As I’ve noted here many times, I was born in Toronto, Canada, where my parents emigrated to from the Displaced Persons camp after the Holocaust. My parents left Toronto for California when I was five.
I remember a friend in Toronto telling me in the late 1990s that York Mall was filled with hijabed women. There are signs. If only we pay attention.
Police in parts of the Greater Toronto Area will be increasing their presence after shots were fired at two synagogues in North York and Vaughan.
It comes just days after another North York synagogue, the Temple Emanu-El, was also shot at on Monday.
Toronto police are investigating the shooting at a synagogue near Bathurst St. and Glencairn Ave. shortly after midnight, said spokesperson Shannon Eames.
Officers discovered bullet holes in the front door of a building, but no injuries were reported, said police on social media.
The North York shooting took place at the Shaarei Shomayim synagogue, according to Premier Doug Ford on social media.
York police officers responded shortly before midnight after suspects in a dark sedan “opened fire” at another synagogue near Clark Ave. and Thornhill Blvd., said Deputy Chief Kevin McCloskey at a news conference Saturday.
No one was injured, but there were two people inside at the time, he said.
“This type of hate, this type of behaviour is quite despicable and I’m standing here before you quite upset and quite angry,” he said, adding multiple shots were fired at the building. “Hate and bigotry has no place in York Region, no place in Ontario and no place in Canada.”
Investigators are canvassing for video and evidence to identify the suspects in the shooting, said McCloskey.
