Canada: Teen received money to shoot at synagogues and sentenced to two years in prison

A teenager who shot at two synagogues in the Toronto area was sentenced to two years in a youth detention facility and one year of community supervision. He received payment for the shootings, but the identity of the funders and the motive remain unknown. The investigation continues.

A court in Ontario, Canada, sentenced a teenager to two years in a youth detention facility and an additional year of community supervision for shooting at two synagogues in the Toronto area. The sentence was handed down on Tuesday after the teen, who was 17 at the time of the attacks in March, pleaded guilty to weapons charges. According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Canada, this is the maximum penalty that can be imposed under Canadian youth law. The first shooting occurred shortly before midnight on March 6 at the "Beit Avraham Yosef" synagogue in Vaughan, north of Toronto, and shortly afterward, fire was opened at the "Shaarei Shamayim" synagogue in north Toronto. Two people were in the first synagogue during the shooting; the second synagogue was empty. A group of young people left the vicinity of one of the synagogues less than ten minutes before the shooting began. The judge described the attacks as planned, calculated, and audacious. The teen received payment for carrying out the shootings, but the identity of the funders and the motive for choosing the synagogues remain unknown. The investigation is ongoing.