Canadian Jewish group calls for action after threat report warns of possible attacks

Experts said the Bondi Beach attack in Sydney showed the persistence of the ISIS threat.

Canada’s leading Jewish organization called for government action Tuesday, after a leaked intelligence report said the factors behind Sunday’s antisemitic terrorist attack in Australia were also present in this country.

“It confirms what we already knew,” Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), said of the report in an interview with Global News. “The ingredients that were in place in Australia are present here in Canada as well.”

The intelligence report was written by Canada’s Integrated Threat Assessment Centre following the mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

It said the current threat landscape for Jewish communities included a growing list of successful and disrupted attacks, a spike in ISIS propaganda and plots directed by the Iranian regime.

“These same conditions and drivers exist in Canada, to differing degrees, and it is a realistic possibility that the Jewish community in Canada could be targeted by a violent extremist actor or actors,” it said.

The report, obtained by Global News, said that while there was no “observed reporting” of an imminent threat targeting Jewish holiday events in Canada, an attack could still occur.

In response to the events in Australia, police in Canada have increased their presence in Jewish communities but Shack said while that was important, governments needed to address the root causes.

Laws meant to hold to account those who radicalize others and incite violence need to be enforced more consistently, and gaps in the law must be filled, the CIJA CEO said.