A Toronto man has pleaded guilty to murdering an Orthodox Jew after flying into a fit of rage against a group of Jewish teenagers. Christopher Steven McBride, 22, was charged with first-degree murder after he stabbed David Rosenzweig to death on July 13, 2002. Rosenzweig, a 48-year-old father of six, was attacked as he waited for a tow truck with his son outside the J-One pizzeria at Bathurst Street and Lawrence Avenue.
McBride told the court that he was enraged after becoming the butt of a practical joke by some Jewish teens as he attempted to buy marijuana at the pizza restaurant. He said the teens told him he could buy drugs at a gas station across the street by using a secret password. McBride returned to the restaurant armed with a knife when he discovered that the password was a prank, but the teens had left. He acknowledged turning his fury against the Jewish teens onto a complete stranger who was also Jewish.
Rosenzweig died of a single stab wound to the back.
Following an agreement between his lawyer and the Crown, McBride pleaded guilty Monday to the lesser charge of second-degree murder. All murder convictions in Canada are punished with automatic life sentences.
While first-degree murder convictions have no parole eligibility for 25 years, a judge may set that term to anywhere between 10 and 25 years in second-degree cases.
Members of Toronto's Jewish community say the nature of McBride's crime demands a full 25-year sentence.
"He got angry at one Jew and he took it out on another Jew," B'nai Brith Canada spokesperson Anita Bromberg told the Toronto Star. "Hate against Jews was an element in this case."
McBride will be sentenced Feb. 16.
The full article including footage of
Andy Barrie speaking to Len Rudner of the Canadian Jewish Congress can be found
here.
