Pedestrians pass by a police car parked outside Shaarei Shomayim synagogue in Toronto, on Sunday. The synagogue was struck with gunfire overnight.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
Federal Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangeree says Ottawa will address complaints from Jewish groups about delayed funding for security measures and will tighten its hate laws, after bullets were fired at three Toronto-area synagogues over the past week.
“When they attack a synagogue, they attack Canada,” Mr. Anandasangeree told reporters on Sunday in front of the Shaarei Shomayim synagogue, which was shot at in the early hours of Saturday morning in the North York area of Toronto. Minutes earlier, a synagogue in nearby Thornhill, Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto, had also been targeted.
No injuries were reported, but police say two people were inside the Thornhill synagogue at the time of the shooting. Bullets were also fired at another North York synagogue, Temple Emanu-El, last Monday night.
Police are still investigating whether any of the incidents are connected.
Speaking alongside an array of police, local politicians and Jewish community leaders, Mr. Anandasangeree acknowledged that his government has work to do. But he said he would change the requirements for grants to fund security measures at synagogues, schools and daycares that need them. And he said Ottawa would continue to strengthen its laws to punish hatemongers.
Shots fired at two Toronto-area synagogues as police boost patrols
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. Last 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.
In a statement on Saturday condemning the Toronto-area attacks, Prime Minister Mark Carney referenced the bill, saying his government “will use every tool available to confront antisemitic violence and hatred.”
Jewish community leaders say the shootings, which followed the ratcheting up of tensions over the Middle East with the U.S. and Israeli bombardment of Iran, are the result of more than two years of hateful rhetoric they have seen at anti-Israel protests in Toronto, sparked by the Israel-Hamas war, including events targeting Jewish neighbourhoods.
Noah Shack, chief executive officer of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said that hate at the demonstrations set the stage for last week’s gunfire. And government inaction, he warned, could lead to catastrophic events such as the attack that killed 15 people at a Jewish festival at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in Australia last December.
“We’ve seen the same pattern play out in Australia, with deadly consequences,” Mr. Shack said Sunday. “It’s time for all Canadians, and all levels of government, to unify and move forward with urgency and consistency and concrete action to push back with leadership that says that this is not acceptable in Canada.”
Liberals move to end Conservative filibuster over religious exemption to hate speech laws
Mr. Shack said that federal money for security measures such as bulletproof glass or cameras for synagogues or Jewish schools and daycares can take months to arrive. And he called for more enforcement against the promotion of hate, pointing to the legislation now before Parliament in Ottawa.
Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw called the synagogue attacks “completely appalling” and said his guns-and-gangs task force and other specialized teams, including intelligence units, are working on the probe, along with York Regional Police. Both forces said increased patrols in Jewish areas and around synagogues would continue.
“We are going to be relentless and will leave no stone unturned,” Chief Demkiw said.
He said investigators were still looking into whether the two attacks on Saturday were related. York Regional Police Deputy Chief Kevin McCloskey said there was not yet any evidence definitively linking them.
Ontario Solicitor-General Michael Kerzner said the province’s government, with MPPs set to return to Queen’s Park later this month, would pass its proposed Bill 75, which includes provisions that would outlaw protests that block places of worship, bridges or subway stations.
Toronto City Councillor Mike Colle, who represents the North York ward where the most recent attack took place, lashed out at the provincial and federal governments, saying the city’s police have not been given the help they need to keep the Jewish community safe from “terrorist-inspired agitators.”
With reports from Maura Forrest and Marie Woolf