MONTRÉAL—A gun attack occurred Monday outside of the head offices of Aylo, the parent company of adult tube website Pornhub.com, in Montreal, which ended with three people dead, including a Jewish Canadian-Israeli civilian, a police officer, and the shooter himself. Indication of whether Aylo was the target of the shooter remains unknown at this point.
Seth Scott Hatfield, 25, appeared near Aylo’s offices, which are based in the Côte-des-Neiges borough, clad in camo clothes and brandishing what appeared to be a long gun. News reports also indicate that windows were shot out of the building that houses Aylo's Montreal headquarters.
The fatal shootout was captured on camera and posted to social media networks. During the exchange of gunfire, bystander Michael Moshe Mizrahi was confirmed dead by the civil society group the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and the Israeli consulate in Montreal. The city's police service, Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), confirmed that the officer killed was Constable Mohamed Lamine Benredouane.
Benredounae's passing is the first officer on-duty death to hit the SPVM in about 24 years, according to police chief Fady Dagher.
"I can tell you he was excellent — he was an excellent police officer,” Dagher said during a press conference on Monday. “When you become a police officer, you know the risks. But you never expect something like this to happen.”
Another officer was wounded in the firefight with Hatfield. The Montreal Gazette suggests the unnamed officer is in stable condition at a nearby hospital.
Hatfield was shot dead amid the police response. A 104-page manifesto authored by Hatfield, an individual from Alberta, has surfaced. The far-right news outlet Rebel News published the manifesto, which provides a glimpse into the alleged motivations behind the attack.
Throughout the document, reviewed by AVN, Hatfield presents an inconsistent political philosophy, lacing elements of left-wing and right-wing beliefs with antisemitic, anti-pornography and sexist viewpoints. While Hatfield does not explicitly use the terminology "incel" or "involuntary celibate," many of his talking points echo known incel aggrievements that have been used to justify extreme misogyny and prior acts of violence.
A 2018 terror attack in Toronto was linked to incel ideologies, for example. The incel movement originated in Canada, according to the Washington, D.C.-based McCain Institute, affiliated with Arizona State University.
"While incel violence is a relatively new phenomenon, the label of 'incel' has been around since the 1990s, when a Canadian college student created a website titled the 'Involuntary Celibacy Project' to help those struggling with dating and intimate relations with others," states a McCain Institute briefing that was published in October 2021. Incels, per the briefing, are an extreme and reactionary constituent movement of the online "manosphere."
Hatfield's manifesto takes issue with Jews and "Zionist" corporations, as well. He attempts to link Jews and capitalism to the state of affairs for men in society, especially men subject to being "forcibly deprived of romantic love."
The shooter also calls for the "liquidation" of "valid potential Class A targets." He calls for attacks on "large pornographic industry conferences, the headquarters of international pornography companies, and prominent individuals who are pornographic actors or actresses themselves, and who are very wealthy, and actively promote pornography to the public." Porn and pornography are mentioned about 32 times in the manifesto.
"I call on all of you now, and I ask you to join me," Hatfield wrote. "Let us be the initiators of a new bloodletting, one in which the blood will flood out from the lacerated bodies of our opponents; all those culpable people, be they bourgeois or lumpen, who hitherto have remained unpunished. ... Be unflinching, go forth, and KILL THEM ALL!"
Hatfield's comments also echo far-right conspiracy theories that a secretive and elite group of Jews controls the pornography industry, including Pornhub. This conspiracy was repeated through right-wing outlets when attorney and rabbi Solomon Friedman, the vice president of compliance and partner in the private equity ownership group that acquired Aylo and rebranded it from MindGeek, was named to corporate leadership.
A spokesperson for Aylo's ownership group, the Ottawa-based Ethical Capital Partners (ECP), declined to comment, citing the ongoing police investigation. The spokesperson did confirm that ECP personnel are safe.
AVN spoke to a representative from Aylo, who expressed similar hesitancy but praised local police for their service in responding to the attack.
"We want to express our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of Const. Mohamed Lamine Benredouane and Michael Moshe Mizrahi, as well as the Montreal Police Service (SPVM) and everyone affected by this horrific tragedy," the Aylo spokesperson told AVN. "The safety of our community is our highest priority, whether that be our dedicated employees, our online community, or the city of Montreal, which a large part of our team proudly calls home. Though our city was struck by tragedy, we want to express gratitude to the first responders who bravely protected us and ensured that none of our employees were physically harmed by yesterday's events."
Whether Aylo's offices and personnel were Hatfield's target remains to be seen as SPVM carries out its investigation. "The investigation remains ongoing, and we will not speculate on motive or share unconfirmed information," the spokesperson added.
Adult industry trade group the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) offered its own concern about the attack in a statement to AVN. FSC executive director Alison Boden said, "We’re shocked and outraged by the attack, and mourn those killed, even as we are grateful that members of our community are safe.
"Our hearts and support go out to our friends and colleagues at Aylo," Boden added. "Unfortunately, calls for violence against our community are not new. They have been fueled by rhetoric that treats sex work and sexual expression as a societal threat. We call on the media to call this what it is and condemn the twisted arguments behind it.
"In the meantime, in the face of fear, we reaffirm our commitment to fighting censorship and repression," she concluded.
