Juno News - September 28, 2026


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

Mentioned
Mark Ross McLean Yom Kippur
Could the B.C. election be David Eby’s biggest blunder？

Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

168.1

Word count

2,490

Sentence count

67

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.
00:00:00.000 One of Canada's top security experts says the shooting at a synagogue in Ontario
00:00:10.560 has the hallmarks of a targeted terrorist attack.
00:00:14.560 Two people, including a police officer, were hit by gunfire Sunday night at the Sons of
00:00:19.640 Jacob Orthodox Synagogue.
00:00:22.480 The attacker was armed with a shotgun.
00:00:25.420 Two police officers were involved in the takedown of the attacker.
00:00:29.000 a suspected attacker, was shot. And as Ross McLean tells us, the attack started at sunset
00:00:36.120 when several dozen congregants were in prayer on Yom Kippur. Our guest today is Ross McLean,
00:00:43.820 security expert and bodyguard to the billionaires. Welcome, Ross.
00:00:47.220 Yeah, good to be with you, Mark, but a rather sad subject to have to be joining you with.
00:00:51.660 It is. And, you know, sadly, we've gone through this a number of times. And as you can well
00:00:58.820 appreciate members of the Jewish community are a combination of terrified, outraged, and 1.00
00:01:06.040 questioning their own future in this country. Many of them have left, as a matter of fact, 1.00
00:01:11.980 but let's talk about what this incident entailed. Can you tell us the latest?
00:01:18.500 Well, first of all, I look at this in context, right? I'm going to talk to you about this. I
00:01:23.780 was a police officer. I did deal with some terrorism when I was back in the job there,
00:01:28.140 But mostly I've dealt with it in private security, protecting the rich and famous, protecting large worldwide corporations and dealing with these problems.
00:01:36.780 And this comes within the context of three years of anti-Semitic hate that has raged across Canada, mostly in Toronto and in Montreal.
00:01:45.500 We have seen shootings. We have seen arsons.
00:01:49.080 we have seen all all all manner of problems going on with it with a to my to my take a minimal police
00:01:56.840 neutral response to it they like to say i totally disagree with the police's tact on it so in the
00:02:03.700 wake of that we find out about this shooting taking place in the synagogue in belleville
00:02:09.000 you know a lesser target an easier target to hit and it takes place at exactly sundown on sunday
00:02:16.780 which marks the start of Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. 0.59
00:02:23.460 So that certainly has the marking of someone who was premeditating the thought on what they were doing. 0.61
00:02:28.960 It appears that a shotgun was used, blasted into, it looks like, these stained glass windows on the side,
00:02:36.900 giving a spread of about 20, 25 shots that hit this stained glass window.
00:02:42.960 And here's where it starts to get confusing.
00:02:46.620 Going on from there, the person encounters one police officer, then another police officer,
00:02:53.200 and we find the person virtually almost dead on the pavement, but now is supposedly still on life
00:02:59.700 support in the hospital. And we're getting information out in dribs and drabs about the
00:03:04.880 other parts that are in between. I have my thoughts on what happened, but that's more or
00:03:10.620 the details that we have where the SIU is investigating the special investigations unit
00:03:15.860 when we hear of incidents like this we all come to expect Muslim names of suspects but in this
00:03:24.260 case it is a Sean Ward 29 year old from Quinty West which is not far from Belleville do we know
00:03:31.800 anything more about this individual I'm getting some information on on background but it's not
00:03:37.780 really something to be able to share on air at this particular point about it, but we do have
00:03:44.020 a suspect named, which is unusual that they get that out, but they're not able to tell us the
00:03:50.620 other information where he was, where the body was found. They're not actually confirming that
00:03:55.800 the synagogue window was shot, even though there's pictures of it. So they're really giving us dribs
00:04:00.840 and drabs on the information for that, Mark. Yeah, there's a lot of shots fired. My understanding is
00:04:06.680 20 to 30 maybe you have a different number and we certainly see visually we have a vehicle riddled
00:04:13.760 with gunshots the police tell us that neighboring residences were hit it must have been a hell of
00:04:22.360 a scene at that time when uh well here here's what it looks like to me right this is my estimation
00:04:30.760 looking at the evidence i don't have this from the source i'm just taking the parts of the puzzle
00:04:35.460 and trying to fill in what I would see coming up in the middle of it.
00:04:39.060 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
00:04:47.480 Fortunately, those shots, if they would have hit, would have been higher than head level, I believe.
00:04:51.880 So not hitting the 20 or 30 or so Orthodox Jews who were inside starting their service for Yom Kippur.
