‘Disgusting’: Ford slams shooting attacks on GTA synagogues, calls on Ontarians to stand up against hate  

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Three synagogues shot at less than a week apart in the GTA

'Stand tall, be proud': Rabbi responds to synagogue shooting

Police determining if ‘disturbing’ GTA synagogue shootings are connected

Growing concerns after 3 synagogue shootings in GTA

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is speaking out after a string of violent attacks on the Jewish community in the Greater Toronto Area, calling them “disgusting targeted shootings” and says he will be meeting with members of the community in the wake of the incidents.

“These acts of antisemitism are cowardly attacks on our Jewish community and the rights of every person in Ontario to practice a religion and culture free from hate and intimidation,” Ford said at an unrelated event Monday morning.

“And it’s important that every person in Ontario, from all backgrounds and communities stand up and make clear that these despicable acts of hate targeted at our Jewish friends and neighbours have no place in Ontario.”

Gunfire rang out at two GTA synagogues within about half an hour Friday night over the Jewish sabbath.

Shortly before midnight, shots were fired at Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto synagogue at Clark Avenue and York Hill Boulevard in Thornhill, York Regional Police said.

Then around midnight, Toronto police said multiple shots were fired at Shaarei Shomayim synagogue, near Bathurst Street and Glencairn Avenue.

The two synagogues are about 11 kilometres apart.

The Friday night shootings came just days after another synagogue -- Temple Emanu-El in North York – was also struck by gunfire.

Images from Beth Avraham Yoseph Monday showed shattered layers of glass in the doors and windows at the front of the synagogue, which were struck by eight bullets. According to synagogue officials, two facilities workers were inside the building at the time of the shooting, cleaning up from a dinner that wrapped up there just a couple of hours earlier.

Special glass just recently installed by the synagogue was shattered, but prevented the bullets from reaching the interior of the building.

Thankfully no injuries were reported in any of the incidents.

However the shootings have shaken the city’s Jewish community, which has been dealing with an upsurge in antisemitic incidents over the past two years.

“This is top of mind as things are flaring up overseas, that there are people here in Canada who have decided to take things into their own hands, to vandalize our places of worship, to harass and intimidate Jewish Canadians across this country,” Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, told CP24 Monday.

“This has been a sustained campaign of harassment and intimidation and hate that we’ve been experiencing intensively over the last two years, and it’s fundamentally corrosive to our democracy, to our society, and something that we all need to stand against firmly.”

According to hate crime statistics released by the Toronto Police Service last year, Jews were the most targeted group in the city in 2024, accounting for 40 per cent of all reported hate crime occurrences. Incidents targeting Jews accounted for 81 per cent of hate crimes targeting religion that year.

Rabbi Daniel Korobkin of Beth Avraham Yoseph told CP24 that he is encouraging the community to remain steadfast and “stand proud” in the face of the hateful incidents.

“Our pervasive message to our community is this is nothing new. We’ve faced challenges like this before. I think every single Jew who lives in North America has known about antisemitism, has faced some kind of Jew hatred on one level or another. This is just a higher level of antisemitism that Canadian Jews have faced (than) I think in most people’s lifetimes.”

Police in Toronto and York Region have said they will be adding additional patrols at synagogues in the wake of the violence against the community.

Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw said Sunday police will be “relentless” in hunting down those responsible for the violence.

Ford said the province is “working closely with police and all levels of government” to ensure places of worship are safe and that the perpetrators are found.

“We will hold them accountable,” he vowed.

With files from CP24’s Beatrice Vaisman