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Canada’s Antisemitism Problem Grows Worse and Worse — as New Shootings Prove
A member of law enforcement personnel works at the scene outside the US Consulate after shots were fired, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, March 10, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. Photo: REUTERS/Kyaw Soe Oo
With the war in Iran barely weeks old, violent actors in Canada’s largest city are already testing the political will and the police’s capacity to rein them in.
Based on what we’ve seen, it’s far from obvious if authorities are up to the challenge.
When congregants at two Orthodox synagogues arrived for Shabbat services on Saturday morning to find their places of worship had been sprayed with bullets overnight, politicians at all levels of government used all the usual platitudes about antisemitism having no place in Canada and these acts “not being the Canadian way.”
Some of them seemed genuinely surprised.
Police were reportedly searching for a connection between the two crimes, but seem to have missed the obvious fact that of the more than 100 synagogues in the Toronto area, only these two had appeared on a list of “Zionist institutions” produced by an obscure website whose other projects include doxing Canadians who have served in the IDF.
To those unschooled in the finer points of police work, that sounds like a lead.
The synagogue shootings followed a shooting attack earlier in the week at another synagogue. That incident happened shortly after the end of a Purim celebration.
Credit to the terrorists on their timing.
Last Tuesday morning’s shooting at Toronto’s American consulate seems to have been a turning point. That crime had diplomatic implications and forced the RCMP to get involved.
The fact that the attacks occurred at night make clear that the perpetrators are more interested in terrorizing than injuring. For now anyway.
Many rattled Canadians want to know why these attacks keep happening. The answer is an uncomfortable one: because we let it happen.
In 1998, Ward Elcock, who was then head of Canada’s spy agency, warned the country’s Senate that Canada should not “become, through inaction or otherwise, what might be called an unofficial state sponsor of terrorism.”
The warning was largely ignored.
According to a 2024 report by the International Coalition Against Illicit Economies, Canada is a “safe haven” for Hamas and Hezbollah. Funds have been raised via front charity groups, including IRFAN-Canada, which according to the Canada Revenue Agency, transferred C$14.6 million to Hamas-affiliated organizations between 2005 and 2009.
Currency exchanges have provided another means of laundering proceeds of crime and funding terror. While these businesses have an obligation to register with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, they are lightly regulated at best.
Hawala, a trust-based system used to transfer funds outside the formal banking system, allows criminal enterprises and rogue regimes to operate with impunity.
The Iranian regime is also active in Canada.
In addition to intimidating members of the Iranian diaspora, the ayatollahs’ regime has hired local criminal gangs to do its bidding. In 2024, two Canadians with ties to the Hells Angels were arrested as part of an Iranian murder for hire plot in Maryland.
Later that year, former Justice Minister and human rights lawyer Irwin Cotler was informed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police of an Iranian plan to assassinate him.
Recent legislative changes have tightened financial crime laws. But the problem is largely one of enforcement rather than what’s on the books.
In addition to giving it a free hand to use Canada as a financing hub, the federal government has turned a blind eye to the Iranian regime’s direct activities in the country.
After dragging its feet for years, Canada finally designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organization in 2024. But despite the best efforts of the Iranian diaspora and opposition politicians, the government has refused to do much to remove known IRGC agents from the country.
A velvet glove approach to criminal law enforcement provides further safe harbors for violent criminals.
With police forces embracing the “de-escalation” fad, and a Youth Criminal Justice Act that all but exempts those under 18 from punishment, criminal gangs have resorted to recruiting teenagers to do their dirty work.
Meanwhile, the judiciary in Ontario, which is home to roughly 40% of the country’s population, is so stretched that it throws out most criminal charges due to unreasonable delay.
On Wednesday the federal government announced that it would provide $10 million in funding to help support the security needs of Jewish institutions. It’s a necessary stopgap measure.
But if the new normal is for Jewish life in Canada to be conducted in hiding and behind fortifications, then perhaps former Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly was right after all in noting that Canada is “the most European of all non-European countries.”
Those looking for a root cause to the current epidemic of antisemitic violence need look no further than the infrastructure of terrorism that has flourished in their country for more than two decades.
As with Justin Trudeau’s last liberal government, it’s far from obvious the current Liberal government is willing to do anything about it.
Ian Cooper is a Toronto-based lawyer.
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High-Stakes US Special Forces Mission Rescues Airman From Iran After F-15 Crash
FILE PHOTO: A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft takes off for a mission supporting Operation Epic Fury during the Iran war at an undisclosed location, March 9, 2026. U.S. Air Force/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
US forces staged the audacious rescue of an airman behind enemy lines after Iran downed his fighter jet, officials said on Sunday, resolving a crisis for President Donald Trump as he weighs escalating the war, now in its sixth week.
The airman rescued by special operations forces, who Trump said was a colonel, was the weapons-systems officer on the downed F-15, a US official told Reuters.
“Over the past several hours, the United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in US History,” Trump said in a statement, adding that the airman was injured but “he will be just fine.”
The officer was the second of two crew members on the warplane that Iran said on Friday had been brought down by its air defenses. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said several aircraft were destroyed during the US rescue mission, Tasnim news agency reported.
