No imminent threat of attack in Canada following Australia shooting: CSIS

OTTAWA – The Canadian Security Intelligence Service said Monday it sees no indication of a specific threat in Canada following the mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia, even as it warns of the “realistic possibility” of an extremist attack on the Jewish community here.

“There is currently no observed reporting indicating an imminent, credible threat targeting the 2025 holiday season in Canada, including events associated with the Jewish community,” says the intelligence brief prepared by the Integrated Threat Assessment Centre of CSIS.

“However, we cannot discount a lone actor or small group using readily available weapons mobilizing to violence with little to no intelligence forewarning. A violent extremist attack in Canada, including one targeting the Jewish community, remains a realistic possibility.”

The brief warns that holiday events, including Hanukkah celebrations, “will likely remain an aspirational target across the violent extremist spectrum intending to attack Western interests, select religious and ethnic communities and related emblematic sites.”

It says there is “no current information indicating a specific threat targeting 2025 holiday events, including against Hanukkah celebrations, in Canada by threat actors or transnational violent extremist groups.”

The CSIS brief notes some Canadian police forces have said they will put forward a stronger police presence in Jewish communities.

Jewish communities across Canada have seen an increase in violence and antisemitic hate in recent years, including firebombings at synagogues in Vancouver and Montreal, the defacing of the National Holocaust Monument, and an Ottawa woman stabbed in the kosher section of a grocery store. In Toronto, a Jewish girls’ school was shot at three times in 2024.

At least 15 people were killed and at least 38 were wounded in Australia over the weekend during a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach in what police said was an attack by a father and son. Police shot the two suspected gunmen; the 50-year-old father died at the scene and his 24-year-old son remained in a coma in hospital on Monday.

The attack followed a deadly rampage at a synagogue in Manchester, U.K. in October on Yom Kippur, when a man drove a car into pedestrians and then stabbed several worshippers, killing two and injuring three more.

The CSIS intelligence brief says the investigation in Australia showed the younger of the two men allegedly behind the Bondi Beach attack was under investigation in 2019 for his associations with Daesh, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

“The attackers had also reportedly pledged allegiance to DAESH,” CSIS writes. “Violent rhetoric supporting or celebrating the attack has already been noted online.”

Noah Shack, the CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said on Sunday Canada is not immune to the deadly consequences of an “unchecked rise of violent antisemitic extremism.” He called on governments and law enforcement to do more to keep people safe.

Canadian politicians have offered their support to the Jewish community. In a statement issued Sunday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canadians stand with Jewish people in Australia and across the world in the wake of the horrific attack. Premiers from coast to coast have also shared condolences.

The federal government is currently debating bill C-9, which introduces new hate crimes to prevent intimidation or obstruction of people outside religious institutions. Carney said at a Hanukkah celebration on Parliament Hill last week that the law protects all Canadians, but was developed following the experiences of Canada’s Jewish community.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 2025.