00:05:01.640 Now, on the scene was a police officer who was either posted there as a precaution or working there in a pay duty.
00:05:08.980 It's not clear.
00:05:10.140 I'm going to take it that he was there posted by the Belleville police, being more heads up on this.
00:05:15.920 He clearly would have heard that gunshot.
00:05:17.700 It's loud.
00:05:18.620 Boom.
00:05:19.860 He would have gone out to investigate it and found himself confronting this person with the shotgun.
00:05:26.420 My understanding is the officer took a shot to the neck, birdshot or something we don't know,
00:05:32.960 and it's quite serious, but apparently, you know, God willing, he's going to get through it.
00:05:36.640 Let's pray for him that he does.
00:05:38.480 The officer was able to return some fire, apparently.
00:05:42.140 And at that same time, you could hear in the sirens from other videos that were put up,
00:05:46.400 other police cars were rolling in.
00:05:50.180 What it looks like to me is a secondary police officer who arrived on scene,
00:05:54.640 came as this battle was taking place more or less in front of the synagogue he was armed it looks
00:06:03.380 like this is my guesstimation based on the bullets i'm seeing what i'm seeing with the police issued
00:06:08.320 carbine assault rifle which was specifically distributed to police to help deal with terrorism
00:06:14.000 so it looks like he exited his vehicle had those had the suspect in sight shot him appears to me
00:06:22.720 numerous shots. You can see on the truck in the background of where the body was strafed with
00:06:28.660 bullets that looked like they came from a carbine rifle. They subdued him, got the help in, got
00:06:36.200 everybody off to the hospital. That looks to me like what happened, Mark. So good on the police
00:06:43.240 that they're running towards danger, first of all. I don't think people really appreciate that
00:06:47.380 until you're the damn one in danger, Mark, and you need someone running towards you to help you. 0.97
00:06:52.300 So good on them for doing it. 0.99
00:06:54.320 We'll have to wait to see where this investigation leads farther. 1.00
00:06:58.260 Part of my concern is, once again, as a security guy, if I'm advising Jews and synagogues, 1.00
00:07:04.740 I'd be telling them if this is someone who's outside the normal realm, you know, it's an 1.00
00:07:09.360 Anglo-sounding sort of name, who is it?
00:07:12.540 I'd start being concerned about a social contagion that this anti-Semitism is growing and growing
00:07:18.500 and attaching itself to other people right creating more danger for the jewish community
00:07:24.180 that's what i would be looking at long distance on my radar i'm just telling you that's where
00:07:28.740 i'd be going as a security guy i'm not saying that's what happened but that's what i'd be
00:07:33.060 looking at mark yeah i'm i'm wondering about the name of that individual myself i mean and i i
00:07:42.020 think there'll be more coming out on it but i i'm not at liberty to liberty to discuss you're
00:07:46.980 hearing things though right yeah about this individual yeah you know it's just becoming such
00:07:55.940 uh a regular thing that i hope our eyes don't simply glaze over every time there's
00:08:01.860 a shooting or an attack of this kind it did get some coverage um international media i think abc
00:08:08.900 news was on it before it seems uh media in canada was on it which is a little odd you would think
00:08:20.020 that you know with all the media here they would be on it right from the get-go and yet we got beat
00:08:28.500 our media in canada the legacy media got beat on it so it just makes you wonder really about
00:08:35.460 whether or not some of them would sooner not cover stories like this you know given that they seem
00:08:41.620 so intent on covering for the government and that's getting labeled here in much of the online
00:08:48.500 discourse that i have seen and i realize that x is in certain ways still the wild west but
00:08:54.820 there's a lot of outrage online particularly by members of the jewish community who say this is
00:09:00.500 this is horrible and that our politicians now are putting vote numbers ahead of what they should be
00:09:08.500 doing protecting the public in other words they are pandering to voting in certain ethnic groups
00:09:15.780 and if that means turning a blind eye or underplaying the threats made against uh
00:09:22.980 jews then so be it do you have any thoughts about that yeah i've actually got some pretty
00:09:29.300 pretty tough thoughts on that mark i'm not sure if you'll be able to play this in the interview
00:09:33.380 when i go into it here but the police just concluded their presser and they do this
00:09:38.180 typical saying right at the end oh and it goes without saying we are against anti-semitism
00:09:45.060 hate of any kind violence of any kind and bothering to anybody wherever they are and we will be
00:09:51.140 considering more protection for people in their places of worship yeah so let me tell you what
00:09:57.380 that is that is watering down the anti-semitic problem period that's what that is they want to
00:10:05.220 mix it in with every other type of hate now i'll just tell you this and any of your listeners who
