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Canadian authorities have disrupted four \u201cviolent extremist attack plots against Jewish targets\u201d since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict in 2023, says an intelligence report obtained by Global News that warns of continued threats to the community.<\/p>\n
The June 29 report by the federal government\u2019s Integrated Threat Assessment Centre said that each of the plots<\/a> was inspired by the Islamic State, while a fifth involved the \u201cdisruption of a Canadian who traveled to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n Although no such plots have been uncovered so far this year, the report said Canada\u2019s Jewish population had been increasingly targeted since the U.S. and Israel began airstrikes in Iran<\/a> on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has been an uptick in harassment, threatening rhetoric, and criminal incidents\u2014such as assault, arson and shooting firearms\u2014against Jewish communities in Canada, primarily in the Greater Toronto Area since the Iran-U.S. conflict began in February 2026,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n Even if some of the incidents did not meet the \u201cthreshold\u201d of terrorism, investigations were still underway and each event nonetheless \u201ccontributes to a growing sense of insecurity and fear,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n Marked Unclassified\/Official Use Only, the report said that \u201cviolent extremist and criminal threats targeting Jewish communities in Canada and the West will likely continue at a steady rate over the next six months.\u201d<\/p>\n Groups linked to Iran will also \u201clikely continue to direct threats towards Jewish communities\u2014as well as U.S. and Israeli interests\u2014in Canada and the West,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n But it also pointed to a broader problem in which acts of antisemitism become so prevalent that they create an atmosphere that further fuels such violence.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the longer term, an environment in which the targeting of the Jewish community as a group frequently occurs and becomes more normalized will likely influence some susceptible individuals towards violent extremist pathways.\u201d<\/p>\n Entitled Global Events and Antisemitism Inspiring Domestic Threats, the three-page strategic threat assessment report examined whether Canada needed to raise its national terrorism threat level<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u00a0concluded that while some security threats had worsened, \u201cnotably against the Jewish community,\u201d the threat level should stay at medium, which means that a terrorist attack is a \u201crealistic possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n It said the number of attacks in Canada remained stable at one to three per year, and that rising threats \u201chave not been matched by an increase in demonstrated violent extremist capabilities or realized attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tPolice tape outside synagogue in Thornhill, Ont. struck by bullets following start of Iran war.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tGlobal News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n The 2023 Hamas attack and Israeli military response unleashed a wave of antisemitism<\/a>. Jewish community centres, synagogues, schools and businesses have been targets<\/a> of shootings, arsons, vandalism and threats<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Statistics Canada released new figures<\/a> showing that Jews were the victims of 71 per cent of the religiously-motivated hate crimes last year, up from 69 per cent in 2024.<\/p>\n While StatCan said antisemitic crimes had declined by 16 per cent, the intelligence report said incidents had ramped up again since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.<\/p>\n The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said the calls for violence heard on Canada\u2019s streets, rising hate crimes<\/a>, disrupted ISIS plots<\/a> and Iran-linked activities were disturbing.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a toxic brew that needs to be addressed,\u201d CEO Noah Shack said in an interview Wednesday, after Toronto police arrested a pro-Palestinian protester<\/a> for terrorism for allegedly acting in association with Hamas.<\/p>\n Shack said he was concerned that Canada could experience an attack like the Dec. 14 mass shooting in Sydney, Australia, where pro-ISIS gunmen opened fire at a Jewish event, killing 15 people and wounding another 40.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tEmergency workers transport person on a stretcher after a shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo\/Mark Baker).\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n \u201cAnd now we see Canadian authorities are saying that four similar terror attacks inspired by the Islamic State almost happened right here in Canada,\u201d Shack said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s clear that this threat is a ticking time bomb and we need to ensure that the people charged with preventing these attacks and holding the perpetrators accountable have the resources they need to get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n There has been a \u201cmarked resurgence\u201d of hate crimes targeting the Jewish community since the start of the Iran War<\/a>, notably shootings at three Toronto synagogues and the firebombing of a Montreal synagogue, Shack said.<\/p>\n The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right (IMCR), which is allegedly linked<\/a> to Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force, claimed responsibility<\/a> for two shootings in Canada.<\/p>\n An alleged front for the Iraqi Shia militia Kataib Hizballah, the group allegedly<\/a> contracted local criminals to conduct attacks in Europe and North America. The FBI arrested the suspected ringleader in May.<\/p>\n According to the allegations filed in\u00a0U.S. court<\/a>, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi had boasted that he was behind attacks in Toronto \u2014 shootings at a synagogue and the U.S. consulate.<\/p>\n Toronto police have arrested several gunmen who were allegedly part of a network hired to open fire on the American consulate. Canadian authorities have not publicly linked the incidents to Iran.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tIntegrated Threat Assessment Centre\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n According to the ITAC report, 83 per cent of the attacks \u201cplanned or claimed\u201d by the IMCR targeted Israeli interests or the Jewish community, but the two in Canada \u201chave yet to be definitively linked\u201d to the group.<\/p>\n The recent collapse of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement has raised concerns that more such violence could be coming in Western countries.<\/p>\n While the intelligence report found the threats did not justify raising Canada\u2019s terrorism threat level, a former national security official wasn\u2019t impressed with the analysis.<\/p>\n Former RCMP assistant commissioner Ches Parsons, who reviewed the report for Global News, said it downplayed \u201cthe scale and urgency of the actual threat through narrow definitions, selective metrics, and hedging language.\u201d<\/p>\n By separating extremism from antisemitic hate and other crimes, the document created a \u201cstatistical firewall\u201d that minimized the problem, said Parsons, who was the RCMP\u2019s director general of national security.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not rigorous threat assessment; it is a species of containment that protects the status quo,\u201d he said, describing the gap between the report\u2019s conclusions and the reality for the Jewish community as \u201cstark.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBy maintaining the same threat level through a period widely described by community organizations and independent reports as a national crisis of antisemitism\u2026it risks presenting a sanitized view that lags behind the accumulating evidence of radicalization pipelines and eroded public safety confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Four](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ITAC-graph.png\")
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