Juno News - September 28, 2026


Security Expert Warns of Growing Threat to Canada’s Jewish Community

Mentioned
Mark Ross McLean Yom Kippur
Chinese bounty controversy follows Paul Chiang into Markham council race Canada supplanted as America’s potash supplier？

Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

168.1

Word count

2,490

Sentence count

74

Harmful content

Toxicity

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

8

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 One of Canada's top security experts says the shooting at a synagogue in Ontario
00:00:10 has the hallmarks of a targeted terrorist attack.
00:00:14 Two people, including a police officer, were hit by gunfire Sunday night at the Sons of
00:00:19 Jacob Orthodox Synagogue.
00:00:22 The attacker was armed with a shotgun.
00:00:25 Two police officers were involved in the takedown of the attacker.
00:00:29 a suspected attacker, was shot. And as Ross McLean tells us, the attack started at sunset
00:00:36 when several dozen congregants were in prayer on Yom Kippur. Our guest today is Ross McLean,
00:00:43 security expert and bodyguard to the billionaires. Welcome, Ross.
00:00:47 Yeah, good to be with you, Mark, but a rather sad subject to have to be joining you with.
00:00:51 It is. And, you know, sadly, we've gone through this a number of times. And as you can well
00:00:58 appreciate members of the Jewish community are a combination of terrified, outraged, and 1.00
00:01:06 questioning their own future in this country. Many of them have left, as a matter of fact, 1.00
00:01:11 but let's talk about what this incident entailed. Can you tell us the latest?
00:01:18 Well, first of all, I look at this in context, right? I'm going to talk to you about this. I
00:01:23 was a police officer. I did deal with some terrorism when I was back in the job there,
00:01:28 But mostly I've dealt with it in private security, protecting the rich and famous, protecting large worldwide corporations and dealing with these problems.
00:01:36 And this comes within the context of three years of anti-Semitic hate that has raged across Canada, mostly in Toronto and in Montreal.
00:01:45 We have seen shootings. We have seen arsons.
00:01:49 we have seen all all all manner of problems going on with it with a to my to my take a minimal police
00:01:56 neutral response to it they like to say i totally disagree with the police's tact on it so in the
00:02:03 wake of that we find out about this shooting taking place in the synagogue in belleville
00:02:09 you know a lesser target an easier target to hit and it takes place at exactly sundown on sunday
00:02:16 which marks the start of Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. 0.59
00:02:23 So that certainly has the marking of someone who was premeditating the thought on what they were doing. 0.61
00:02:28 It appears that a shotgun was used, blasted into, it looks like, these stained glass windows on the side,
00:02:36 giving a spread of about 20, 25 shots that hit this stained glass window.
00:02:42 And here's where it starts to get confusing.
00:02:46 Going on from there, the person encounters one police officer, then another police officer,
00:02:53 and we find the person virtually almost dead on the pavement, but now is supposedly still on life
00:02:59 support in the hospital. And we're getting information out in dribs and drabs about the
00:03:04 other parts that are in between. I have my thoughts on what happened, but that's more or
00:03:10 the details that we have where the SIU is investigating the special investigations unit
00:03:15 when we hear of incidents like this we all come to expect Muslim names of suspects but in this
00:03:24 case it is a Sean Ward 29 year old from Quinty West which is not far from Belleville do we know
00:03:31 anything more about this individual I'm getting some information on on background but it's not
00:03:37 really something to be able to share on air at this particular point about it, but we do have
00:03:44 a suspect named, which is unusual that they get that out, but they're not able to tell us the
00:03:50 other information where he was, where the body was found. They're not actually confirming that
00:03:55 the synagogue window was shot, even though there's pictures of it. So they're really giving us dribs
00:04:00 and drabs on the information for that, Mark. Yeah, there's a lot of shots fired. My understanding is
00:04:06 20 to 30 maybe you have a different number and we certainly see visually we have a vehicle riddled
00:04:13 with gunshots the police tell us that neighboring residences were hit it must have been a hell of
00:04:22 a scene at that time when uh well here here's what it looks like to me right this is my estimation
00:04:30 looking at the evidence i don't have this from the source i'm just taking the parts of the puzzle
00:04:35 and trying to fill in what I would see coming up in the middle of it.
00:04:39 It looks to me like it started off with a shotgun blast from the side of the road into the windows of this synagogue. 0.62
00:04:47 Fortunately, those shots, if they would have hit, would have been higher than head level, I believe.
