A string of shootings targeting Toronto-area synagogues, including two early Saturday, has prompted calls for stronger protection for the Jewish community amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.
York Regional Police said shots were fired shortly after midnight at the doors of Beth Avraham Yosef of Toronto, a synagogue in Thornhill, Ont.
Soon after, the Toronto Police Service received reports of gunfire in the city’s north end and discovered bullet holes in the front door of the Shaarei Shomayim synagogue, located in the area of Bathurst Street and Glencairn Avenue.
The incidents sparked condemnation from the Canadian and Israeli governments, as well as several Jewish organizations.
Prime Minister Mark Carney called the shootings “fundamental violations of the Canadian way of life,” and said federal agencies, including the RCMP, would help local police identify those responsible.
“These criminal antisemitic attacks are an assault on the rights of Jewish Canadians to live and pray in safety,” he said in a statement posted on social media.
Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed, said he was “shocked and outraged” by the attacks.
“These cowardly assaults on houses of worship are abhorrent acts of violence that strike at the heart of our shared values – safety, dignity, and freedom of religion,” he said.
“This incident is not only a further escalation in a sequence of similar events in the last years in Toronto, but also is part of a troubling global pattern of antisemitic violence and intimidation.”
York police Deputy Chief Kevin McCloskey said officers have increased their patrols around faith-based centres this week in response to the war in the Middle East.
“Global events have an impact right here in York region,” he said at a news conference Saturday morning.
“Hate and bigotry has absolutely no place in York region, it has no place in Ontario and it has no place in Canada.”
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No injuries were reported in either shooting, though Deputy Chief McCloskey said two people were inside the Thornhill synagogue when the bullets were fired by a suspect or suspects who arrived in a dark sedan. He said there’s currently no evidence to suggest the two shootings were connected, but York police are working with Toronto police on the investigation.
Toronto police Deputy Chief Frank Barredo said the service has maintained increased patrols around Jewish neighbourhoods and places of worship since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, 2023.
He said officers have conducted nearly 500 visits to the Shaarei Shomayim synagogue since then, including two on March 5.
The incidents come days after shots were fired at another synagogue in Toronto’s north end, Temple Emanu-El, on Monday night.
“The Toronto Police Service understands the fear, the anger, the unsettling aspects of what an incident like this will do,” Deputy Chief Barredo said.
Steven Del Duca, the mayor of Vaughan, a city that includes part of Thornhill, said the Jewish community has been “unfairly and disgustingly targeted” for the last two and a half years, calling the shootings “another horrific, antisemitic, Jew-hating incident.”
Mr. Del Duca said he had heard from several members of the Thornhill congregation who “feel like they no longer have a future here in Canada,” and said police need more resources to keep the community safe. “We need to move beyond words,” he said.
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The federal government is currently working to pass a flagship anti-hate bill that would make hate-motivated crime a specific offence in the Criminal Code. The bill would also make it a crime to intimidate or obstruct people accessing places of worship.
This week, the Liberals took steps to halt debate on the bill to end a prolonged Conservative filibuster on removing a religious exemption to some hate speech laws.
Mr. Carney referenced the bill on Saturday, saying his government “will use every tool available to confront antisemitic violence and hatred.”
Last May, Toronto’s city council also passed a bylaw allowing institutions to request 50-metre buffer zones prohibiting demonstrations around their properties.
The measure was passed as the city wrestled with how to regulate protests in response to demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza.
In a statement Saturday, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto called for “urgent action” to protect Canadians who face violence because of events happening abroad.
“Our community knows all too well that when tensions flare in the Middle East, we feel it here at home.”
With a report from Marie Woolf