtroom when he addressed his lawyer by screen.
He will ultimately remain detained until his suitability to appear is assessed. The Crown demanded on Wednesday that he be assessed within the next 24 hours by a psychosocial emergency worker, before returning to court on Thursday.
He has been accused in the meantime of armed assault and kidnapping against Malik Koné. This young Muslim had told La Presse on Monday the hell he had experienced the evening of the attack, when he had met Cory Anderson before taking refuge in the mosque. “I was banging hard on the door and screaming for help. I was screaming to be heard,” he testified, still shaken.
Two counts of mischief were also filed against the man.
Recall that a surveillance video, shared by the Canadian Muslim Forum, had been broadcast and showed Malik Koné pursued by the suspect and then taking refuge inside the mosque.
We then saw the suspect smash the glass of the front door, enter the interior of the place of worship, then throw a stone at the door used to access the prayer room. The video then shows an altercation between the individual and a few worshipers.
The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) had said that there was no indication of a hate crime at this stage of the investigation, even if the faithful denounced an Islamophobic attack.
Despite everything, it was investigators from the SPVM’s Hate Incidents and Crimes Unit who carried out the investigation, since the event took place in a place of worship.
The incident came days after a man showed up at a mosque north of Toronto shouting Islamophobic slurs and ramming his vehicle into a worshipper. The 28-year-old was charged with assault with a weapon, uttering threats and dangerous operation of a vehicle.
Note, Cory Anderson had no criminal record, according to our research.
