National Post
· collected 2026-09-27 · by Father Raymond J. de Souza
Raymond J. de Souza reflects on a Yom Kippur shooting at the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, where 25 people were praying. The shooter, Sean Ward, was a former Canadian Armed Forces member discharged over his objection to the COVID vaccine mandate. Ward had come with weapons intended for mass murder but was stopped by police presence requested after earlier suspicious activity. The article highlights how antisemitic violence is spreading beyond large urban centers and involves both extreme left and right elements, not just Arab or Muslim diaspora communities as previously thought.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-02,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
During the decades I lived in Kingston, Ont., I visited Belleville countless times.
asserted
I → live → Belleville
It’s on the way to Toronto and was a favourite place for a road-trip milkshake.
asserted
It → ’ → milkshake
I often stopped at the imposing St. Michael’s on the hill, where a good friend was the pastor.
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friend → stop → hill
It’s a friendly place.
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It → ’ → ?
I doubt I ever passed the Sons of Jacob Synagogue, where the Yom Kippur shooting took place.
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shooting → doubt → place
It’s not far from the imposing churches nearby, but it is rather modest.
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it → ’ → churches
It’s not a prominent synagogue in a prominent place.
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It → ’ → place
Which made the shooting rather more ominous still.
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shooting → make → ?
The congregation that gathered on Sunday night was small, some 25 pious souls at prayer.
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that → gather → prayer
The congregation does not have a full-time rabbi.
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congregation → have → rabbi
And yet, even here, antisemitic violence has arrived.
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violence → arrive → ?
And if it has arrived at a little synagogue in a quiet city, then the toxin has spread far indeed.
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toxin → arrive → city
Over the past several years, as antisemitic attacks on synagogues — as well as on Jewish schools, community centres and businesses — have spread, the source has usually been radicalized elements of Arab and Muslim diaspora communities.
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source → spread → communities
Indeed, as news of the shooting broke, but before the shooter had been identified, some media sources immediately raised the spectre of immigration as the likely culprit.
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sources → break → culprit
The shooter was Sean Ward, who died on Monday from wounds suffered in his gunfight with Belleville police.
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who → die → police
Ward served for five years in the Canadian Armed Forces; he was discharged in 2022 over his objection to the COVID vaccine mandate.
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he → serve → mandate
He later joined a lawsuit against the CAF in relation to that.
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He → join → that
That is quite a long way from the cultural space of the protesters, agitators and harassers that we have become accustomed to seeing in the Jewish neighbourhoods of our big cities.
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we → become → cities
It is a manifestation that antisemitism is not restricted to the extreme left, as it were, but also the extreme right.
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it → restrict → left
More menacing still, it is seeping in from the extremes toward the mainstream.
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it → seep → mainstream
While other Jewish buildings have been vandalized, shot at, even firebombed, this was an attempt at a mass killing.
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this → vandalize → killing
Ward did not come to vandalize the building when it was empty.
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it → come → building
According to police reports, he had come with weapons sufficient for mass murder.
uncertain
he → accord → murder
That there wasn’t a mass murder was due to the police officer on guard, requested by the synagogue after a suspicious man had been spotted a few days earlier.
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man → be → synagogue
His body was the barrier, in fact, as he took gunfire, has been hospitalized and has a long recovery ahead of him.
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he → take → him
Another officer, quickly responding, was the one who shot and disabled Ward.
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who → respond → Ward
The Belleville shooting proved the prudence of that.
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shooting → prove → that
But if a Belleville synagogue needs protection from an ex-soldier, have we now arrived at the lamentable state that has become, for example, the norm in France, where Jewish institutions are permanently secured by the armed forces?
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institutions → need → forces
No one inside the synagogue was hurt in Belleville, but it was a near-enough thing that it may be that comparable measures are needed in Canada.
uncertain
measures → hurt → Canada
If the violence has reached Belleville, Canada has reached that point.
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Canada → reach → point
Ward’s death likely means that we will not know as much as we should about the specific motives of the attack, and whence came his hatred for Jews.
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hatred → mean → Jews
Defence Minister David McGuinty suggested that he would be enquiring about Ward’s experience in the CAF.
uncertain
he → suggest → CAF
It is hard to imagine that the CAF could have done more on that file.
uncertain
CAF → imagine → file
The depressing reality of antisemitism is that it is often unrelated to anything discernible, or is related to any passable nonsense on offer.
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it → relate → offer
It’s a roving answer searching for any apparent questions, even if they are contradictory.
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they → ’ → questions
The police preparedness and response in Belleville are what Canadian Jews have been requesting for some time.
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Jews → request → time
Yet it seems a defeat, does it not, that it was necessary in Belleville, on Yom Kippur?
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it → seem → Kippur
It has come to this in Canada.
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It → come → Canada
The Aporia
