On the evening of Yom Kippur, 20 September 2026, in Belleville, Ontario, Canada, a gunman carried out what police described as “a deliberate attack directed at members of the Jewish community”. The attack targeted the Sons of Jacob Synagogue and resulted in an exchange of gunfire between the assailant and a police officer stationed outside, with bullets passing through the synagogue’s windows. While none of the worshippers were injured, the officer, Constable Jeff Smith, was shot and hospitalised in a critical but stable condition. The assailant, Sean Ward, was shot by police and later died in hospital.

This report examines the online response to the attack across eight online platforms. It shows glorification of the attack, disappointment Jews weren’t killed, denial the attack was real, denial it was targeted at the Jewish community, and claims it was a false flag carried out by the Jewish community, Mossad, Israel, or Canadian intelligence. This pattern of celebration and denial follows what we have seen in response to other attacks on the Jewish community around the world. 

The responses advance the normalisation of antisemitism and antisemitic violent extremism. One narrative seeks to normalise the killing of Jews, and the public acceptance of violence targeting Jews. The other seeks to undermine empathy with the Jewish victims, eroding public and political will to confront antisemitism. 

We saw these narratives erasing Jewish victimhood in the pro-Hamas disinformation campaigns after the October 7 terrorist attack, and in Iranian disinformation following multiple Iranian sponsored attacks on Jewish targets around the world. While the Belleville attack did not come from the same source, it highlights how these narratives have been normalised in online culture, particularly when Jews are the target. 

The report also shows how some people immediately asserted the attacker was Muslim, using news of the attack to promote anti-Muslim hate. In another section it explores the link between the attack and the spread of Covid conspiracy theories.

This report highlights the urgent need for greater action on online antisemitism, mis/disinformation, and extremism. When people are attacked in a place of worship on a holy day, the response online should be empathy, unity, and support. Online content that seeks to subvert that response, that justifies, excuses, or denies the violence undermines religious freedom, liberal democratic values, and society itself.

Other material

See the preliminary report into this incident

See the Jerusalem Post’s reporting on the preliminary report