NP View: Heroes in Belleville, cravens in Ottawa

For months, Canadian Jews have been warning that if nothing changes, an attack like the one that happened on Bondi Beach in Australia in December — when gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration, killing 15 innocents and wounding 40 — could happen here. On Sunday, that worst-case-scenario would have come to pass, if not for the actions of a real-life Canadian hero: Const. Jeff Smith.

If our political leaders had just a thimbleful of Smith's courage, the antisemitism that has been rotting this country's core would have been stamped out years ago. Instead, when faced with unprecedented hate directed at Canadian Jews, Prime Minister Mark Carney recognized a non-existent state of "Palestine," effectively rewarding Hamas for its terrorism against Jews and starting a war with Israel. Meanwhile, the Liberals shamelessly mine for votes from anti-Israel communities. When a man like Smith risks everything to protect his fellow Canadians, the least the governing party could do is risk a few seats.

The officer was stationed outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ont., on Sunday evening, as congregants were filing in for Yom Kippur services, when a gunman, alleged to be 29-year-old former Canadian Armed Forces member Sean Ward, screamed, "You are going to die for the Jews," and opened fire. Smith was hit almost immediately, before he even had a chance to exit his vehicle. But that did not stop him.

Rather than taking cover and tending to his wounds, Smith got out of his car and traded fire with the gunman for nearly three minutes when a second officer, Const. Mike McCurdy, arrived and immediately engaged the shooter. Thanks to Const. Smith's bravery, the threat was ultimately neutralized. According to Belleville Police Chief Murray Rodd, Smith and McCurdy put a stop to "what would have become an unimaginable tragedy," in what he described as a "deliberate attack directed at members of the Jewish community."

Thanks to Smith's selfless bravery, the only person who died in the attack was Ward, though Smith is still in critical but stable condition, having suffered gunshot wounds to his head and body. The response from Canadians has been heartening: a GoFundMe campaign for the officer had more than $700,000 as of Friday afternoon. But whether this is representative of a Canada that is finally confronting the growing threat to Canadian Jews remains to be seen.

After giving a full-throated speech in Toronto in June, in which he admitted that "Canada's civic compact is failing Jewish-Canadians," Carney could only muster a boilerplate response to a terrorist attack that almost resulted in a bloodbath, writing on X that, "Jewish people must be able to worship safely. To live free, open, proud Jewish lives."

That should go without saying. The question now is: what is the government going to do to stem the growing tide of hate in this country? Will it suddenly grow a spine? We are not encouraged.

The Belleville attack represents a serious escalation, as previous synagogue shootings have taken place when they were largely empty. This incident, on the other hand, was clearly intended to be a massacre of Jews, a modern-day pogrom taking place right here in Canada, in a quintessentially peaceful Ontario town.

In his June speech, Carney touted his government's Canada Community Security Program, which provides millions in funding for synagogues and other community institutions to bolster their security. While there is a need for such private security measures, this has been a tacit admission that the government has broken its social contract with Canadians: the state will protect you, because you do not necessarily have the right to protect yourself.

Unlike in the United States, where the Second Amendment protects the right to "keep and bear arms," Canada has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. Yet it should escape no one's notice that in this case, the only thing standing in the way of a bad guy with a gun was a good guy with a gun.

Const. Smith was keeping watch over the synagogue thanks to the foresight of its leaders, who requested a police presence due to concerns over the threat of antisemitic violence. While seeing police outside synagogues, typically off-duty officers hired by the shuls themselves, has been common for decades, governments and law-enforcement agencies need to understand that this must be the norm going forward, as no amount of security cameras will stop an armed terrorist who's intent to kill.

Statements like, "Jewish people must be able to worship safely," as Carney wrote, are simply not enough, because the right to live in peace and security in this country only exists because it is backed up by the state's monopoly on violence.

Canada will not see genuine change, and Jews will not be genuinely safe, until political leaders stop trying to win support from those who hate Israel, and by extension Jews themselves. The Liberals must purge the antisemitic elements from within their ranks. And, yes, anti-Zionism is antisemitic, a fact the Liberals should come to terms with.

When antisemitic provocations on the streets are shrugged off, hatred will fester and attacks like the one that took place in Belleville will be the inevitable result. Next time, we may not be lucky enough to have a heroic man like Const. Smith standing in the way of our own Bondi Beach massacre.

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