On the evening of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, a gunman opened fire on the Sons of Jacob synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, as a small congregation gathered for evening prayers.

David Menzies and Tamara Lich covered the breaking story on Monday's Rebel Roundup, with a look at Ezra Levant's reporting from the scene.

The gunman has been identified as Sean Ward, 29. The officer who stopped him — alone, in an unmarked vehicle outside the synagogue — is Jeff Smith, a 13-year veteran of the Belleville Police Service serving paid duty that night. Officer Smith was shot and hospitalized; as of the broadcast he was reported to be in stable condition. The suspect, Ward, was also hospitalized.

The province's Special Investigations Unit has also been called in, as it is whenever police are involved in a shooting.

Ezra Levant, who knew the rabbi leading services that night, drove to Belleville and was on the scene the following morning. He obtained an exclusive interview with the synagogue's security guard, who told him that approximately one week earlier, a man had sat in an SUV outside the synagogue for over an hour during a previous service — making no contact with anyone inside, saying nothing when approached, then driving away.

The security guard reported the earlier incident to police.

The timing of the attack — the precise moment Yom Kippur services began — and the apparent advance surveillance of the building left both hosts with little doubt about motive.

"He just wanted to kill as many Jews as possible," Menzies said. "That's chilling." Tamara Lich agreed the attack was clearly premeditated and called it an act of terrorism without qualification.

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What followed from Canada's political class was the usual cascade of statements. Ontario Premier Doug Ford called the shooting "disgusting" and said his thoughts were with Belleville's Jewish community. Menzies was unimpressed, however, criticizing the premier for failing to travel to the city two hours to the east of Toronto. 

And Ford, Menzies noted, has refused for several years to march in Toronto's Walk With Israel event — an annual gathering that once drew more than 60,000 people and that used to be considered a political obligation. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, he said, has offered a rotating series of excuses for her own absences.

Canada's state broadcaster, meanwhile, was slow to cover the story at all. Menzies argued the calculation is not hard to read. "I don't even think it's based on antisemitism," he said. "I think it's based on electoral math."

Jewish Canadians make up roughly 1% of the population, and antisemitic hate crimes in Canada are up 343%. A generation of university students has been told it is progressive to hate Jews and despise Israel.

The politicians, Menzies said, have done the arithmetic and decided solidarity with Jewish Canadians is a liability. Lich agreed. "If Doug Ford actually cared, he would have got on a plane and got to Belleville."

Both hosts also raised the now-familiar contrast. Every weekend for nearly two years since October 7, 2023, pro-Hamas demonstrators have marched in Canadian cities chanting genocide, carrying mock weapons, and displaying swastikas — while police looked on and, in some cases, brought the protesters food.

In the same period, Menzies noted, he has been arrested three times while covering those same protests as a journalist in a public space. Ezra Levant was arrested once. The protesters were not.

"Canada is rapidly becoming known as an unsafe place for our Jewish communities," Lich said.

U.S. political commentator Glenn Beck made the point recently in a different way — joking that America would accept Canada's Jewish population in any prisoner exchange, because Canada is failing them. Neither host found it particularly funny.

Rebel Roundup airs Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 11 a.m. MT / 1 p.m. ET.