‘Canada is at a crossroads’: Community and civic leaders call for action in response to GTA synagogue shootings

Police and community leaders are vowing a strong response to a pair of shootings at GTA synagogues over the weekend, with officials renewing calls for all levels of government to combat anti-Jewish hate. 

Investigators say the front doors of Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto synagogue on Clark Avenue in Thornhill and the Shaarei Shomayim synagogue on Glencairn Avenue in North York were both struck by gunfire just after midnight on March 7.

It marked the third time in the last week that these places of worship were targeted by gunfire.

“We all stand together against violence, hate, and anti-semitism. An attack on one of our communities is an attack on all of us,” said Toronto police chief Myron Demkiw, referencing the shooting at a North York synagogue.

“We’ve seen other similar firearm discharges targeting the Jewish community recently and in the past years. This is completely appalling and we are treating this with the utmost seriousness.”

Noah Shack with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said “Canada is at a crossroads,” saying it’s time for all levels of government to unify and move forward with urgency and concrete action to push back against the hate, intimidation and harassment.

“We have a choice to make about whether we are going to be a city, a province and a country that buries our head in the sand and tolerates this kind of intimidation, this kind of terror in communities or whether we will unite to stand against it and push back for the Canada, the province of Ontario and the city of Toronto that we all cherish and believe in,” he said.

Sara Lefton, the Chief Development Officer at UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, says the signs have been there leading up to the violence seen over the last several days.

“Hateful words turn into hateful protests and hateful rallies, and they turn into hateful actions, and that’s what we’re seeing here,” she said. “And these are individuals who are willfully promoting hatred and terrorism in our streets.

“These are not people who wish to harm just the Jewish community; this is a threat to our way of life as Canadians.”

Federal Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree said the federal government is united with the Jewish community and that he would work to strengthen laws so that those who espouse hate are held to account.

“I condemn this in the strongest possible terms. This is unacceptable,” he said. “The forms of anti-semitism we see that’s turning into violence is not the Canadian way.”

Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kirzner pointed out that currently before the provincial legislature is Bill 75, the “Keeping Criminals Behind Bars Act,” which includes legislation that would prevent protesters from disrupting key places of infrastructure, which includes houses of worship and bridges.

“A threshold of decency has been crossed,” he said of the recent attacks. “The Ontario government will leave no stone unturned when it comes to providing the legislation, and the regulation, and the expectations, and the tone of our public safety.”

No one was injured in either incident, and investigators in both Toronto and York Region are looking into a possible connection between the two shootings.

Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca called on political leaders to go beyond words to put an end to these types of attacks.

“We have to enforce all of this through the criminal justice system, and we have to once and for all put a stop to intolerance, anti-semitism, Jew hatred, and make sure that our Jewish residents across Canada feel safe,” he said on Saturday.

Prime Minister Mark Carney called the attacks “an assault on the rights of Jewish Canadians to live and pray in safety” as well as a fundamental violation of the Canadian way of life.”