Maple Express | September 21, 2026 -- Suspect Named in Belleville Synagogue Shooting

1. Suspect in Belleville Synagogue Shooting Identified

Source: CP24

Belleville, Ont., police on Monday identified the suspect in a shooting outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue on Sunday night that left a police officer critically injured and worshippers ducking for safety. Ontario's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) spokesperson Kristy Denette told reporters outside the synagogue Monday afternoon that the suspect arrived at the place of worship in a truck armed with a shotgun as congregants prepared to mark Yom Kippur.

Denette said the suspect discharged his firearm at a police officer, who returned fire, before a second officer arrived and also discharged a firearm. Police identified the suspect as 29-year-old Quinte West resident Sean Ward, who remains in hospital in life-threatening condition. It is unclear what charges he will face; the officer who was shot is in critical but stable condition. Belleville Dep. Police Chief Sheri Meeks revealed Monday that the officer is Cst. Jeff Smith, a 13-year veteran of the force. "While he continues to face a significant road to recovery, his condition has stabilized, and we remain hopeful and encouraged by his progress," she said.

Denette said the investigation is in its early stages and estimated that 20 to 30 gunshots were fired between the suspect and the two officers, with a police cruiser and several civilian vehicles also struck by gunfire. Asked whether there was evidence the shooting was a terrorist attack, Denette replied, "I think that common sense would say that probably was the case." She stressed the SIU has a limited mandate focused on police conduct, while a parallel criminal investigation by Belleville police looks at motive and possible charges. Congregant Doug Lobel said about 24 people were inside at the time, and that after the first volley of shots no one knew what was happening outside.

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2. Synagogue President Recalls the Shooting: 'All Hell Broke Loose'

Source: CP24

Norm Weddum, president of the Sons of Jacob Synagogue, told CP24 on Monday that members of his congregation were just sitting down for the Yom Kippur service when the first volley of shots rang out. "And, all of a sudden, there was 'bang, bang, bang,' and that was the first of the shots being fired, and we're kind of all in a state of shock. Like, 'What was that? Was that shooting?'" he said. As many as 25 people were in the temple, and some members headed to the doors to investigate before another round of shots was fired.

Weddum said he ushered everyone back into the sanctuary, closed the doors and yelled for everyone to get down onto the floor, because he did not want a visible target at the front of the building. No one inside the synagogue was injured. The SIU said as many as 30 shots were fired in the exchange. Weddum said he and his congregants were on the floor for what felt like "hours" until the officer already stationed outside met the gunman.

"He (the suspect) wouldn't have seen the officer because he was in an unmarked vehicle, and I believe that's when the officer confronted him, and of course, all hell broke loose," he said. "At that point, the bullets were coming in through the windows of the sanctuary … one of our stained glass windows has got about 20 bullet holes." He said Belleville's Jewish community is quite small and his synagogue has never received any threats. Congregant Doug Lobel said the hardest part was hearing the shots without knowing what was happening outside; police told the congregation to stay inside, and the rabbi and members put tables together for prayer and held hands and sang until police said the SWAT team had to come in and look around for their safety.

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3. Whitby 19-Year-Old Arrested Over Alleged Synagogue Threat

Source: CP24

Durham Regional Police said Monday that a 19-year-old man has been arrested after police say he made threats to shoot a synagogue over social media. Police said they were notified by an external law enforcement partner on Friday about messages posted on an online messaging board threatening to carry out a shooting at a synagogue in Durham Region. After an investigation, police on Saturday arrested Alexander Parfitt, 19, of Whitby, who was charged with one count of threats motivated by hate.

Police said Parfitt was held for a bail hearing and asked anyone with information to contact police or Crime Stoppers anonymously. News of the arrest comes one day after an exchange of gunfire outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville left a police officer with critical injuries and a suspect in life-threatening condition, as congregation members gathered inside to mark Yom Kippur. Durham police said they have increased patrols around Jewish places of worship and community gathering locations across Durham Region for the Jewish High Holidays.

