Ford suggests immigrants to blame for shooting at Jewish school

Ontario Premier Doug Ford suggested Thursday immigrants to the province were responsible for shooting at a Jewish girls' elementary school in North York last weekend, despite police saying they have little information on the suspects.

Speaking alongside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at an unrelated announcement in Toronto, both leaders condemned the shooting at Bais Chaya Mushka school in the early morning hours Saturday.

"What lunatic goes around shooting up schools? That is just unacceptable," Ford said.

"These guys need to be caught, they need to be punished, they need to be thrown in jail. And I have zero tolerance for this anywhere in Ontario," he continued.

Asked by a reporter about how their governments are defending Jewish communities amid a reported rise in antisemitic hate crimes, Ford implied immigrants were behind the shooting.

"It does not matter what race, what creed, what religion you are from, I would say the exact same thing if it was another community as well. Enough is enough. You are bringing problems from everywhere else in the world, bringing it to Ontario and going after other Canadians," he said.

"That's unacceptable. I have an idea: before you plan on moving to Canada, do not come if you're going to terrorize neighbourhoods like this. It's simple as that. You want to be a resident of Ontario? You get along with everyone," Ford continued.

He went on to say diversity is Ontario's "number one selling point around the world" and people from 110 different nationalities have settled here.

"And guess what? Ninety-nine per cent of the people get along. There are wars going on all around the world but we still get along," he said.

Toronto police's guns and gangs task force and hate crime unit are investigating the shooting. Investigators, however, have not publicly identified any suspects.

CBC Toronto reached out to Ford's office to ask if the premier had any further information about the shooting or whether he would like to clarify his comments, and received a brief email response.

"The premier was clear, if you are in Ontario, we have zero tolerance for this kind of behaviour. These actions do not reflect Canadian values," said Caitlin Clark, Ford's director of communications.

In a statement Thursday, Toronto police said the investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made.

"Regarding immigration status, this is not information that we track nor do we disclose the immigration status of suspects or victims," a spokesperson said.