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Sabrina Maddeaux: Are synagogue shootings a tipping point that will lead to real action?

The will to act against antisemitism and terror has to come from the top

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The synagogue shootings continue. This is a sentence that seems like it belongs in an archival newspaper clipping from Nazi Germany, not a Canadian newspaper in 2026. This month, three separate Greater Toronto Area synagogues were hit by gunfire within a five-day span. Not even a week later, an armed man plowed his vehicle into a Detroit synagogue, which had 140 children inside at the time, before being killed by security.

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Thankfully, no one was hurt in the Toronto shootings and no life-threatening injuries occurred in Detroit. However, an absence of tragedy shouldn’t be mistaken for an excuse not to act. “Acting” being the key word. As antisemitic incidents have surged over the last two years, action has been missing.

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“The forms of antisemitism we see that’s turning into violence is not the Canadian way,” said Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree after the Toronto attacks. “When they attack a synagogue, they attack Canada. They attack the institutions in Canada, including places of worship.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford lashed out at the “cowardly attacks on our Jewish community,” and said that, “Despicable acts of hate targeted at our Jewish friends and neighbours have no place in Ontario.” Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow called them “disgusting acts of antisemitism, hate and intimidation.”

These statements are perhaps somewhat stronger than we’ve heard in the past, probably because gunfire can’t be downplayed with arguments about protecting free speech, the right to protest or multiculturalism.  Hiding behind these excuses when antisemites and terrorist sympathizers shout pro-terror slogans and harass the public — in particular Jewish communities — week after week was always going to lead us here.

Shooting at largely empty places of worship in the wee hours of the morning soon won’t be enough for those who hate Jews and the West. If not forcefully stomped out, the escalation will continue.

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Time and time again, our boundaries have been tested by these groups, which are often both well-organized and well-funded. Time and time again, we’ve failed the test.

A month after the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel, I interviewed family members of Hamas’s hostages and victims. Harel Lapidot, the uncle of murdered 22-year-old Tiferet Lapidot, had a clear message: “If you won’t fight terror now, it will come to Canada and it will happen here.”

His prediction was correct. Fighting terror and taking action isn’t about making speeches. It doesn’t mean an extra line in the budget. It means enforcing existing laws by making arrests and seeing charges through. It means properly vetting anyone who enters this country, and deporting those with links to terrorist organizations and organized crime, as well as those who commit crimes in Canada.

Instead, what we’ve seen is a real-life Spider-Man pointing meme, where Toronto’s mayor, the provincial government and Toronto police blame one another and defer responsibility. The federal government, meanwhile, has been largely absent.

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In response to the recent synagogue shootings, Anandasangaree seems to be hoping that throwing money at the problem will be enough. On Wednesday, he announced that the federal government will make $10 million available to “help Jewish communities in Toronto and Montreal protect themselves against hate-motivated crimes.”

But governments can’t simply buy peace and security. They have to enforce laws and stand behind shared values. Shifting responsibility for political cowardice and law enforcement failures to Jewish communities isn’t an answer, it’s an admittance of failure without any real plan to stand behind a solution.

The will to act against antisemitism and terror has to come from the top. Until it does, the shootings will continue.

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