Whitby Mayor Elizabeth Roy said she was "deeply disturbed by news from Durham Regional Police that a man is facing charges following an investigation into threats to commit a shooting at a synagogue in Durham Region." She said she had been briefed by police and remained in direct contact with police and the leadership of Whitby's synagogue. "To our Jewish friends and neighbours, I want to say clearly: you are not alone. Your community stands with you always. Every resident must be able to gather, worship, and practice their faith safely and without fear. A threat against a place of worship is a threat against the safety and fundamental freedoms of our entire community," Roy said. "There is no place in Whitby for antisemitism -- or hate, intimidation, or violence of any kind."

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4. Couple in Their 70s Killed in Scarborough Hospital Parking Lot Shooting

Source: CP24

A man and woman in their 70s, believed to be married, are dead following a shooting outside a hospital in Scarborough on Monday afternoon. The incident occurred in a parking lot outside Providence Healthcare, near Warden and St. Clair avenues, at about 12:30 p.m. Police said two people were found at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds and were pronounced dead a short time later.

Speaking to reporters outside the scene, Toronto police Duty Senior Officer Scott Shutt said life-saving measures were performed on both victims. "It's a very traumatic incident for the family members involved," Shutt said. He also encouraged anyone who was at or near the hospital at the time of the shooting to reach out for support, noting that "numerous people would have been aware of it happening after the fact." Shutt said there had been no arrests and that there were no outstanding suspects.

Shutt said the circumstances surrounding the shooting remain unclear, and Toronto police homicide unit detectives are investigating. Providence Healthcare is a hospital and long-term care facility.

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5. Cut Fibre Cable Disrupts Flights at Pearson

Source: CP24

Toronto Pearson International Airport says several flights have been impacted by an electrical issue that also halted flights departing from several U.S. airports Monday afternoon. In a statement to CTV News, a spokesperson for the airport said that as of 2 p.m., a total of seven flights were impacted.

The disruptions came after the Federal Aviation Administration halted flights at airports in New York, Philadelphia and Boston on Monday after a fibre-optic cable was accidentally cut at a construction site in New Jersey. FlightAware, a flight-tracking site, said more than 600 flights (or more than 20 per cent) at Newark and Philadelphia had been delayed at Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control. Flightradar24 noted that flights were being delayed by an average of 112 minutes at Newark, as a number of flights were forced to divert elsewhere.

Ground stops were issued for John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport in New York, as well as Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. Pearson is advising passengers to check their flight status with their airline.

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6. Paul Bernardo's Parole Hearing Delayed

Source: CP24

Convicted killer and serial rapist Paul Bernardo's upcoming parole hearing has been delayed, CTV News has learned. Bernardo, who is serving a life sentence for the murders of 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy and 15-year-old Kristen French in the early 1990s, was set to appear before the Parole Board of Canada on Oct. 20 in what would have been his fourth hearing in eight years.

However, on Monday the lawyer for the victims' families, Tim Danson, confirmed that the hearing has been postponed to January 2027. The reasons behind the postponement are unclear. In a statement to CP24, a spokesperson for the parole board said "only an offender may request a postponement at any time prior to the review or during the hearing" -- for example, if their assistant is not available for the scheduled date or if they want to complete an assessment or treatment beforehand.

Bernardo's January hearing marks the fourth time in eight years that he is up for parole. Last week, Danson told CTV News that the victims' families believe parole hearings for "people like Paul Bernardo" should only be held every seven years. Bernardo was convicted of the first-degree murder of Mahaffy and French and multiple sexual assaults. He was also convicted of manslaughter in the 1990 death of his ex-wife Karla Homolka's 15-year-old sister, Tammy, and has admitted to sexually assaulting at least 14 other women.

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7. Toronto Surgeon's Gene, Stem Cell Therapy Could Make Donor Lungs 'Look More Like Itself'

Source: CP24

Human trials start next year in Toronto on a gene and stem cell therapy that could make a transplanted lung "look more like itself," a first step toward what Dr. Shaf Keshavjee calls the ultimate goal: an organ that is you, so that your body doesn't reject it. Keshavjee, Surgeon-in-Chief of the Sprott Department of Surgery and director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program at UHN, is building on the Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion (EVLP) platform developed at Toronto General Hospital, which keeps donor lungs breathing outside the body so they can be assessed and repaired.

