After Belleville shooting, Jewish leaders and MPs press Ottawa on security funds and campuses
Jewish leaders and Liberal and Conservative MPs called in Ottawa on Sept. 24 for concerted federal and provincial action on antisemitism and hate, including on university campuses, four days after a shooter targeted a Belleville synagogue on Yom Kippur. The Globe and Mail
The speakers at the Thursday press conference included Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather and Conservative MPs, alongside McMaster University student Kate Blumberg. Their message was that tackling antisemitism should be a priority for governments.
The shooting at the Sons of Jacob synagogue in Belleville on Sept. 20 was described as a hate-motivated crime. Housefather said it illustrated the gravity of the security situation for Canadian Jews.
Shack said the Belleville synagogue had only rudimentary security. He tied that vulnerability directly to the design of federal security funding.
Ottawa has earmarked $75-million over five years starting in 2026-27 for the Canada Community Security Program for communities at risk of hate-motivated incidents and crimes. Institutions that draw on the fund must cover 30 per cent of project costs.
Shack said that cost-share rule means some small communities cannot access the money. Security improvements cited under the program include reinforcing doors and windows. He called on the government to be flexible with funding rules, saying improved security at Jewish community buildings is urgent.
Housefather went further. He said governments should fully cover security-upgrade costs for synagogues and other community buildings. He called for more federal and provincial funding for that purpose.
Blumberg described campus conditions for Jewish students. She said Jewish students were being singled out in tutorials, excluded from groups and finding campus spaces unwelcoming.
The campus testimony lands in a Parliament already seized with the file. The House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research, in Report No. 4 in the 45th Parliament, 1st Session, released Sept. 22, discusses survey results showing an alarming prevalence of campus antisemitism and a troubling institutional failure to respond. House of Commons Universities Canada told the House Justice Committee in Meeting No. 106 in the 44th Parliament that it unequivocally condemns anti-Semitism and all forms of racism and discrimination.
A House of Commons electronic petition, e-7739, opened for signature on Sept. 21 at 2:56 p.m. EDT and is set to close Dec. 20, 2026. House of Commons
Ministers Gary Anandasangaree and Sean Fraser presented a progress report on national commitments to combat antisemitism on Sept. 24. Public Safety Canada Federal policy now recognizes that antisemitism can be a matter of national security.
That language builds on earlier steps. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a new federal advisory council to combat antisemitism on June 1. Carney said Canada is failing the Jewish community and that Jews are being targeted.
CIJA welcomed the creation of the Canada Community Security Program in September 2024. At the time, it said antisemitism had risen dramatically in Canada over the past year and that Jewish schools had been shot at. In November 2024, it called for convening a National Forum on Combating Hate Crimes, Terrorism, and Antisemitism bringing together federal, provincial and municipal participants. In January 2026, it urged Carney to take action on resurging antisemitism and extremism as Parliament returned. Its standing position is that increased security costs amidst rising antisemitism should not be borne by the Jewish community alone.
The broader context here is jurisdictional and practical. Ottawa can set national commitments and fund bricks-and-mortar hardening, while policing, prosecution and universities sit largely with provinces, municipalities and autonomous institutions. A uniform 30 per cent cost-share is administratively tidy. It fits Treasury Board norms for contribution agreements. Small congregations face a different arithmetic.
For practitioners, the questions to watch are narrow. Will Public Safety adjust the cost-share, stack federal money with provincial programs, or create a separate stream for high-risk, low-capacity sites. Will the advisory council and the progress-report process produce enforceable standards for campuses, or remain in the realm of commitments and condemnations. And will the response to Belleville move beyond security retrofits to prevention and enforcement.
The politics are cross-partisan for now. That matters in a minority Parliament. It does not resolve the federal-provincial funding negotiation that Housefather flagged, or the campus governance problem that Blumberg and the SRSR survey described. Costs are immediate. Construction takes months. The school year is already under way.
