Belleville synagogue shooting was a ‘hate-motivated’ crime, police say

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The shooting at a synagogue in the Ontario city of Belleville during Yom Kippur Sunday evening was a deliberate and hate-motivated attack on the Jewish community, police confirmed Thursday, sharpening calls to combat antisemitism.

The assailant, a former member of the Canadian military, had arrived prepared to carry out a mass-casualty attack, armed with multiple firearms, ammunition and gasoline, police said.

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“Make no mistake, this was a targeted attack against the Jewish community,” Belleville Police Chief Murray Rodd said at a press conference.

Chief Rodd played a short video clip captured by a witness at the scene of the attack, which unfolded just after 7 p.m. He said the shooter’s motives – targeting “specifically and only the Jewish community” – have been “corroborated in documentary and video evidence to date.”

The video shows the shooter standing behind a parked car a few metres from a police officer, Constable Jeff Smith, who was stationed outside the Sons of Jacob synagogue in an unmarked vehicle. The shooter can be heard yelling “you are going to die for the Jews” before opening fire on the officer.

The video left Norman Weddum with chills. As president of the synagogue, he was among the roughly 25 worshippers gathered for prayers inside when the gunfire began, just as service was starting for Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

“There’s no question we’d all be dead. It really gets to you when you think about what could have happened,” he said.

“I hope this is a wake-up call to the government and the whole country.”

Constable Smith was stationed at the synagogue as part of long-established police department efforts to protect Jewish worshipers, said Chief Rodd. Similar measures have been implemented in cities across the country in response to an increasing number of gunfire, arson, window-breaking and other types of vandalism at Canadian synagogues.

Once the attack began, Constable Smith called for backup, and a gunfight ensued, said Chief Rodd. A second officer, identified Thursday as Constable Mike McCurdy, arrived and fired on the shooter.

Dozens of shots were discharged, with about 20 coming through the synagogue’s front stained-glass window. None of the worshippers were injured.

These officers are the only thing that prevented a greater attack, Chief Rodd said.

Belleville residents searching for answers after shooting outside synagogue, MP says

The Chief said the shooter came equipped with the “means to carry on a gun battle for a long period of time.”

Constable Smith was shot multiple times, including in the head, and remains in hospital with multiple surgeries ahead of him, Chief Rodd said Thursday. Constable McCurdy was not injured.

“They are both heroes,” Chief Rodd said. “Their actions represent the very definition of courageous policing.”

He said investigators are still downloading evidence from relevant devices and computers, but that they are “in the early stages of making sense of the rest of all of that.”

The Chief said the shooter had other firearms and ammunition, as well as extra gasoline in his vehicle.

“We are trying to understand what the magnitude of potential damage would have been with that,” he said.

Chief Rodd said the shooter had conducted reconnaissance earlier in the day, but nothing that triggered the officer’s alarm.

Mr. Weddum, the synagogue president, praised police leadership for calling Sunday’s shooting what it was.

“I was really pleased they designated this a hate crime directed against the Jewish community, because this wasn’t targeted against anyone else,” he told The Globe and Mail after the news conference. “It’s about time someone official finally said that.”

Shima Viggoda, vice-president at Sons of Jacob, stood with tears in his eyes at the press conference. He said the local Jewish community was doing its best to support one another during this difficult week.

“We find strength in each other, and I also think that we find great strength in our traditions,” he said.

Tackling antisemitism and hate should be a priority, Jewish leaders and MPs say

Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, urged federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser to convene his provincial and territorial counterparts to establish a co-ordinated plan.

“Canada is at a precipice – one step closer to the tragedies witnessed in Bondi Beach, Manchester and Boulder – and our leaders must take urgent and concrete actions before it is too late,” Mr. Shack said in a statement, alluding to previous attacks against Jews in Australia, Britain and the United States.

“Constable Smith and Constable McCurdy stepped forward when it mattered most. Our political leaders must do the same,” he said.

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said Thursday that the issue of antisemitism in Canada doesn’t stem from a single source.

“There are a number of different actors right now, lone wolf in some cases, radicalization in all forms, that has no particular ideology,” he said on his way into a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill.

Mr. Anandasangaree said the federal government will ensure that security support is available to Sons of Jacob, and said the government stands with the Jewish community – and the family of Constable Smith.

The shooter, who has been identified as 29-year-old Sean Ward, of Quinte West, Ont., died in hospital Monday night.

The province’s Special Investigations Unit, which handles cases involving Ontario police that result in death or serious injury, is also investigating the case. A postmortem examination on Mr. Ward’s body took place in Kingston on Wednesday, SIU spokesperson Kristy Denette said previously.

The RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in Ottawa is there “supporting and assisting” Belleville Police, RCMP Inspector Christine Belair said Thursday.

Mr. Ward served in the military from July, 2017, until June, 2022, when he was released with the rank of corporal, according to the Canadian Armed Forces. He was a member of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry regiment and did not deploy overseas during his service.

The Canadian military has not said where precisely Mr. Ward was posted. However, a private named Sean Ward was previously listed as a member of the Edmonton-based 3rd Battalion of the PPCLI, according to the regiment’s annual publication.

Mr. Ward was deemed unsuitable for further military service and released under a category called 5F, an involuntary discharge, because he refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine, The Globe reported on Wednesday.

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Further details about Mr. Ward’s stand against the COVID-19 shot are detailed in a lawsuit filed in Federal Court by 128 current and former members of the military who didn’t want to be vaccinated.

Mr. Ward invoked religious grounds to resist receiving the vaccine and claimed that he suffered financial losses of $140,000 after he was released under the 5F classification, according to the lawsuit.

In a statement of defence that described the lawsuit as “scandalous, frivolous, and vexatious,” the federal government said vaccination was a key component in protecting the health of soldiers during the pandemic.

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In an e-mailed statement ahead of the press conference Thursday, General Jennie Carignan, Chief of the Defence Staff, said she was “deeply troubled to learn of the shooting in Belleville. My thoughts are with Constable Jeff Smith, his family and colleagues, as well as the Jewish community in Belleville and all those affected by this incident.”

“We condemn in the strongest terms any form of antisemitism, extremism or violent behaviour in our society. They will not be tolerated in the Canadian Armed Forces, full stop,” she said.

“As this matter remains under police investigation, it would not be appropriate to comment further.”

At an event in Toronto, Premier Doug Ford said he reached out to the doctor at the Kingston hospital to thank him for saving Constable Smith’s life.

“Our prayers are with Jeff and his family,” he said.

Ontario Solicitor-General Michael Kerzner, who also spoke at the press conference Thursday, expressed the personal impact the attack has had on him, as “a proud kippah-wearing Jew, the first ever elected to any Parliament in Canada.”

“We will go forward after the events. … We will consider ourselves lucky that there were no lives lost in the synagogue on the holiest day of the year,” Mr. Kerzner said. “But we will never normalize antisemitism or hate of any kind, and let me be clear … I will not ever see my country surrender to hate and to antisemitism.”

With reports from Mercedes Stephenson and Stephanie Levitz in Ottawa and Laura Stone in Toronto