00:04:51 So not hitting the 20 or 30 or so Orthodox Jews who were inside starting their service for Yom Kippur.
00:05:01 Now, on the scene was a police officer who was either posted there as a precaution or working there in a pay duty.
00:05:08 It's not clear.
00:05:10 I'm going to take it that he was there posted by the Belleville police, being more heads up on this.
00:05:15 He clearly would have heard that gunshot.
00:05:17 It's loud.
00:05:18 Boom.
00:05:19 He would have gone out to investigate it and found himself confronting this person with the shotgun.
00:05:26 My understanding is the officer took a shot to the neck, birdshot or something we don't know,
00:05:32 and it's quite serious, but apparently, you know, God willing, he's going to get through it.
00:05:36 Let's pray for him that he does.
00:05:38 The officer was able to return some fire, apparently.
00:05:42 And at that same time, you could hear in the sirens from other videos that were put up,
00:05:46 other police cars were rolling in.
00:05:50 What it looks like to me is a secondary police officer who arrived on scene,
00:05:54 came as this battle was taking place more or less in front of the synagogue he was armed it looks
00:06:03 like this is my guesstimation based on the bullets i'm seeing what i'm seeing with the police issued
00:06:08 carbine assault rifle which was specifically distributed to police to help deal with terrorism
00:06:14 so it looks like he exited his vehicle had those had the suspect in sight shot him appears to me
00:06:22 numerous shots. You can see on the truck in the background of where the body was strafed with
00:06:28 bullets that looked like they came from a carbine rifle. They subdued him, got the help in, got
00:06:36 everybody off to the hospital. That looks to me like what happened, Mark. So good on the police
00:06:43 that they're running towards danger, first of all. I don't think people really appreciate that
00:06:47 until you're the damn one in danger, Mark, and you need someone running towards you to help you. 0.97
00:06:52 So good on them for doing it. 0.99
00:06:54 We'll have to wait to see where this investigation leads farther. 1.00
00:06:58 Part of my concern is, once again, as a security guy, if I'm advising Jews and synagogues, 1.00
00:07:04 I'd be telling them if this is someone who's outside the normal realm, you know, it's an 1.00
00:07:09 Anglo-sounding sort of name, who is it?
00:07:12 I'd start being concerned about a social contagion that this anti-Semitism is growing and growing
00:07:18 and attaching itself to other people right creating more danger for the jewish community
00:07:24 that's what i would be looking at long distance on my radar i'm just telling you that's where
00:07:28 i'd be going as a security guy i'm not saying that's what happened but that's what i'd be
00:07:33 looking at mark yeah i'm i'm wondering about the name of that individual myself i mean and i i
00:07:42 think there'll be more coming out on it but i i'm not at liberty to liberty to discuss you're
00:07:46 hearing things though right yeah about this individual yeah you know it's just becoming such
00:07:55 uh a regular thing that i hope our eyes don't simply glaze over every time there's
00:08:01 a shooting or an attack of this kind it did get some coverage um international media i think abc
00:08:08 news was on it before it seems uh media in canada was on it which is a little odd you would think
00:08:20 that you know with all the media here they would be on it right from the get-go and yet we got beat
00:08:28 our media in canada the legacy media got beat on it so it just makes you wonder really about
00:08:35 whether or not some of them would sooner not cover stories like this you know given that they seem
00:08:41 so intent on covering for the government and that's getting labeled here in much of the online
00:08:48 discourse that i have seen and i realize that x is in certain ways still the wild west but
00:08:54 there's a lot of outrage online particularly by members of the jewish community who say this is
00:09:00 this is horrible and that our politicians now are putting vote numbers ahead of what they should be
00:09:08 doing protecting the public in other words they are pandering to voting in certain ethnic groups
00:09:15 and if that means turning a blind eye or underplaying the threats made against uh
00:09:22 jews then so be it do you have any thoughts about that yeah i've actually got some pretty
00:09:29 pretty tough thoughts on that mark i'm not sure if you'll be able to play this in the interview
00:09:33 when i go into it here but the police just concluded their presser and they do this
00:09:38 typical saying right at the end oh and it goes without saying we are against anti-semitism
00:09:45 hate of any kind violence of any kind and bothering to anybody wherever they are and we will be
00:09:51 considering more protection for people in their places of worship yeah so let me tell you what
00:09:57 that is that is watering down the anti-semitic problem period that's what that is they want to
