Security stepped up at Montreal Jewish schools hit by gunshots, parents express worry

Parents outside Montreal’s Talmud Torah Elementary expressed worry as they dropped off their children Friday morning, a day after the school was the target of gunfire. Many saying their unable to understand why this happened.

It’s hard, we’re dropping him off today with a very heart. My son is six years old he shouldn’t have to be dropped under police security. He should be safe to go to elementary school here in Montreal, regardless of what’s happening around the world,” said father Michael Chriqui outside the school Friday morning.

“It’s the worst thing you can hear as a parent, that your child’s school was targeted,” he said. “I honestly can’t imagine something worse, we were filled with anxiety me and my wife, rushed here to get him of course try to shelter him from knowing the truth about what’s going on that someone would shoot at his school. Regardless, whether kids are there or not at that time, it’s been hard honestly.”

Talmud Torah Elementary is one of two Jewish schools in the city hit by gunshots overnight Wednesday into Thursday. School staff discovered the gunshots impacts when class started Thursday morning.

Montreal police (SPVM) hate crimes unit is investigating the incidents and say both schools were empty at the time of the shooting and nobody was injured. On Friday, police said no arrests have been made so far and a link cannot yet be established between the two shootings.

SPVM patrol cars were on site Friday morning. The police force says it has stepped up their presence around places of worship and establishments as they see a rise in hate crimes and incidents in the last few weeks amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Our school community is alarmed and deeply concerned by the recent spike in anti-Semitic incidents in our city,” the school said in a statement. “The security of our Jewish community has never felt more imperative.”

“The Jewish Federation is present, they increased security around all the Jewish schools, and we’re happy the SPVM is helping us. It’s good now but what happens in a few weeks,” asked Emma Ouellette, a mother outside the school.

“Under no circumstance should my children feel in danger going to school. We won’t except that. We will live as free people, practicing our religion, sending our kids to Jewish schools and I want them to know that,” added another father named Jacob.

At the nearby Yeshiva Gedola of Montreal school in Outremont, a police patrol car was also standing by outside on Friday, after a single round was found to have been fired at one of their doors.

The school said in a press release, “Our primary concern remains the safety and well-being of our students and staff, and to that end, we are working closely with law enforcement and government officials to ensure that the area around our school, and other community institutions, are safe and secure.”

“We don’t want to be terrorized by this stuff, that’s the whole goal, right, for them to scare us,” said parent, Axel. “Life goes on and leave the kids out of it. That’s my message to everybody: leave the kids out of it.”

The SPVM reports 73 hate crimes and incidents against the Jewish community were reported between Oct. 7 and Nov. 7, 2023. The police force reports they are investigating 25 hate crimes and incidents against the Muslim community reported during the same period. They say arrests have been made in connection with these cases and investigations are ongoing.

“We’ve put into place a visibility plan when the conflict started but we augmented that plan as of yesterday,” said Vincent Richer, Deputy Director of the Montreal police force (SPVM). “It’s for an area, so the more the west part of Montreal, with the west part of downtown Montreal where we have more police officers that are there that are especially there just to have visibility and to bring back the confidence and the safety of the population.”

Officers that aren’t usually patrolling have been re-directed and more

Richer says the SPVM is in continuous contact with the Muslim and Jewish communities.

“We talk regularly with them to better understand their needs and also for us to work together to find some solutions regarding these impact on these hate crimes,” he said.

The SPVM also met with Quebec’s Public Security Ministry Friday.

“There’s some tension, it’s very emotional and we try to ask people to stay calm if they want to protest, of course, they can do that, that’s their right, but they have to do so with respect to the different laws,” said Richer.

The rise in hateful incidents has made some feel unsafe while on the streets.

“Days when some of the you know some of the bigger rallies are taking place, me and my wife we live downtown with the kids, we stay in,” said Chriqui. “We shouldn’t have to stay in, we should be able to go to the pharmacy if we want to but just scared.

“Scared to encounter people that maybe have too much hate that maybe are a bit too mad and and yes we we are afraid, but we can’t be, right? So, I’m looking forward to being able to to be stronger and standing tall because that’s how it should be.”

The gunshots targeting Jewish schools were the latest in a series of crimes that have left Jews in Montreal on edge. During the night between Monday and Tuesday, firebombs in Dollard-des-Ormeaux caused minor damage to the front door of a synagogue and the back door of the nearby Federation CJA office. The city’s Jewish leaders have also denounced anti-Semitic social media posts that they say are rampant.

On Wednesday, Concordia University also reported three separate incidents including an altercation tied to the war between several people on campus that led to one arrest, and three injuries, plus an online threat, and swastikas found on campus.

“This is outrageous, it cannot be tolerated,” says Rabbi Reuben Poupko, co-chair of the Canadian Rabbinic Caucus. “We’re grateful to the police for all that they have done and continue to do. We continue to assert that it is safe to go to our synagogues and safe to go to our schools.

We all need to be cautious, we all need to be careful, but combined with the with the security of our own community, together with the police, we believe our institutions are safe. But there is certainly a reason for heightened vigilance.”

Political leaders on Thursday called for calm.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters that Canadians must denounce violent antisemitism in the strongest terms. He said Canadians have a responsibility to be there for each other.

“Not to necessarily agree – our diversity includes diversity of perspectives and opinions – but not to hate, not to lash out with threats of violence, or actual violence against someone you disagree with.”

Quebec Premier François Legault called on police forces to act. Asked if he would ban certain protests linked to the conflict, Legault said nothing has been ruled out. “What I hope is that people will continue to be able to express their opinion, but without calling for hate or violence.”

Eta Yudin, Quebec vice-president of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, told a news conference on Thursday there is a direct link between some pro-Palestinian demonstrations and acts targeting the Jewish community.

“These kinds of acts don’t happen by chance,” Yudin said. “Numerous hateful gatherings have taken place recently and the hateful speeches we have heard in our streets and universities only encourage these people to commit hateful acts.”

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante spoke directly to those who commit hateful and criminal acts: “You will answer for your actions,” she said at a news conference Thursday.

“This is not who we are here in Montreal, we will not accept it.”

– With files from the Canadian Press