00:10:09.860 are good at getting stuff done they know the first thing you have to do to solve a problem mark
00:10:14.500 is define the problem and define it specifically this problem is not generalized hate of people
00:10:20.900 going after places of worship everywhere this no this is anti-semitic attacks on jews genocidal
00:10:28.900 attacks on jews that is being protested every day in the streets with the highest number of hate
00:10:34.500 crimes against the smallest minority population in our country of jews and it's consisted of
00:10:40.660 shootings beatings arsons uh protests threats intimidations it's over the top but the government
00:10:50.100 thing just like their land acknowledgement thing is they want to water it down they want to water
00:10:56.420 down this anti-semitic attack and i'm telling you that's that's a plan to not be successful at it
00:11:03.140 and they say it every time what is wrong with saying we're going to protect the jews here the
00:11:08.820 jews are under attack their synagogues are under attack and we are going to use all the resources
00:11:14.340 as we have to protect the Jewish community
00:11:17.080 for anybody who goes near them.
00:11:19.240 They won't say it that way though.
00:11:20.980 So that is my concern with that, Mark.
00:11:23.440 Well, there was an officer at the scene of the attack
00:11:27.080 and you hate to wonder what would have happened
00:11:30.100 in terms of just casualty list
00:11:33.040 if that individual had not been there.
00:11:35.560 So have you heard about whether or not
00:11:38.300 there had been threats made against this synagogue
00:11:40.860 ahead of time?
00:11:41.700 why there was a police officer or multiple police officers at the scene when the attack took place
00:11:49.540 i'm not aware of any specific threats against it i was i've been made aware there was a
00:11:54.260 trespass to property or sort of a problem about a week ago with somebody no idea if that's related
00:11:59.940 to it uh but as i as i say this is uh this is something that we've all seen coming right so
00:12:09.620 So it's no surprise.
00:12:11.000 As I said, why do you think the police were issued with those carbine rifles before?
00:12:15.460 Because we knew terrorism was coming, right?
00:12:17.640 That's why they issued it.
00:12:18.680 That's why they trained them on it.
00:12:20.240 Thank God the officers here had the training and the wherewithal to run towards it and use it.
00:12:25.460 But listen, Mark, this is just another saying I say on the other side of the coin,
00:12:30.020 not the law enforcement side, on the private side,
00:12:32.560 but police should be saying it as well too.
00:12:34.700 preventing this is way more important than responding to this right when you're responding
00:12:41.360 to someone actively shooting at a house of worship your problem has already happened you're
00:12:46.200 responding how about we get our intel a little bit better how about we start making a red line
00:12:51.380 that says anybody who crosses the line against the jewish community in this way you're immediately
00:12:56.300 going to be dealt with immediately harshly as much as we can do based within the law
00:13:01.700 and that helps to put a
00:13:03.920 that helps to put a lid on things but
00:13:05.700 we're not seeing that
00:13:06.900 you know there's another event coming up tonight
00:13:09.880 at the Meridian Hotel
00:13:11.460 the Yom Kippur event that's going to be
00:13:14.220 so it's a religious service
00:13:15.760 with religious Jews there and there's
00:13:17.900 going to be protests at it tonight in Toronto
00:13:19.940 let's see what happens
00:13:22.140 there because it is a criminal code
00:13:23.720 offence to interfere with the religious
00:13:25.680 service, criminal code
00:13:27.040 but is it going to be allowed to go on
00:13:29.740 and be interfered with in intimidation, or is it going to be dealt with strongly?
00:13:34.940 We'll have to wait to see for that.
00:13:36.400 I think I know what's going to happen.
00:13:38.760 Yeah, I mean, this is a case where those who hate Israel confuse that hatred
00:13:44.100 with the nation of Israel, with the religion of Judaism.
00:13:48.980 You know what I mean?
00:13:50.380 It just, with those who despise Jews, that seems to be an issue with them.
00:13:59.740 you know they they don't see they don't distinguish one from the other you know anyway how do people
00:14:06.460 follow you online and they can catch me over on my youtube channel mclean chronicles i cover a
00:14:12.540 variety of content on there from looking after yourself to explaining what's going on in the
00:14:17.260 world um some of the geopolitics it's important people people know and keep on top of what's
00:14:23.340 going on and be informed that way you can know when you're being taken advantage of mark yeah
00:14:28.140 we appreciate the great work that you do and thank you for coming on the show thanks for having me
00:14:32.620 and if you enjoyed this show and appreciate independent journalism please consider becoming
00:14:36.460 a premier member of juno news by going to junonews.com backslash straight up it helps
00:14:42.860 us do what we do thank you so much for doing what you do and tuning into this show we'll see you next
00:14:48.460 time.