Ontario licence plate commemorating Oct. 7 attacks linked to Mississauga man

A photo of a man holding a personalized Ontario licence plate with the words “October 7” was deemed illegal.

The plate appears to be commemorating the Hamas attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Posts on social media show a man holding the plate implying that he is celebrating the deadly attack. He is identified as a Mississauga business owner.

When INsauga.com contacted the number for the Mississauga business, High Sky Demolition Services, the man who answered immediately asked if the call was about the October 7 plate. He then spouted off some misogynistic remarks and declined to comment further.

The post is on the man’s personal TikTok account.

At a press conference in Mississauga Friday about auto theft and illegal car rallies, Prabmeet Sarkaria, Minister of Transportation said he was aware of the plate.

“That’s totally unacceptable,” Sarkaria said. “There is no place for that in the province.”

The social media post is recirculating online, he said.

“This is actually a licence plate that was deemed illegal and removed and put out a service many months ago,” he said.

Sarkaria suggested the man still has the licence plate.

“We are looking at ways in which we can figure out how to confiscate that licence plate,” he said. “Obviously does not reflect Canadian values, our values as a government, our values. People deserve to feel safe and not have that taunted on the back of a license plate.”

Anyone who sees the plate should contact local authorities, he said.

“We will work with authorities to have it removed right away, because it is illegal and it will never, ever be issued again through Service Ontario,” he said.

He said the province must ensure that doesn’t ever get to that point again.

Every year the province gets applications for racist, abusive and derogatory personalized plates. They reject hundreds of plates.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel resulting in the murder of nearly 1,200 people and the kidnapping of hundreds more sparked an ongoing conflict in the area. The United Nations says that as of Oct. 29, 43,061 Palestinians have died.

Maher Zitawi is the owner of High Sky Demolition Services in Mississauga, ON. A member affiliated with @PalestineHouse, Maher Zitawi loved the October 7th terrorist attacks that killed the most Jews since the Holocaust so much that he had to get the special date as his Ontario… pic.twitter.com/DSVsCDK0Nz

— Leviathan (@l3v1at4an) October 31, 2024