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Whether we want to admit it or not, the war in Iran is being felt here in the Greater Toronto Area.

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First, it was a boxing gym owned by an Iranian-Canadian.

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Then Jewish and Azerbaijani businesses had their windows shot at.

Now a synagogue was targeted by bullets.

At Temple Emanu-El on Old Colony Rd. at Harrison Rd., not far from where Honey and Barry Sherman were murdered in 2017 just off Bayview Ave. south of Highway 401, Toronto Police say they “responded to reports of a gunshots being fired” late Monday and then found “evidence of gunfire located on scene.”

There were no reported injuries. But the damage was done. And the message was sent.

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The antisemites and those who support Hamas and the clinging-to-power tyrannical forces in Iran can strike wherever they want.

“Attacks of this nature are another reflection of the hate and lawlessness that is gripping the Greater Toronto Area,” said Councillor James Pasternak. “These acts must be met with universal condemnation and an intergovernmental police response to bring civility back to the GTA.”

Nothing routine about this

Mostly you hear crickets from political leaders on things like this. They treat it like it’s routine.

It’s not routine. There is nothing normal or acceptable about violent lawlessness.

“This is a reflection of a societal failure and ineffective response to the importing of world conflict zones into our streets and the violence it has caused,” said Pasternak.

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Toronto Police are taking it seriously. They have their Hate Crimes Unit engaged on this one and have indicated they have stepped up security at all faith locations around the city that could be vulnerable.

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But they can’t be everywhere. And it’s very hard to protect every business.

So many Jewish businesses have been vandalized. Just the day before this 10:49 p.m. shooting, Pasternak was out surveying another attack in his ward.

“I’m deeply concerned by the overnight shooting at Dufferin St. and Steeles Ave. that targeted several local businesses in our community,” he posted to X.

One of these times those who are shooing out windows of businesses and places of worship are going to see a bullet ricochet and kill an innocent person. It has happened before.

Goldie Ghamari, a former MPP and a long-time advocate for Iran to be freed from the dictatorship that has oppressed the people for 47 years, says Canada will have to take the actual threat more seriously than we previously have.

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“Canada has become a safe haven for Islamic regime terrorists,” Ghamari said in response to the Saliwan Boxing gym in York Region being shot with 17 bullets Sunday morning. “The Iranian-Canadian community has been the target of these imported Islamic terrorists for 47 years. It’s unfortunately become very common for Iranians who speak out against the terrorist Islamic regime occupying Iran to be the recipients of death threats or targeted by violence.”

She knows. She has been threatened herself.

“Many of the sleeper cells who support the Islamic Republic aren’t even Iranian, including the violent pro-Hamas mobs who carry flags of the Islamic Regime and pictures of Khamenei,” Ghamari said. “Let me be very clear: Anyone who supports the terrorist Islamic regime occupying Iran is a terrorist and a serious threat to Canadian national security.”

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For now, police are marking the shell casings and reviewing videos to see who may have been behind this latest shooting. This time it was another synagogue. It won’t matter if cops manage to catch them, the courts will give them bail right away and it will be a rinse and repeat scenario.

While the current war in Iran by Israel and the United States is front and centre right now, it’s not really new that there is targeting of Jewish sites by antisemitic actors. War or not, Toronto has become unrecognizable where there are people who would put people’s lives at risk because of another’s religion.

jwarmington@postmedia.com

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