Crown drops charges against woman arrested for making threats at pro-Palestinian protest

The now-closed Second Cup café at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, following allegations of hateful remarks and gestures made by the franchisee during a pro-Palestinian protest.

The Crown prosecutor handling the case of a woman charged with uttering threats during a pro-Palestinian protest in Montreal has withdrawn all charges.

Mai Abdulhadi, 41, was arrested in December 2025 and later charged with three counts of uttering threats following the protest on Nov. 21, 2024.

She entered a plea of not guilty.

She appeared in a video that was widely shared on social media, showing her at the protest. It shows a woman appearing to make a Nazi salute and shouting, “The final solution is coming your way.”

The Crown prosecution office confirmed in an email to CTV News that the accused “did complete the ‘Programme de mesures de rechange pour adultes (PMRG)’ and the court therefore dismissed the charges pursuant to section 717(4) of the Criminal Code of Canada.”

The program (known in English as “General Alternative Measures Program for Adults”) can be offered to an accused person as an alternative to participating in judicial proceedings after the prosecutor evaluates the evidence in the case. If the accused agrees to participate, a community organization will propose one or more alternative measures.

Some of the objectives are to help the individual take responsibility for their actions and to actively contribute to making amends for the harm they have caused, according to a description of the program on the Government of Quebec’s website.

Reached for comment on Thursday, Abdulhadi’s lawyer, Barbara Bedont, declined to comment on the case.

“I’m not at liberty to talk about the case,” she said in a brief phone call.

At the time of the protest, Abdulhadi was the franchisee of a Second Cup Café located inside the Jewish General Hospital. After the video surfaced, the coffee company terminated their franchise agreement with the accused and released a statement denouncing hate speech.

B’nai Brith’s regional director for Quebec called the dropping of charges “an outrageous failure to ensure a serious hate‑motivated act was met with real consequences.”

“The message heard by the Jewish community is deafening, antisemitism and Jew‑hatred don’t carry the weight of the court,” wrote Paola Samuel in a post on X on Thursday.

“Amidst a national crisis of antisemitism, there must be a zero-tolerance approach for those who incite hate on Canadian streets.”

The Jewish community in Montreal has been on edge amid a rise in antisemitic acts over the last few years. Jewish institutions in Montreal have repeatedly been targeted by acts of violence, including shootings and acts of arson at Jewish schools and places of worship.