About two dozen people were inside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, praying during Yom Kippur when a gunman approached a police cruiser outside.
The armed officer stationed near the synagogue was not part of a permanent security program available to synagogues across Canada. Police had sent him there after receiving a report of a suspicious vehicle—an intervention that may have prevented a mass killing.
“The only thing that stood in the way of every congregant of that shul being murdered was the presence of an armed police officer,” Simon Wolle, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada, told News Outlet.
A forensics officer points towards a police vehicle (out of frame) at the scene of a shooting at the Sons of Jacob Synagogue, where a man armed with a shotgun exchanged gunfire with a police officer stationed outside the Synagogue late Sunday evening as people were arriving for Yom Kippur. The suspect’s shotgun can be seen lying on the ground adjacent to the officer. (Nick Lachance/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
Police said last week’s shooting was a deliberate, hate-motivated attack aimed at the Jewish community. Authorities allege that 29-year-old Sean Ward confronted Belleville Police Constable Jeff Smith, shouted, “You are going to die for the Jews,” and then opened fire with a shotgun.
Smith was hit several times while inside his cruiser. Despite his wounds, he got out of the vehicle and returned fire. A second officer arrived within minutes and took part in the confrontation. Ward later died in a hospital.
Smith remains hospitalized with multiple gunshot wounds to his head and body, as well as severe head trauma. Belleville Police Chief Murray Rodd said the officer faces several surgeries and a “lengthy and challenging” recovery, while noting that Smith is “making progress every day.”
Smith’s wife, Ashley, has spoken publicly about his condition, calling the shooting “the scariest and darkest day of our lives.”
“My words aren’t strong or steady yet, but I knew I needed to find them,” she wrote. “I needed to use my voice for my dear Jeff, until he is able to use his.”
Shots seen on a truck in Ontario, Canada. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday, Sept. 21, condemned a shooting outside a synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, on an evening that left a police officer wounded as members of the Jewish community gathered for Yom Kippur services. (CTV screenshot via Reuters)
Ashley Smith also thanked the Jewish community for its support of her husband and their family. “Please know that your love, your prayers and your support have reached us,” she wrote. “We are deeply grateful. We love you, we see you, we pray for you.”
Although she said her husband has “a very long, difficult road ahead,” Ashley added that he is surrounded by what she described as “an army of love.”
None of the worshipers inside the synagogue was physically injured.
Investigators later said the gunman had what Belleville Police Chief Murray Rodd called the “means, motive and mechanisms to cause a mass casualty and the destruction of the Jewish synagogue.” Police also found combustible materials in the suspect’s vehicle.
“This individual had the means, the intention, the deliberate plans and the capacity to conduct a murderous massacre,” Wolle said.
Anti-Israel protesters gather outside the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto synagogue on March 7, 2024. The place of worship was one of three synagogues shot in the first week of March 2026. (Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Wolle said the attack highlighted more than a single act of antisemitic violence. In his view, it also exposed legal and security gaps that leave Jewish institutions across Canada dangerously exposed.
B’nai Brith Canada is urging federal and provincial lawmakers to change the rules so synagogues, Jewish schools and other at-risk institutions can hire qualified armed security guards.
“There is currently no legislation in place that allows for Jewish institutions to hire the kind of armed protection that may be necessary,” Wolle said.
Firearms regulations fall under federal authority in Canada, while private security is governed separately by provincial rules. Wolle said those systems must be coordinated to give institutions facing credible threats a lawful option to employ trained, licensed armed guards.
Anti-Israel protesters holding antisemitic posters in Alberta, Canada, on April 13, 2025. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via AP)
At present, he said, Jewish institutions can ask police departments to increase patrols, although departments cannot always guarantee that an officer will be stationed outside. Communities can also try to hire paid-duty police officers, but availability remains limited.
