Jewish groups in Canada have shown disappointment at the sentences handed to two young offenders convicted of toppling cemetery headstones and vandalizing a synagogue and a Jewish school in Ontario. The youths were convicted of simple mischief in connection with a spree of vandalism in the spring of 2004 which had shocked the Jewish community. The original allegations included the more serious charges that the mischief was directed against religious property and was motivated by bias, prejudice or hate. However, trial judge Walter Gonet acquitted them of that count. He ruled the two young people, who were 15 at the time, committed the mischief in a bid to get themselves on television, not to promote hatred against an identifiable group. The youths were sentenced to two years probation. They were also ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution (they caused $12,000 in damage), volunteer in the community and attend a Holocaust education program. Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) and UJA Federation of Greater Toronto called the sentence an insignificant deterrent, while B’nai Brith Canada said it was a “slap on the wrist”.