‘Do you want to grow old? Then stop suing my friend’: Toronto man gets 12 years in tow truck intimidation case

A Toronto man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for carrying out two gun attacks against a Vaughan lawyer hired to pursue legal action against GTA tow truck operators and auto repair shops.

Civil litigation lawyer Lisa Carr was the victim of “targeted crimes of violence, committed in order to intimidate Carr to abandon her work as a lawyer on behalf of clients who were exercising their legal rights to sue others civilly,” Superior Court Justice Michelle Fuerst wrote in her ruling released last week.

“That no one was injured or killed was a matter of pure luck,” she wrote.

Carr and her firm were the targets of repeated acts of violence starting in late 2018; Qalid Abderezak, 27, pleaded guilty to a string of charges related to two 2019 incidents.

In the first, on Aug. 29, 2019, he robbed a lawyer who worked for Carr and physically resembled her while she was sitting in a car outside the Carr Law office. “You are suing the wrong people,” he told the associate at gunpoint, according to Feurst’s ruling, before adding: “Do you want to have kids? Do you want to grow old? Then stop suing my friend.”

In the second, on Sept. 6, Abderezak sprayed seven gunshots into the firm’s front door and window while employees were inside.

Both incidents were caught on security camera video and Abderezak was arrested the day after he fired at the law office. His cell phone contained thumbnail photos of both Carr and the office’s exterior, as well as text messages with Zakariye Yousuf, who allegedly ordered the attacks.

“Next big job but we have to go spry up the place cuz we din’t get the right one,” Yousuf allegedly texted Abderezak before the second attack. “Delete this msg after you read it upti plz.”

Abderezak was on bail and subject to a weapons restriction at the time of the attacks, the judge noted.

Yousuf was separately arrested on charges of attempted murder, extortion and assault with a weapon. He is next due in court on Dec. 14.

“Acts of violence perpetrated against lawyers to intimidate them from representing their clients diligently and with commitment to the client’s cause have no place in our civilized society,” she wrote. “Such acts are serious crimes. When proven, they warrant exemplary sentences.”

Carr’s firm was the target of two previous arson attacks in November 2018 and January 2019 and Carr herself was the target of an attempted shooting in August 2019. Abderezak was not a suspect in the earlier attacks; another man — identified as T.S. in Feurst’s ruling — was charged with attempted murder over the August 2019 incident, which failed when the man’s gun jammed, according to Feurst’s ruling.

While Fuerst accepted that Abderezak was not the mastermind behind the two incidents, she said his actions were planned and deliberate and noted that on both occasions he carried a handgun into a busy plaza.

Fuerst sentenced Abderezak to seven years for reckless discharge of a firearm and five years for robbery using a restricted firearm, to be served consecutively because the offences stem from separate incidents. Abderezak was also sentenced to three years for unauthorized possession of a restricted firearm and one year for possession of a restricted weapon while prohibited by a release order, both of which will be served concurrent to the 12-year term.

The judge credited Abderezak for pleading guilty and noted that he has no prior criminal record and apologized to the victims.

The victims of the attacks did not submit victim impact statements at Abderezak’s trial and, Fuerst noted, Carr has since closed down her law practice.

In 2020, Carr told CTV’s W5 she was forced to close the firm and leave the country for several months before being told by police the danger had passed — so long as she did not go back to work.

“So they have effectively ended my career. We lost everything. They won,” she told W5.

Fuerst called the attacks terrifying for the lawyer’s staff, saying that although Abderezak “cannot be held responsible for the earlier arsons and the attempted shooting of Ms. Carr, I have no doubt that his actions contributed to her decision to shut down her law office.”

After credit for time served in custody, Abderezak is facing seven years and two months in prison.

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