“So the only option right now for the Jewish community to protect itself from the unprecedented amount of violent attacks taking place all across this country is to plead with local police services to come by if they can,” Wolle said. “They will not guarantee that they will do so in most circumstances.”
That leaves Jewish communities spending their own money to reinforce buildings, install surveillance systems and hire officers when available.
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“Right now, the Jewish community is using its own money primarily to build walls, put up stronger fences, add cameras and then pay for the privilege of having an armed police officer,” Wolle said. “Our lives are being threatened across the country, and the government hasn’t taken the steps to offer the necessary protection.”
B’nai Brith has made two requests. It wants laws amended to permit qualified armed private security at vulnerable Jewish institutions, and it wants the government to fund an increased police presence at those locations.
Wolle said the burden of protecting Jewish Canadians from targeted violence should not rest solely on the people being threatened.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers a speech in the hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France, on Sept. 17, 2026. Carney welcomed a proposal by European Commission President for Canada to become the EU’s first associate member and rejected threats by President Donald Trump over Ottawa’s push for closer ties with the European Union. (AFP via Getty Images)
“The government needs to meet its most basic obligation and responsibility, which is to protect its citizens,” he said.
The numbers provide a stark context for his concerns. Statistics Canada recorded 788 police-reported hate crimes targeting Jewish people in 2025, representing more than 70% of all reported religiously motivated hate crimes that year.
Wolle said Jewish Canadians constitute approximately 1% to 2% of the country’s population, yet remain overwhelmingly affected by religiously motivated hate crimes. Preliminary data from B’nai Brith’s 2026 annual audit indicate that violent antisemitic incidents have already more than tripled compared with the total recorded throughout 2025.
“There is a national crisis of Jew hatred in Canada,” Wolle said.
B’nai Brith has been warning for months that antisemitic violence is accelerating. Wolle said the organization submitted recommendations and concrete plans to different levels of government before the Belleville attack.
A man fixes the lock of the doors of Congregation Beth Tikvah as police investigate an alleged arson at the synagogue in the suburb of Dollard-des-Ormeaux in Montreal, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)
“We’ve been calling for many things from all levels of government,” he said. “We provided concrete action plans to each.”
The shooting has intensified the organization’s demand that lawmakers treat the security of Jewish institutions as an emergency rather than another subject for future discussion.
“The most urgent thing that is needed is a mechanism for there to be armed protection of Jewish institutions that are under attack right now in Canada,” Wolle said.
He emphasized that B’nai Brith is not calling for firearms to be placed indiscriminately inside synagogues and schools. Its proposal concerns trained, vetted and qualified security professionals operating under a clearly defined legal framework.
“If we don’t have enough armed officers, then we need legislative frameworks changed to allow for alternative armed guards to protect Jewish institutions,” Wolle said.
Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the Belleville attack and called on anyone with information to contact law enforcement.
Temple Emanu-El in Toronto, Canada, was shot at on March 3, 2026. No injuries were reported. (Nick Lachance/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
“On the holiest night of the Jewish calendar, a shooting took place outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville,” Carney said. “Jewish people must be able to worship safely. To live free, open, proud Jewish lives.”
Wolle welcomes expressions of support and said Canadian Jews now need their government to move beyond statements.
“The government gives us words and no action,” he added.
Belleville offered a disturbing picture of what could have happened without an armed officer outside. The congregants did not know that a man police say was driven by hatred had allegedly arrived with weapons and the capacity to cause mass casualties.
One report of a suspicious vehicle led to one officer being placed outside. That officer, Wolle stressed, became the barrier between the gunman and the people praying inside.
“In the wake of these harrowing events, Canada’s Jewish community cannot wait any longer for the government to act,” he said.
The people inside the synagogue, Sons of Jacob, survived. Wolle’s warning is that Canada cannot depend on chance, a suspicious-vehicle report or the availability of a single officer the next time a Jewish institution is targeted.
“This is not a Jewish community problem,” he said. “This is a Canadian problem.”
