A Canadian Jewish group is calling for action after a threat report warned of possible attacks
Canada’s leading Jewish organization called on the government to take action on Tuesday, after a leaked intelligence report said the motives behind Sunday’s anti-terrorist attacks in Australia were also there.
“It confirms what we already knew,” said Noah Shack, CEO of the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), about the report in an interview with Global News. “The ingredients that were available in Australia are available here in Canada.”
An intelligence report was written by Canada’s Integrated Threat Assessment Center following the mass shooting at the Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney.
It said the current situation threatening Jewish communities includes a growing list of successful attacks and disruptions, a spike in ISIS propaganda and programs directed by the Iranian regime.
“These same conditions and drivers exist in Canada, to varying degrees, and it is possible that the Jewish community in Canada could be targeted by a violent actor or actors,” it said.
The report, obtained by Global News, said that while there is no “recognized report” of an imminent threat to Jewish holiday events in Canada, an attack is still possible.
In response to the events in Australia, Canadian police have increased their presence in Jewish communities, but Shack said that while that is important, governments must address the root causes.
Laws aimed at arresting those who abuse others and incite violence must be implemented consistently, and loopholes in the law must be closed, said the CEO of CIJA.
“And we need to ensure that the promotion of terrorism, the promotion of terrorist organizations and acts of terrorism are prohibited and are addressed and taken seriously by our lawmakers and law enforcement.”
He said the organization was meeting with MPs, cabinet members and security officials “to discuss what concrete steps can be taken in the short, medium and long term to change the situation in the country.”
“We’re coming off two years of ramping up and promoting terrorism in our streets, calling for violence against Jews, showing the burning of Canadian flags,” Shack said.
“This movement of hate and extremism is not only entrenched in our society, it affects our basic way of life as Canadians and this report should serve as a warning to all of us that the time to act is now.”
A Canadian threat assessment said the attack in Australia, which killed 15, may have been motivated by religious extremism and may have inspired the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that left 1,200 dead.
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Black ISIS flags were found on vehicles linked to the suspected attackers, father and son Naveed and Sajid Akram, who were investigated in 2019 for links to ISIS supporters.
Two weeks before the attack, the Akrams went to the south of the Philippines, which has long been at war with Islamic militants, for military training, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Although ISIS has been defeated in Syria in 2019, it continues to attract followers, with arrests in Ontario as recently as November 4, and has seized the Israel-Hamas war to recruit.
“I think in many ways ISIS got a boost after the Hamas attack on October 7,” said Colin P. Clarke of the Soufan Center, a US security research group.
“Two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has led to high levels of killings, and even though ISIS considers Hamas a rebel group, because it sat in elections at one point, it is still able to raise global anger over the collateral damage in Gaza and direct it to its own ends.”
RCMP busted two ISIS sites in Canada in 2024, one in Toronto allegedly organized by an Egyptian father and son. Another targeted Pride event in Calgary.
An ISIS-inspired plot to attack a pro-Israel rally on Parliament Hill was foiled in December 2023, when two youths were charged with terrorism. A Montreal teenager who was arrested in August was charged with planning an ISIS attack.
Despite these foiled plots, Canada’s terrorist threat level has remained unchanged for the past 11 years at “moderate,” meaning an attack is likely and “very likely.”
The attack in Australia underscored the “resurgent threat of religiously motivated violent attacks in the West,” according to a Canadian intelligence report released Monday.
“It is clear that although ISIS lost its ‘caliphate’ in Iraq and Syria years ago, its main narrative of violent jihad against perceived enemies continues to inspire individuals and small networks around the world,” said Prof. Amarnath Amarasingam.
Queen’s University professor Amarasingam said the Sydney attack was consistent with similar incidents and that the target was consistent with the pattern of “jihadist groups in their hatred of Israel and especially in revenge for what happened to the people of Gaza.”
“Organizations like ISIS and their ideologies persist and have continued to be responsible for the deaths of many people despite refusing the attention of the media, policy and law enforcement circles.”
Lucas Weber, senior threat analyst at Tech Against Terrorism, said ISIS’s persistence is fueled by a mix of historical appeals, sectarian narratives, and the group’s “highly advanced online communications equipment.”
Despite the collapse of its regional empire, ISIS has successfully shifted its center of gravity to the digital domain, where it orchestrates global events with a holistic worldview that portrays Muslims as under an existential threat. “
The demonization of Jews, as well as Christians, is central to ISIS’s narrative and gives its ideology “continues to resonate among passionate audiences in the West and beyond.”
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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