Toronto Synagogues Listed in Database Mapping Jewish Institutions Were Shot at Last Week
Two targeted synagogues had appeared on The Maple's "GTA to IDF" database — whose editors have praised Hamas and celebrated a Jewish civilian's murder with terrorist imagery
Two of the three Toronto-area synagogues hit by gunfire this past week were listed in a database published by Canadian outlet The Maple. NGO Monitor drew attention to that overlap on March 8, as officials stood before the bullet-marked doors of Shaarei Shomayim Congregation during a press conference.
Police say BAYT (Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto) in Thornhill was struck on March 6, and Shaarei Shomayim in North York was struck on March 7. Temple Emanu-El in North York was struck separately on March 2, but does not appear in The Maple’s database. No injuries were reported in any of the three shootings.
Toronto Police Service and York Regional Police say the Integrated Gun & Gang Task Force and Hate Crime Unit are involved, and Toronto police say they are coordinating with provincial and national partners, including the RCMP.
The Database Trail
The Maple’s “GTA to IDF” project was launched in December 2025 by Davide Mastracci, the outlet’s opinion editor. It lists seven Greater Toronto Area institutions described as “associated with Canadians who served in Israel’s military.”
The project extended The Maple’s earlier “Find IDF Soldiers” database, which by October 2025 had grown to publish the names and personal profiles of more than 200 Canadians. According to NGO Monitor’s documentation, those profiles include sensitive personal details: the synagogues individuals attend or attended, and their parents’ places of employment.
When the Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw was asked about the publication at the March 8 press conference, Demkiw confirmed that investigators “were aware of the information.”
The Rhetoric Behind the Database
NGO Monitor’s review of The Maple’s editorial record documents a pattern of extreme statements by the outlet’s senior staff, several of which name or celebrate terrorist organizations designated as such by the Canadian government.
Mastracci, who built and maintains the database, wrote in February 2022: “If the Canadian government really cared about fighting the illegal occupation and annexation of land abroad, as it’s now claiming to, it would send weapons to Hamas.”
In December 2023, he stated: “I would 100% prefer living beside a Hamas-supporting Gazan to an average Israeli.” In June 2025, he wrote: “I would rather live next to one of the ‘Ayatollah’s people’ than the average Israeli.”
According to NGO Monitor, an author for The Maple, Tara Alami, posted a message in February 2023 bearing the words “SETTLER DOWN” alongside imagery of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist entity in Canada, in apparent celebration of the murder of American-Israeli citizen Elan Ganeles.
Alex Cosh, Managing Editor of The Maple’s News Section, reposted content in February 2024 claiming that “the real ‘ethnic’ Jews are present-day Palestinians, colonised by Zionist converts.” Furthermore, according to NGO Monitor, as the United States and Israel launched military strikes against Iran on February 28, 2026, Mastracci urged Canadians to “stand with Iran against the U.S. and Israel.”
“Canada is at a Crossroads”
At the March 8 press conference, held directly in front of the bullet-riddled doors of Shaarei Shomayim, Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), stated that, “Canada is at a crossroads.” Shack connected the shootings to a two-year escalation that began on October 7, 2023, with what he described as the first protest in the Greater Toronto Area calling for violence against the Jewish community. “Those demonstrations grew to be large ones,” he said.
“They moved into our neighbourhoods, they began targeting our synagogues, our schools, our community centres. And now we’re confronted with shots fired at three synagogues.”
York Regional Police Acting Chief Kevin McCloskey confirmed an increased police presence at Jewish institutions across the region. Toronto police had visited Shaarei Shomayim nearly 500 times since October 7, 2023, including twice on March 5, the day before it was shot.
Al-Quds Day and the Escalation Concern
Sara Lefton of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto used the March 8 press conference to call for the cancellation of the annual Al-Quds Day demonstration, scheduled for March 14 in downtown Toronto. The event, established by Iran’s Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979, routinely features calls for the destruction of Israel. This year’s promotional material carries the slogan “globalize the intifada.”
“This is promotion of terrorism in our streets,” Lefton said. “We are calling on all of those who are speaking out today and beyond, to actually make sure that Al-Quds Day specifically is shut down, and is not allowed to take place in Toronto, or anywhere in this country, because hateful words, hateful demonstrations turn into this kind of violent attack.”