Ottawa urged to help protect places of worship
Calls for funding to train religious organizations to respond to threats
When a gunman opened fire in a Pittsburgh synagogue, there were some in the congregation who knew how to react.
That’s because just the previous month, retired FBI agent Brad Orsini had trained leaders at the Tree of Life synagogue for just such a terrifying scenario, teaching them skills to deal with an active shooter, advanced first aid and the survival mantra “run, hide, fight.” It’s believed those newly learned skills helped save lives on a horrific day when 11 worshippers were killed at the synagogue.
“The rabbi changed his protocols and started carrying his cellphone. He was the first one to call 911. He got people out of the front rows that he could. We think training is paramount,” said Orsini, director of Jewish community security for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.
“We basically prepare our organizations to live for three to five minutes prior to law enforcement arriving. We give them options on what to do, like run, hide, fight,” he said in an interview.
Now the federal government is being urged to use the upcoming budget to provide funding for that kind of training for leaders and members of at-risk religious sites here in Canada.
Orsini said it’s critical. In the chaos of a shooting, training kicks in and helps prevent people from being paralyzed with fear, he said.
“We know that a trained mind is going to lead to some sort of action,’ he said. “Our goal is to get our community to commit to action, whether it’s running like hell or hiding or, last resort, fighting back,” said Orsini, who served 28 years with the FBI before taking on his current role.
He said the training is done in stages and includes classroom lectures on situational awareness, active shooter and first aid and then moves to actual drills on evacuations, lockdowns and barricading a room.
“It’s unfortunate but you have to prepare people just like we prepare children for fire drills,” he said.
The Pittsburgh synagogue attack and the 2017 shooting at a Quebec City mosque that killed six awakened many to the potential threat.
“I think it really has exposed for many that we live in a time where this sort of thing is possible and we need to reduce the threat to the extent that we can,” said Steve McDonald, director of policy for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
His organization is pressing for changes to the federal Security Infrastructure Program which provides funding to communities at risk of hate-motivated crime to pay for measures such as surveillance cameras and improved lighting at facilities such as mosques, synagogues and religious schools. In 2016, the federal government doubled funding to $10 million over five years. That extra money was applauded by community groups but in the wake of the recent tragedies, the government is being urged to make further changes to “reflect the new realities of security.”
Taking the lessons from Pittsburgh, Mcdonald’s organization wants Ottawa to allow program funding to be used to pay for life-saving training programs, such as advanced first aid and drills for active shooting scenarios.
“In terms of dollars invested for potential lives saved, training is one of the best things you can do for any community,” McDonald said.
Leila Nasr, communications co-ordinator at the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said her group has not made any recommendations for the coming budget. But she said the program is well used by Muslim communities, especially in the wake of the mosque shooting.