More than 100 synagogues, Jewish institutions and some hospitals across Canada were the targets of an emailed bomb threat early on the morning of Aug. 21.
The Federal Policing National Security Program is investigating the source of the threats, the RCMP stated.
In Toronto, police said they attended buildings in the Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue area. The buildings were evacuated as a precaution and cleared, police said.
In Montreal, at least a dozen Jewish houses of worship were targeted, reported The Canadian Press. The city’s Adath Israel Synagogue was among the institutions that received the email. It was was evacuated and inspected by police.
Several hospitals in Ottawa also received the bomb threat but were cleared by police.
An organization named “COURT” said it was behind the mass emailed threats
The emails stated “We placed many explosives inside your building…. The bombs are set to go off in a few hours. You will all end up in a pool of blood, none of you deserve to keep living.”
A similar email signed by “COURT” was sent to a group of malls and hospitals in New Delhi, India yesterday, without any reference to anything Jewish, according to The Times of India. No explosives were found in those instances.
B’nai Brith Canada’s Toronto office received the threat in a general email inbox and on the advice of police, evacuated the building, while waiting for police to sweep it for bombs, said Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy. B’nai Brith has also been in contact with police in Montreal and York Region, he said.
The threat was the first one the organization has received since Oct. 7, but Robertson said he wasn’t surprised that it happened.
“This underscores the need for greater change with our leadership across the country and the handling of antisemitism. Things like this don’t occur in a vacuum. This is the result of a devolving situation that we’ve been witnessing for months. It was only a matter of time before the incidents we’ve been seeing playing out on streets across the country morphed into a threat like this,” he told The CJN.
B’nai Brith is still reaching out to community partners, but Robertson said the people he’s spoken with are “shocked.”
“Nobody wants to wake up to a bomb threat against their institution. People are shocked but nobody is surprised. We’ve been a community that’s been under siege, facing a wave of unsustainable hate for months now.”
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said in a statement that it had been in contact with law enforcement and the emails posed “no imminent threat.”
“All indications point to these threats being nuisance emails designed to disrupt lives,” the advocacy group said. “Jewish Canadians will not be intimidated—we will continue to take part in Jewish life. We will stay vigilant but we will never be intimidated.”