Reuters reported on Friday that the first crew member had been retrieved, triggering a high-profile search by both Iran and the United States for the remaining airman.
Iranian officials had urged citizens to help find him, hoping to gain leverage against Washington in the war Trump and Israel launched on February 28.
Trump has threatened to escalate the conflict in the coming days with attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure.
Had Iran captured the airman, the ensuing hostage crisis could have shifted American public perception of a conflict that opinion polls show was already unpopular.
Trump said the airman was rescued “in the treacherous mountains of Iran” in what he said was the first time in military memory that two US pilots had been rescued, separately, deep in enemy territory.
The official told Reuters that as the weapons-systems officer was moved from near a mountain to a transport aircraft parked within Iran, US forces had to destroy at least one of the aircraft because it had malfunctioned.
U.S. AIRCRAFT HIT
The rescue effort, involving dozens of military aircraft, encountered fierce resistance from Iran.
Reuters reported on Friday that two Black Hawk helicopters involved in the search were hit by Iranian fire but escaped from Iranian airspace.
Separately, a pilot ejected from an A-10 Warthog fighter aircraft after it was hit over Kuwait and crashed, the officials said, though the extent of crew injuries was unclear.
Still, Trump was triumphant.
“The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations, without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded, just proves once again, that we have achieved overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies,” he said in his statement.
US air crews are trained in what to do if they go down behind enemy lines, measures known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, but few are fluent in Persian and face a challenge in staying undetected while seeking rescue.
The conflict has killed 13 US military service members, with more than 300 wounded, US Central Command says. No US troops have been taken prisoner by Iran.
While Trump has repeatedly sought to portray the Iranian military as being in tatters, they have repeatedly been able to hit US aircraft.
Reuters reported on US intelligence showing that Iran retains large amounts of missile and drone capability. Until just over a week ago, the US could only determine with certainty that it had destroyed about one-third of Iran’s missile arsenal.
The status of about another third was less clear, but bombings probably damaged, destroyed or buried those missiles in underground tunnels and bunkers, Reuters sources said.
The US and Israeli war on Iran has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands and hitting the global economy with soaring energy prices that are fueling fears of inflation.
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On Easter, Pope Leo Urges World Leaders to End Wars, Renounce Conquest
Pope Leo XIV waves from the main balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica after delivering his “Urbi et Orbi” (To the city and the world) message, on Easter Sunday at the Vatican, April 5, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli
Pope Leo urged global leaders in his Easter message on Sunday to end the conflicts raging across the world and abandon any schemes for power, conquest or domination.
The pope, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of the Iran war, lamented in a special message to the thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square that people “are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent.”
“Let those who have weapons lay them down!” the first US pope exhorted. “Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace!”
Leo did not mention any specific conflicts in the message, known as the “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) blessing. It was unusually brief and direct.
The pope said that the story of Easter, when the Bible says Jesus rose from the dead three days after not resisting his execution by crucifixion, shows that Christ was “entirely nonviolent.”
“On this day of celebration, let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination, and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars,” Leo urged.
Leo, who is known for choosing his words carefully, has been forcefully decrying the world’s violent conflicts in recent weeks and ramping up his criticism of the Iran war.
In a sermon for the Easter vigil on Saturday night, he urged people not to feel numbed by the scope of the conflicts raging across the world but to work for peace.
The pope made a rare direct appeal to US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, urging him to find an “off-ramp” to end the Iran war.
In his address from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday to the Square below, decorated with thousands of brightly colored flowers for the holiday, Leo offered brief Easter greetings in ten languages, including Latin, Arabic and Chinese.
The pope also announced he would return to the Basilica on April 11 to host a prayer vigil for peace.
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Temple Mount Set for Limited Reopening to Jews and Muslims
Israeli National Security Minister and head of Jewish Power party Itamar Ben-Gvir gives a statement to members of the press, ahead of a possible ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Jan. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Oren Ben Hakoon
i24 News – Israeli authorities are preparing to partially reopen the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to both Jewish and Muslim worshipers for the first time since the start of the war with Iran, under a tightly controlled and highly restricted security arrangement, i24NEWS has learned.
According to details obtained by i24NEWS, the Israeli police, backed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, are also expected to permit limited access for Jewish worshipers to the Western Wall as part of the same phased plan.
Under the framework, access to the Temple Mount and surrounding holy sites would be restricted to small groups of up to 150 people at a time. In the event of a missile alert, all visitors would be immediately evacuated in accordance with emergency protocols.
The decision follows a recent Supreme Court ruling allowing demonstrations in a limited format. Police argue that a consistent standard must apply across both civic gatherings and religious sites, with Ben-Gvir insisting that “there cannot be one rule for demonstrations and another for the Temple Mount.”
However, the reopening contradicts recommendations from the Home Front Command, which has advised keeping sensitive sites closed due to the ongoing risk of missile attacks.
Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin has proposed transferring authority over such security-related decisions exclusively to defense officials, an initiative that could reshape the balance between the judiciary and security establishment regarding restrictions on public access.