Two Toronto synagogues, Beth Avraham Yoseph in Thornhill and Shaarei Shomayim Congregation in North York, were both damaged by gunfire on Friday night, fewer than five days after Temple Emanu-El in Toronto was targeted in a shooting.
“These cowardly assaults on houses of worship are abhorrent acts of violence that strike at the heart of our shared values,” the Israeli embassy said, adding that the attacks were part of a “troubling global pattern of antisemitic violence and intimidation.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he was “disgusted” by the targeted shootings, calling them “cowardly acts of hate meant to intimidate and instill fear.”
“Antisemitism has no place in Ontario. We will never waver in our support for Canada’s Jewish community,” he said.
Chief of Police Myron Demkiw called firearm discharges at synagogues “appalling,” saying that the Toronto Police Service handles such incidents with the “utmost seriousness.”
Police are increasing their presence in the area, and the Integrated Gun & Gang Task Force and Hate Crime Unit were brought in to support 33 Division in the investigation.
Both the synagogues targeted on Friday had been singled out by anti-Israel campaigns and campaigners for their pro-Israel stances. They were also featured on a list of “Zionist institutions” curated by Davide Mastracci of The Maple.
Davide Mastracci's cataloging of Canadian IDF soldiers
Mastracci became known after creating and publishing the Find IDF Soldiers database in February 2025, which lists the names and profiles of 206 Canadians who have served in the IDF.
Then, in December 2025, he created GTA to IDF, referring to the Greater Toronto Area, a new project detailing seven institutions the lone soldiers attended and their involvement with them, including two synagogues.
The two synagogues listed were Beth Avraham Yoseph and Shaarei Shomayim.
On the website, Mastracci writes that support for Israel is in both synagogues’ mission statements and that members of both have gone on to serve in the IDF.
He claims that all of the information on his website comes from public sources, such as websites and social media accounts, and that he did not create the database with the intent of encouraging any harassment of the institutions named.
And yet, as social media users were quick to point out, those institutions have been harassed repeatedly. They called for Mastracci's arrest for incitement.
Recently, The Jerusalem Post exposed a campaign by pro-Palestinian groups against Jewish children’s camps in Toronto for actively fundraising for “war-relief” efforts. For example, they reported that Camp Moshava Ennismore, which has an office in Toronto, had hosted an IDF soldier “who posted clips of himself in Gaza ‘joking’ about eating humanitarian aid.”
It may or may not be a coincidence that Camp Moshava Ennismore is also on the GTA-to-IDF list.
A few months ago, Austin Parcels, manager of research and advocacy at B’nai Brith Canada, told the Post, “Publishing a directory of Jewish schools, community centers, and communal organizations framed as if their ties to Israel are incriminating is inciting and dangerous. [It is] becoming a catalogue for hostile actors who are looking for targets.
Parcels explained that this type of activism actually works to “give people who want to harm Jewish institutions the ammunition they are looking for.”
When activism identifies Jewish or Israel-linked institutions, the line between political advocacy and indirect incitement becomes unclear.
Activists such as Mastracci, along with groups like Just Peace Advocates, Palestinian Canadian Congress, and Canadian BDS Coalition & International BDS Allies, frame such campaigning as important, moral work that exposes institutional ties to Israel.
After the Post uncovered the campaign against the camp, the coalition of pro-Palestinian groups released a statement disputing accusations that their work targeted Jewish children.
“This work is about protecting children from being taught, mentored, and cared for by staff who have been part of a military that is actively committing genocide,” the statement read. “This is not about Jewish camps; it is about support for the State of Israel.”
Their argument is that organizations that publicly promote or support Israel should expect scrutiny, particularly when the situation in Gaza has galvanized activists worldwide.
Yet critics say this argument overlooks the real-world environment in which such campaigns operate.
At a time when Jewish institutions across North America are facing repeated threats and attacks, these campaigns can be seen as spotlighting specific synagogues, schools, or camps, and this, even without explicitly encouraging harassment, can contribute to an atmosphere in which those institutions are seen as fair game.
While some in the Jewish community have accused Mastracci of incitement, Canadian hate-speech law sets a high bar. Under the Criminal Code, prosecutors must prove that statements intentionally promote hatred against an identifiable group or are likely to lead to a breach of the peace, a threshold that is difficult to meet in cases involving political activism or the publication of publicly available information (as opposed to private or protected data).
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said on Saturday evening that “the pattern of emboldened antisemitism in Toronto must be stopped.”
As synagogues come under gunfire, the debate needs to be less about free speech and more about whether campaigns that publicly map out Jewish institutions risk helping to create the very climate of intimidation they claim not to endorse. Canada must do more to protect its Jewish community, and the threat of online stigmatization campaigns needs to be taken more seriously.