Toronto police are investigating a suspected hate crime after a driver fired at Jewish pedestrians with a gel ball blaster last week, causing minor wounds, authorities said on Saturday.

The Toronto Police Service said the incident occurred on April 30 in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of North York, when a suspect discharged what was described as an “Orbeez-type gun” from a blue SUV before fleeing the scene.

The victims were described as “visibly identifiable members of the Jewish community.”

The Toronto Police Service’s Hate Crime Unit is treating the incident as a suspected hate-motivated offense, the police added.

No arrests have been made. Police released footage of the suspect’s vehicle and are asking the public for help identifying it.

The UJA Federation of Greater Toronto said on Saturday that while it was “relieved that none of the victims were seriously injured,” the assault reflected “an escalation of antisemitic violence” across the Greater Toronto Area.

“Just last week, a member of the community was physically assaulted outside a synagogue, and a Jewish-owned store was vandalized in an antisemitic incident. There can be no ambiguity about the motive. These targeted attacks are intended to threaten our community and force us to hide our identity,” it wrote in a post on Instagram.

“It won’t work. We are resilient, strong and determined to live our Jewish lives freely and openly,” the group added.

B’nai Brith Canada, which traces its history back more than 150 years, said last week that for the third year in a row, it documented a record number of incidents of Jew-hatred in the country.

Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy at the group, said in a press conference at Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday that its annual audit of incidents of Jew-hatred in Canada found 6,800 incidents in 2025, up 9.4% from 6,219 in 2024. The 2025 statistic was the largest since B’nai Brith began issuing the annual report in 1982, Roberston said.

“Though the figures contained in the 2025 audit are astonishing, we cannot allow antisemitism to be rendered into mere statistics that we grow numb to,” he told reporters. “Each incident documented in the audit meant pain, suffering and anguish for a human being, a fellow Canadian.”

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