Canada boosts security at US, Israeli diplomatic buildings after consulate shooting
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A police officer on duty outside the US consulate in Toronto on March 10, 2026, after shots were fired.
PHOTO: REUTERS
TORONTO/WASHINGTON – Canadian police boosted security around US and Israeli diplomatic buildings on March 10 after shots were fired at the US consulate in Toronto, in what Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called a “reprehensible act”.
Police said they were called to the consulate at around 5.30am Eastern Time (5.30pm Singapore time), where they found spent shell casings and damage to the building. No one was injured.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said security would be tightened at the US and Israeli consulates in Toronto, Canada’s most populous city, and at those countries’ embassies in the capital Ottawa.
“These consulates deserve a heightened amount of vigilance and security at this time in the hope that we can bring the temperature down,” he told a press conference, saying the shooting would be probed as a national security incident.
Toronto Police Deputy Chief Frank Barredo said witness evidence indicates that two men exited a white sport utility vehicle outside the consulate at around 4.30am, fired shots from a handgun at the front of the building and drove away.
“(This was) a reprehensible act of violence and attempt at intimidation,” Mr Carney said in a post on X, saying the police would do all they could “to ensure the perpetrators of these violent acts are identified and brought to the full weight of justice”.
The scene outside the US consulate in Toronto after shots were fired on March 10, 2026.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Synagogue shootings
The consulate shooting follows three separate incidents last week where gunshots were fired at synagogues in the Toronto area. No one was injured in those shootings. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called the attacks “criminal anti-Semitic assaults”.
Mr Barredo said it is too early to draw a connection between the consulate shooting and those at the synagogues.
The US State Department said in a statement that it was aware of the incident and was closely monitoring the situation in coordination with local law enforcement.
Separately, on March 8, an improvised device exploded in Norway at the US Embassy in Oslo and police were still searching for a suspect.
A possible link to the Iran war was among the lines of inquiry. In New York City, two men have been charged with terrorism after throwing a homemade bomb at anti-Islam protesters at the weekend. REUTERS
