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Toronto (November 10, 2026) – Who paid a teenager to open fire on two Toronto-area synagogues last winter, and why were these Jewish institutions targeted?

These are questions Simon Wiesenthal Centre Canada (Wiesenthal Canada) says must be addressed following today’s sentencing of a young offender, identified as J.B., in connection with the March 2026 attacks at two synagogues in Toronto and nearby Vaughan.

J.B., who was 17 at the time of the shootings, was sentenced today to two years in a custodial facility, followed by one year of community supervision, after pleading guilty to charges related to firearm attacks on two synagogues in the Greater Toronto Area. The three-year sentence is the maximum permitted under the Youth Criminal Justice Act for certain serious offences. The shootings occurred late on March 6 and shortly after midnight on March 7, when multiple rounds of gunfire struck Beth Avraham Yoseph synagogue in Vaughan and Shaarei Shomayim synagogue in Toronto. A youth group that had gathered near the entrance of one of the synagogues had left less than 10 minutes before shots were fired. Miraculously, no injuries were reported. However, both synagogues sustained extensive damage, and the incidents caused widespread fear and distress throughout Canada’s Jewish community.

In delivering the sentence, Justice Michael Alexander Townsend described the shootings as “planned, calculated and brazen,” noting that “it was only by good luck and good fortune that nobody was hurt.”

According to court records, the young offender was paid to carry out the shootings. Yet the identity of those who financed or directed the attacks, and their reasons for targeting two synagogues, remain unknown. The sentencing therefore leaves unresolved the possibility that others involved in orchestrating the violence may pose an ongoing threat to Jewish institutions.

“The sentencing of the person who pulled the trigger can’t be the end of this story,” said Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy at Simon Wiesenthal Centre Canada. “We know a 17-year-old was paid to shoot up two synagogues. But who paid him? Who chose the targets? And are they and/or others out there recruiting young people to carry out similar attacks? The Jewish community deserves answers, and those responsible for organizing and financing these attacks must be brought to justice.”

Kirzner-Roberts emphasized that the absence of hate-motivated charges against the young offender should not be mistaken for evidence that antisemitism played no role in the attacks.

“A teenager motivated by money may not care whose building he is shooting at,” she added. “But whoever paid him had a reason for choosing these targets. We can’t allow the financial motivation of the shooter to obscure the possibility of antisemitic motives further up the chain.”

Kirzner-Roberts also delivered a joint Community Impact Statement to the court in this case as part of a joint submission made by Wiesenthal Canada, B’nai Brith Canada, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the Alliance of Canadians Combatting Antisemitism, the Toronto Board of Rabbis and the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation. It outlined the lasting fear and insecurity caused by the shootings, emphasizing that the consequences for Jewish Canadians were indistinguishable from those of a hate crime, regardless of the offender’s personal motivation.

“The fear experienced by Jewish families does not depend on whether the person who fired the weapon personally harboured antisemitic beliefs,” Kirzner-Roberts told the court. “The bullets were real. The danger was real. And the terror experienced by a community already confronting unprecedented levels of antisemitic hostility was equally real.”

Wiesenthal Canada is calling on law enforcement to pursue every available investigative avenue to identify those who financed or directed the shootings, establish their motivations and determine whether they are connected to other attacks against Jewish institutions or other targets.

The sentencing of one teenager cannot mark the end of the pursuit of justice when those who paid him to attack Jewish institutions remain unidentified and unaccountable.