Canada's antisemitism crisis: gunshots fired at Toronto school, synagogue firebombed in Montreal

The spate of violent attacks targeting Canada's Jewish community since the Hamas massacre of October 7 and the subsequent Gaza war shows no sign of slowing down, with two more high-profile incidents this week. 

A synagogue in a Montreal suburb was targeted by arsonists on Wednesday, the second such incident in little over a year. Police said a nearby Jewish office building was also targeted on the same day, though it was unclear whether the two attacks were linked.

Montreal police received a call early in the AM regarding a fire at the Congregation Beth Tikvah on the island suburb of Dollard-des-Ormeaux. A window of the synagogue was smashed and a door was damaged. Firefighters extinguished the blaze, finding an incendiary device at the scene.

In Toronto, a Jewish girls elementary school was shot at for the third time this year. 

"It's incredibly unfortunate that I stand here before you this afternoon to discuss yet another shooting at the Bais Chaya Mushka Girls Elementary School," Superintendent Paul MacIntyre told reporters on Friday. "With just a few days until the start of Hannukah, we know how deeply disturbing this is to the Jewish community."

A similar incident occurred at the school in October, on the Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, and in May.

Two men, aged 17 and 20, were arrested and charged with multiple firearms offences in connection to the October shooting. MacIntyre added that both individuals were still in custody, and the investigators were making "great strides" in their investigation into the May incident.

School principal Rabbi Yaacov Vidal told CBC that "parents are concerned, frustrated and fearful. Students are afraid, staff are afraid, and no one should be afraid to come to school. No one should be afraid sending their child to school."