This article discusses violence and anti-semitism and may be distressing to some readers.
When Jewish people in Canada don’t feel safe, it’s a problem we all need to address.
On Sept. 20, during a Yom Kippur service, 29-year-old gunman Sean Ward fired at a police officer providing security at the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville. The officer was shot but is expected to survive. Ward, who was critically injured during the ensuing gunfight, later died of his injuries at Kingston General Hospital.
To state the obvious, the rise in antisemitism in Canada is highly concerning, and this attack is utterly deplorable. No Jewish Canadian should ever feel unsafe in their own community, let alone in their place of worship.
This is a crisis for all Canadians and is utterly unacceptable.
The fact that an armed police officer had already been stationed outside of the synagogue is indicative on its own. We clearly already have an issue where attacks on the Jewish community are becoming more predictable. And with Yom Kippur being one of the holiest holidays in Judaism, the motive could not be clearer.
It’s this exact type of violence that helps explain why 88 per cent of Jewish-Canadians feel less safe in Canada compared to five years prior. We have all known about the issue that antisemitism is growing in Canada, but to see it manifest so violently is still both horrifying and shocking.
And, because this is a growing phenomenon, it’s likely that synagogues will have a stronger presence of security for the foreseeable future.
Accepting this new reality is difficult. It feels like — for lack of a better word — the “Canada” we grew up in is slowly disappearing. Not only does this attack represent a set of values so obviously contradictory to our society, but it feels eerie and distinctly un-Canadian.
Canada only works when everyone is both welcomed and feels safe and secure — and we are failing Jewish Canadians in that regard. Therefore, it’s our responsibility as Canadians to condemn this bigotry wherever it occurs, and to whomever it is directed towards.
Beyond that, this attack will likely resonate differently for Queen’s students and Kingstonians. Not only did this occur in Canada, but it happened right in our own backyard. Belleville is less than an hour from Kingston and is a town many Queen’s students will pass by on their way to school each year.
Of course, while antisemitism is no doubt the most important factor in the Belleville attack — there are other relevant systemic factors to consider.
The federal government, for example, has long neglected the well-being, health, and safety of small-town Canada. Federal resources have been increasingly directed into the large, urban centers, and the subsequent de-industrialization of Canada outside of the major cities has torn small-town communities apart.
An out-of-control opioid crisis, political radicalization on social media, a concerning uptick in violent crime. Obviously, none of these factors can ever fully explain away an attack, but they can provide some context as to how such intense radicalization can occur within these communities.
More importantly, this attack should spur a larger conversation about hate-related violence more broadly in Canada, which has been on the rise for almost a decade. Jewish Canadians, Indigenous Canadians, South Asian Canadians, Muslim Canadian — all have been victims of an increased number of hate-related violence incidents in recent years.
Every single Canadian — regardless of race, religion, or gender — has the right to feel safe and secure within Canada. It’s our responsibility to do our part to ensure that. The Belleville attack is a dark moment for Jewish Canadians, and we all must do our part to ensure this never happens again.
— Journal Editorial Board
Tags
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to eic@queensjournal.ca.