FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8 May 2026
TORONTO, ON. – Today, John Fraser, Interim Leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, and Stephanie
Smyth, MPP for Toronto—St. Paul’s, issued the following statement in response to the latest antisemitic
attack in Toronto.
This has to stop.
Last night, three visibly Jewish people were shot at with pellet guns while standing outside a synagogue at Bathurst and Wilson. They were just existing as Jews in Toronto. One person was injured. Two others are traumatized. A community that has already endured too much is in shock — again.
This is not an isolated incident. Over the last two months, five Toronto synagogues have been shot at. Restaurants, community centres, and storefronts have been targeted. A Jewish girls’ school was hit by gunfire three times in a single year. People are being assaulted on their way to Shabbat services. The warning signs have been there, and they have been ignored for too long. Antisemitic violence is growing in Ontario because people believe they can act with impunity — and so far, too many of them have been right.
Ontario’s Jewish community is afraid. Afraid to pray. Afraid to wear religious dress. Afraid to simply exist in their own neighbourhoods. That is unconscionable, and governments at every level bear responsibility for allowing it to reach this point.
We need a coordinated strategy — not statements, not task forces that go nowhere, but a real, sustained commitment from municipal, provincial, and federal governments to combat antisemitism, and all forms of hate, together. Any institutional antisemitism within police forces, as recently reported, must be confronted and rooted out. Officers must be able to serve and protect every community equally.
We stand with the victims of last night’s attack, with their families, and with every member of Ontario’s Jewish community who is asking whether they are safe in this province. They deserve an answer — and
they deserve action. The perpetrators of these attacks must be found, charged, and brought to justice.
– John Fraser, Interim Leader, Ontario Liberal Party
– Stephanie Smyth, MPP, Toronto—St. Paul’s