In June, the Toronto police announced they believed that several shootings, including the shooting of the U.S. consulate early in the morning in March, were the work of hired criminals, mainly youth just over or under the age of 18.
Police believe “criminals for hire” were also used to shoot at the exteriors of synagogues and Jewish schools at night when (in all but potentially one case) they were empty.
Since then, there have been three more shootings, including shots fired outside the U.S. Consulate and at two locations of Kiva’s Bakery.
There have been no injuries from the shootings, but they have of course created understandable fear in the city’s Jewish community and beyond.
In June, police officer Marc Pinizzotto was killed near Black Creek and Eglinton during an early-morning raid to execute warrants related to a number of alleged crimes, including the U.S. Consulate shooting. The 19-year-old arrested for allegedly shooting and killing Pinizzotto, Nicholas Bennett, who was shot by police and survived, was not wanted for the U.S. consulate shooting. Instead, he was instead charged in relation to shootings in Scarbrough Village and of an Etobicoke jiu-jitsu studio. No injuries were reported in those two cases.
The police have released few details about what happened during the raid that led to Pinizzotto being killed.
Shooters motivated by money, police say
The criminals for hire theory comes as no surprise to people who have closely followed the widely-publicized shootings. For example, a 20-year-old man, Helder Antonio De Almeida, and a 17-year-old were arrested for their alleged involvement in the shooting of the Bais Chaya Mushka school for Jewish girls one night in October 2024. When the police laid charges, they did not allege hate motivation like they have with many other crimes. None of the charges laid by Toronto police in relation to the shootings of Jewish institutions or the U.S. Consulate appear to have had hate motivation attached to them.
It is also notable that none of the suspects named in these cases appear to have been involved in the pro-Palestine movement.
Still, even with the lack of evidence, politicians and community leaders have consistently tried to connect these shootings with pro-Palestine protests. Journalist Davide Mastracci noted several instances of this in The Maple. His article is worth quoting at length (adapted for length and clarity):
In May 2024, [while student encampments for Palestine were active on many campuses,] B’nai Brith Canada responded to the shooting of a school that month by claiming, “This incident is a stark reminder of the dangers created by a permissive environment that tolerates hate-preaching encampments, hate speech and related antisemitism which threaten the very fabric of our Canadian society.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford responded to one shooting by sending a message to the shooter(s): “You are bringing problems from everywhere else in the world, bringing it to Ontario and going after other Canadians. That’s unacceptable. I have an idea: before you plan on moving to Canada, do not come if you’re going to terrorize neighbourhoods like this.” [This was said without evidence that the suspected shooters were immigrants.]
In December 2024, Noah Shack, then the interim president of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and now its CEO, claimed “extremism in our streets” incited the shooting of a school that month, and that additional police funding was needed to end it.
However, the theory that police have told the public is that the shooters were motivated by money. When Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw was asked in June whether the shooters’ motivation for shooting at Jewish institutions was political, he replied: “As far as the shooters themselves, they are being paid for these acts.”
Who ordered the shootings?
At this point, Toronto police either don’t know who is paying these suspects or they aren’t telling the public their theories. In June, Chief Demkiw said in a statement, “What we know is that bad actors are using criminal elements in our city to carry out these dangerous incidents.”
One possible lead was identified by the FBI after an undercover agent claimed that a senior member of the Iraqi resistance group Kata’ib Hezbollah admitted to being behind the U.S. Consulate shooting in Toronto in March and potentially others. The Toronto police have not confirmed or denied whether they believe this is the case.
While none of the Toronto shooting cases have been resolved in court, a similar case in Montreal is wrapping up. Mohamed Ilyess Akodad pleaded guilty to throwing molotov cocktails at an empty synagogue and the offices of the Federation CJA in December 2024. Akokad claimed that while he was high at a hang-out spot, he accepted an offer for $15,000 to start the fires. He said he was put on a video call to make the deal with a white man in his thirties who spoke French. Akokad claims he was only given the addresses and didn’t know they were Jewish institutions. He said he was only paid $3,000 because he didn’t successfully start fires in the buildings.
Civil liberties eroded
That incident and the shootings have been used to justify significant policy changes in Canada, including Toronto’s “bubble zones” bylaw restricting protest around hundreds of sites.
They were also used in debates around the federal government’s new bills C-9 (The Combatting Hate Act) and C-22 (The Lawful Access Act). As Mastracci points out in The Maple: “On June 1, Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a speech at a Toronto synagogue that Bill C-9 ‘addresses directly the rise in antisemitism, hate-motivated violence, and the targeting of communities.’ One example he gave was, ‘Antisemites in Canada have fired bullets at Jewish schools.’” Mastracci also notes that a senior Liberal also brought up the shootings when making the case for Bill C-22.
Civil liberties groups have widely condemned both bills for allowing much more invasive surveillance of our electronic devices as well as potential sharing of information with U.S. agencies.
“[Bill C-22] presents one of the greatest threats to privacy in Canada of the past two decades,” National Coordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group Tim McSorley says in a statement.
C-9 is now law, while C-22 has passed through the House of Commons and is being considered by the Senate.
While we wait to find out who ordered the shootings and why, the government is chipping away at our rights, in part justifying these efforts with a narrative that might not hold up.