00:10:05 mix it in with every other type of hate now i'll just tell you this and any of your listeners who
00:10:09 are good at getting stuff done they know the first thing you have to do to solve a problem mark
00:10:14 is define the problem and define it specifically this problem is not generalized hate of people
00:10:20 going after places of worship everywhere this no this is anti-semitic attacks on jews genocidal
00:10:28 attacks on jews that is being protested every day in the streets with the highest number of hate
00:10:34 crimes against the smallest minority population in our country of jews and it's consisted of
00:10:40 shootings beatings arsons uh protests threats intimidations it's over the top but the government
00:10:50 thing just like their land acknowledgement thing is they want to water it down they want to water
00:10:56 down this anti-semitic attack and i'm telling you that's that's a plan to not be successful at it
00:11:03 and they say it every time what is wrong with saying we're going to protect the jews here the
00:11:08 jews are under attack their synagogues are under attack and we are going to use all the resources
00:11:14 as we have to protect the Jewish community
00:11:17 for anybody who goes near them.
00:11:19 They won't say it that way though.
00:11:20 So that is my concern with that, Mark.
00:11:23 Well, there was an officer at the scene of the attack
00:11:27 and you hate to wonder what would have happened
00:11:30 in terms of just casualty list
00:11:33 if that individual had not been there.
00:11:35 So have you heard about whether or not
00:11:38 there had been threats made against this synagogue
00:11:40 ahead of time?
00:11:41 why there was a police officer or multiple police officers at the scene when the attack took place
00:11:49 i'm not aware of any specific threats against it i was i've been made aware there was a
00:11:54 trespass to property or sort of a problem about a week ago with somebody no idea if that's related
00:11:59 to it uh but as i as i say this is uh this is something that we've all seen coming right so
00:12:09 So it's no surprise.
00:12:11 As I said, why do you think the police were issued with those carbine rifles before?
00:12:15 Because we knew terrorism was coming, right?
00:12:17 That's why they issued it.
00:12:18 That's why they trained them on it.
00:12:20 Thank God the officers here had the training and the wherewithal to run towards it and use it.
00:12:25 But listen, Mark, this is just another saying I say on the other side of the coin,
00:12:30 not the law enforcement side, on the private side,
00:12:32 but police should be saying it as well too.
00:12:34 preventing this is way more important than responding to this right when you're responding
00:12:41 to someone actively shooting at a house of worship your problem has already happened you're
00:12:46 responding how about we get our intel a little bit better how about we start making a red line
00:12:51 that says anybody who crosses the line against the jewish community in this way you're immediately
00:12:56 going to be dealt with immediately harshly as much as we can do based within the law
00:13:01 and that helps to put a
00:13:03 that helps to put a lid on things but
00:13:05 we're not seeing that
00:13:06 you know there's another event coming up tonight
00:13:09 at the Meridian Hotel
00:13:11 the Yom Kippur event that's going to be
00:13:14 so it's a religious service
00:13:15 with religious Jews there and there's
00:13:17 going to be protests at it tonight in Toronto
00:13:19 let's see what happens
00:13:22 there because it is a criminal code
00:13:23 offence to interfere with the religious
00:13:25 service, criminal code
00:13:27 but is it going to be allowed to go on
00:13:29 and be interfered with in intimidation, or is it going to be dealt with strongly?
00:13:34 We'll have to wait to see for that.
00:13:36 I think I know what's going to happen.
00:13:38 Yeah, I mean, this is a case where those who hate Israel confuse that hatred
00:13:44 with the nation of Israel, with the religion of Judaism.
00:13:48 You know what I mean?
00:13:50 It just, with those who despise Jews, that seems to be an issue with them.
00:13:59 you know they they don't see they don't distinguish one from the other you know anyway how do people
00:14:06 follow you online and they can catch me over on my youtube channel mclean chronicles i cover a
00:14:12 variety of content on there from looking after yourself to explaining what's going on in the
00:14:17 world um some of the geopolitics it's important people people know and keep on top of what's
00:14:23 going on and be informed that way you can know when you're being taken advantage of mark yeah
00:14:28 we appreciate the great work that you do and thank you for coming on the show thanks for having me
00:14:32 and if you enjoyed this show and appreciate independent journalism please consider becoming
00:14:36 a premier member of juno news by going to junonews.com backslash straight up it helps
00:14:42 us do what we do thank you so much for doing what you do and tuning into this show we'll see you next
00:14:48 time.