Jesse Kline: Jew hate is a growing Canadian pastime. This is the result

It would appear as though the antisemites have finally succeeded at preventing Jewish-Canadians from gathering to worship in peace, after shots were fired outside an Ontario synagogue during Yom Kippur services on Sunday evening. I’d say this should serve as a wake-up call, but how many wake-up calls does one country need?

The incident occurred outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ont. Its president, Norman Weddum, told National Post that he was ushering people into the sanctuary at around 7 p.m. when he heard the gunfire, prompting congregants to seek cover on the floor. Officials estimate that between 20 and 30 shots were fired. Images from the scene show numerous bullet holes piercing the synagogue’s stained-glass windows.

Police allege that 29-year-old Sean Ward showed up to the site with a shotgun and was involved in a shootout with police that left an officer wounded and the suspect in life-threatening condition. While police won’t say whether the synagogue was the target, it’s not hard to connect the dots, as the last three years have seen a rash of violence targeting Jewish schools, houses of worship, businesses and community institutions.

Yet this represents a significant escalation, as previous attacks against synagogues have taken place late at night, when few people, if any, were inside. The only reason to hit a synagogue on Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days of the year, would be because the perpetrator knew there were lots of people inside.

Such an attack sends the message that Jews are not safe anywhere in the country. While most of the antisemitic violence has taken place in large cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, Belleville, which is located 190 kilometres east of Toronto, is a city of about 55,000 with a small Jewish population: Sons of Jacob is the only synagogue in the area and has just 60 members, according to its website.

While residents of the normally peaceful bedroom community were rightly shocked by the violence, it’s not like Canadians weren’t warned. Half a year ago, the federal government’s Integrated Threat Assessment Centre said that there was a “realistic possibility” of an attack against the Canadian Jewish community within the next six months.

And earlier this month, Israel’s National Security Council warned about an increased risk of terror attacks in the diaspora during the High Holidays and the third anniversary of the October 7 massacre, citing ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and “incitement campaigns” that have led to “a steep increase in terrorist factions’ motivation to attack Israeli and Jewish targets around the world.”

Law-enforcement officials in major cities appeared to heed these warnings. Montreal police said they would be closely monitoring events during the High Holidays, while in Toronto, Mayor Olivia Chow and her police chief held a news conference outlining the steps the department would take to keep Torontonians safe, including placing officers, both uniformed and undercover, in “strategic areas.”

The fact that a Belleville police officer was stationed outside the synagogue in an unmarked car may very well have prevented a mass-casualty event. But it also shows that while security is important, something must be done about the climate of hate that has been allowed to fester in this country.

It’s now been over three months since Prime Minister Mark Carney took the podium at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto and admitted that Canada is “failing Jewish-Canadians.” That’s when he launched the Ministerial Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion, whose first mandate is to tackle Jew-hate by, among other things, reassessing “the nature, scale and drivers of antisemitism in Canada.”

But we already know that antisemitism is being driven by a cadre of Jew-haters supported by foreign terrorist organizations and governments like Iran, who have co-opted the useful idiots on the progressive left, many of whom are responsible for setting policy and teaching our younger generations.

So while the members of Carney’s advisory council twiddle their thumbs trying to figure out why Jews keep waking up to broken glass, those who are spreading the hate and lies that are fuelling antisemitism continue unabated.

Mayor Chow gave lip service to protecting Jews during the High Holidays and issued a statement condemning the Belleville attack, but has previously claimed Israel is committing a “genocide” and recently refused to show up to a mayoral debate on antisemitism. A teacher at my kids’ elementary school came to work on Rosh Hashanah wearing a “Free Palestine” shirt, according to numerous parents and children who witnessed it, and sent home a pamphlet recommending a bookstore that regularly promotes anti-Israel titles.

The University of Toronto at least temporarily launched a website about a working group intended to give academic legitimacy to anti-Zionism, which has run roughshod through our institutes of higher learning and is more often than not simply used as a cover for antisemitism. And an hour after the Sons of Jacob shootings, NDP Leader Avi Lewis took to Twitter not to denounce the violence, but to tell Jews that they must atone for the “ongoing genocide being committed in our name.”

If Lewis or Chow had bothered to check the facts, they would know that as brutal as the Gaza war has been, it in no way constitutes a genocide. Even using Hamas’s questionable numbers, the death toll in Gaza represents about three per cent of its pre-war population. That compares to a 28 per cent drop in Rwanda’s population following the 1994 genocide and a 34 per cent decrease in European Jewry during the Holocaust.

When politicians like Chow tell people that Israel’s committing a genocide and the leader of the NDP suggests Canadian Jews should atone for the made-up sins of a foreign country, it’s not hard to believe that some people will blame Jews for the most horrific of crimes and decide to take matters into their own hands.

We still don’t know what motivated the alleged Belleville shooter, if he was working alone or if he was hired by a foreign actor, as police officials offered scant details during a news conference on Monday afternoon.

But we do know that yet another violent incident has taken place, with Canada’s Jewish community the apparent target. We do know that Canadian politicians are spreading lies about the Jewish state. And we know that teachers and academics, from K-12 to university, are propagating an anti-western, anti-Israel ideology that all too often excuses violence and terror.

The only question is how long it will take the Ministerial Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion, the Carney Liberals and our provincial governments to wake up to, and do something about, the violence and hate in our midst.

National Post jkline@postmedia.com Twitter.com/accessd