CIJA urges government to prioritize promise to protect Ontario's Jews on return to legislature

As Ontario’s legislators return to Queen’s Park today, an advocacy group is calling for swift “concrete action” to safeguard the province’s Jewish community from the spate of targeted and increasingly violent antisemitic incidents.

“Ontario cannot allow a situation where Jewish families question whether it is safe to attend synagogue, send their children to school, or gather as a community,” Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs vice president Michelle Stock stated in a news release this morning. 

“Addressing these issues is not optional — it is a fundamental responsibility of government.” 

Stock acknowledged the efforts of Premier Doug Ford’s government to date, but said the recent incidents — “some of the most heinous attacks on the Jewish community yet,” she said — underscore the need to do more.

In early March, days after the U.S. and Israel launched their attacks on Iran, Temple Emanu-El in North York was hit with gunfire in what police called a “targeted incident.” Less than a week later, two more Greater Toronto-area synagogues — Thornhill’s Beth Avraham Yoseph and Shaarei Shomayim in North York — were also hit by gunfire. Several Jewish-owned businesses had also been shot at around the same time. A few days later, the U.S. consulate became the target. 

Last weekend, meanwhile, anti-Israel protesters held signs that dehumanize Jews and promote hate-inciting antisemitic rhetoric during an event at Bathurst and Sheppard in North York, prompting an investigation from the Toronto Police Service and calls for arrests from CIJA and other prominent Jewish organizations.

B’nai Brith, together with @CIJAinfo and @UJAFederation, have written to the Chief of the Toronto Police Service regarding the antisemitic placards displayed on Bathurst Street in Toronto this weekend.The signs included a Star of David covered in rats crawling across the Jewish… pic.twitter.com/QsmtXG5X19

— B'nai Brith Canada (@bnaibrithcanada) March 16, 2026

Stock also highlighted an internal Integrated Threat Assessment Centre report that found Jewish Canadians are facing a “heightened violent extremism threat environment” due to the Middle East conflict. 

“What we have seen is deeply alarming and part of a broader pattern of escalating antisemitism that has left many Jewish families questioning their safety,” said Stock.

In the wake of the incidents, Ford and members of his caucus have continually reaffirmed their responsibility and opposition to antisemitism while making operational assurances about police coordination and increased presence in Jewish areas.

The Progressive Conservatives have not made any specific funding promises or policy announcements that would address the matter. They did, however, make an effort to stop the annual Al Quds Day anti-Israel protest in Toronto, only for a judge to deny their application.

In a news conference alongside Jewish leaders following the synagogue shootings, MPP Michael Kerzer, the province’s solicitor general, said the party will put forward legislation restricting protests from disrupting “key infrastructure,” which would include synagogues and other places of worship, when provincial parliament resumes.

“And we will move forward and faster with deliverables to make sure that the message across our great province and our country is one of unity, that an attack on the Jewish community is not just an attack on the Jewish community, it is an attack on Canada,” he said. 

He made a similar vow in a post to X on Friday after a meeting with Ambassador Rabbi Kaploun, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.

Earlier today I had a follow up meeting with Ambassador Rabbi Kaploun, President Trump's special envoy to monitor and combat anti semitism. We discussed the urgency of governments around the world and in Canada to protect their Jewish communities, not passively but with… pic.twitter.com/hiEipwHWR9

— Michael Kerzner (@TeamKerzner) March 20, 2026

Stock said CIJA expects “those commitments to translate into concrete action.”

The group identified three priority areas where it feels government can make life safer for the Jewish community — strengthening security for their facilities, the timely enforcement of hate crime laws, and ensuring school boards and administration do their part to make schools “safe, inclusive, and focused on learning — for all children.”

“Jewish Ontarians are taxpayers, citizens, and full participants in the life of this province. Like every other community, they expect their government to do its job: uphold the law, protect public safety, and ensure that no one is targeted because of who they are,” Stock stated.

• Sabrina Maddeaux: Are synagogue shootings a tipping point that will lead to real action?
• Canada is ‘one of the centres of antisemitism, globally,’ says Israeli ambassador, on tour of targeted synagogue

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