"We interrogate them, we can assess them, and we can fix them with gene therapy and stem cells," he told Your Morning. The donor lungs are placed inside a protective dome and supplied all critical components so they can breathe on their own for 12 hours. He said he hopes to move the technique into "in vivo," or inside-the-body, lung perfusion, where lungs are fixed inside people.

Keshavjee said that of the more than 4,600 lung transplants performed worldwide each year, about 80 per cent of donor lungs are not clinically acceptable for transplant, and patients who do receive one live a median of roughly six and a half years. His long-term aim is to fix damaged organs using gene therapy and stem cells and to explore new sources of organs. When human trials start next year, he said he will explain to patients that receiving a transplant is "not a normal solution to a very difficult problem," and that after a transplant they spend the rest of their life trying to reject that organ.

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8. Northern Ontario Township Councillor Guilty of Animal Cruelty, Assault

Source: CP24

Len Menard, a councillor with the Township of the North Shore, has been found guilty of animal cruelty in connection with nine goats found dead on his property last September. Ontario Provincial Police said at the time that it was a case of long-term neglect. The investigation began in March 2025 after the OPP and Provincial Animal Welfare Services visited a property on Old Hydro Road, where they discovered a structure housing 10 goats but only one was alive.

"Veterinary consultation was also involved, which determined that the animals were not adequately cared for (providing food, water, shelter) over a long period of time," OPP said in a news release on Sept. 9, 2025. According to documents from the Elliot Lake Courthouse dated Sept. 9, Menard, 62, was found guilty of Neglecting to Provide for Animals between November 2024 and March 2025. He received a 10-month sentence to be served in the community, provided he follows 12 conditions, including remaining in the province, remaining at home for the first six months (with some exceptions), and not drinking or buying alcohol or taking any non-prescription drugs.

He was also found guilty of assault dating to an incident on Sept. 2, 2025, breaching a release order on Sept. 8, 2025, and not appearing in court in Elliot Lake on Oct. 7, 2025. He received two years' probation for those offences. Menard is also prohibited from owning or residing in the same place as any animal or bird for 10 years. According to the township's website, Menard has registered to run for re-election in the Oct. 26 vote.

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9. Macklem Says U.S. Trade Unpredictability Could Set Back Economic Progress

Source: CP24

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says the unpredictability of U.S. trade policy has increased uncertainty and could set back recent progress by the Canadian economy. In prepared remarks for a speech in Halifax, Macklem said the changing trade picture could cause businesses to delay investment and hiring decisions.

He said that if new U.S. tariffs remain in place, the rate of growth for the economy could be roughly halved in the fourth quarter to below one per cent. Macklem said the trade challenges come as the war in the Middle East pushes oil and gasoline prices higher. He said that as things stand now, if oil prices stay near US$100 per barrel, the central bank would expect inflation to edge up in the coming months.

Macklem said the bank has been looking through the direct impact of higher oil prices on inflation so far, but the risk that it becomes more persistent has increased. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2026.

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10. RCMP Mark One Year Since Darius Macdougall Went Missing

Source: CP24

Mounties in southern Alberta marked a sombre anniversary on Monday, saying it's been one year since Darius Macdougall went missing. The six-year-old boy disappeared into the wilderness during a family camping trip in the Crowsnest Pass area on Sept. 21, 2025, and hasn't been seen since. Macdougall and some family members left their campsite at the Island Lake Campground -- about four kilometres south of Crowsnest Pass -- to go for a walk, and when the group returned to the campsite, Macdougall wasn't with them.

After 11 days of searching by hundreds of volunteers from Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan, there was no sign of the boy, and the formal search was called off. "While the extensive search that followed his disappearance has concluded, investigative work continues behind the scenes," said Alberta RCMP in a Monday news release. "Investigators remain focused on reviewing information, pursuing viable leads and identifying any information that may help provide answers about Darius's disappearance."

To date, RCMP have received more than 70 tips from the public, each of which has been investigated. RCMP are encouraging anyone who may have information about Darius's disappearance or whereabouts to come forward. "Information that may seem insignificant could be important to the investigation, and investigators will assess any new information provided," a release said. You can contact the Crowsnest Pass RCMP at 403-562-2866.

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