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The Second Cup café chain has shut down a store it says is linked to a Montreal franchisee who gave pro-Israel demonstrators a Nazi salute and chanted, “The Final Solution is coming.”

In videos shared on social media, the woman was filmed wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian scarf, black sunglasses and a medical mask initially obscuring her identity. Over the course of the weekend, as news of the incident went viral and drew stern condemnation from across the political spectrum, she was linked to a Second Cup café inside the city’s Jewish General Hospital.

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Late Saturday, the company announced it had severed ties with the store, shutting it down and terminating its franchise agreement. “Last night, our franchisee at the Jewish General Hospital was filmed making hateful remarks and gestures,” the company said in a public statement posted on Instagram and X.

“This franchisee’s actions are not only a breach of our franchise agreement, but they also violate the values of inclusion and community we stand for at Second Cup.”

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Mayor Jeremy Levi, whose community of Hampstead is a suburb of Montreal, applauded the news, underscoring, “To every pro-terror, anti-Israel, and antisemite spewing hate: understand this clearly — your vile rhetoric and actions will not go unchecked. Your attempts to intimidate or sow division only strengthen our resolve and unite us in purpose.”

“There are consequences for your reprehensible choices, and we will ensure they are felt,” Levi added in a social media post Saturday evening following the Second Cup announcement.

Idit Shamir, the Israeli Consul General in Toronto, thanked Second Cup for acting swiftly. “Imagine chanting ‘The Final Solution is coming’ and throwing a Nazi salute at @Concordia — while running a café at Jewish General Hospital, a place built by Holocaust survivors,” the Toronto-based official wrote on X.

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The incident came as hundreds of anti-NATO and anti-Israel activists turned violent on Montreal streets, smashing store windows and burning cars. Clashes with local law enforcement led to a handful of arrests as videos circulated online showing sweeping chaos.

“What we saw on the streets of Montreal last night was appalling. Acts of antisemitism, intimidation, and violence must be condemned wherever we see them,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted a day after the riots. “The RCMP are in communication with local police. There must be consequences, and rioters held accountable.”

“Complete lawlessness in Montreal as the Pro-Hamas terror mobs emboldened by the Trudeau Liberals destroy the PM’s own hometown,” Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman wrote on social media Friday night.

“Rioters on a violent rampage and not a single word from our government. They only act when you disagree with them. Bring back law and order, safe streets and communities in the Canada we once knew and loved. Hope the concert was good,” Lantsman added, swiping at Trudeau’s attendance at a Taylor Swift concert in Toronto the same night.

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Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre struck a similar note.

“You act surprised. We are reaping what you sowed,” the opposition leader publicly responded to Trudeau following the prime minister’s earlier statement. “And, while you were dancing, Montreal was burning. We won’t let you divide us anymore. Call an election now. We will fire you and reclaim our citizenship, our values, our lives, our freedom and, most of all, our country.”

Footage of masked protesters with red smoke flares walking down the street and jubilantly smashing windows even made waves south of the border, prompting American investment magnate Bill Ackman to tweet: “@JustinTrudeau needs to go.”

The violent scenes prompted the Israeli consulate to “urge the Canadian government to act decisively to curb this dangerous and antisemitic incitement before tragedy strikes,” calling popular protests chants including “globalize the intifada” as “not just rhetoric” but “a call for violence against Jews, Israelis, and anyone who upholds Western values.”

National Post

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