Canada’s Ontario: Man Gets One Year House Arrest for Mosque Threat

IQNA – A man has been sentenced to 12 months of house arrest after being convicted of uttering threats to blow up a mosque in Newmarket, a town in the Canadian province of Ontario.

The sentence was delivered Thursday by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Newmarket.

Donald Cameron was arrested Sept. 4, 2025, after making verbal threats toward Muslims, including utterances of blowing up a mosque in Newmarket, and threatening to kill his neighbor who is Muslim, a York Regional Police news release said.

Cameron pleaded guilty to two counts of uttering threats March 18, 2026, and he was sentenced to a one-year conditional sentence order in Newmarket March 26.

In the ruling, the Justice invoked Section 718 of the Criminal Code of Canada, which recognizes hate motivation as an aggravating factor, when determining the sentence, police said.

In accordance with the conditional sentence order, Cameron will be on house arrest for two-thirds of the sentence and will be monitored electronically for the entire duration of the order.

Among other conditions, the order prohibits Cameron from living in Newmarket, or being within 100 meters of any mosque in Canada. Following the year-long conditional sentence order, Cameron will serve three years of probation.

“Hate has no place in York Region, and any act of Islamophobia is both disturbing and unacceptable,” said York Regional Police Chief Jim MacSween said in the release. “We remain steadfast in our commitment to combating all forms of hate, bigotry, and intolerance and we will continue to prioritize public safety by thoroughly investigating any instance of hate in our region.”

“On behalf of the York Regional Police executive leadership team, I extend my gratitude to the members of the hate crime prevention unit, whose diligent work led to today’s sentencing.”

Source: newmarkettoday.ca