Around 5:30 AM on March 10th, police were called to the U.S. consulate in Toronto to investigate reported shots at the consulate and found spent shell casings, with witnesses stating two men exited an SUV and used handguns to shoot at the building which sustained minor damage, but nobody was injured. As a result, the Toronto Police Chief told reporters security would be bolstered around the U.S. and Israeli consulates in Toronto and the embassies in Otawa to prevent future incidents. This shooting follows three separate synagogue shootings in Toronto, though again nobody was hurt. On March 8th, in Oslo, an IED exploded at the U.S. embassy in Norway, and again in New York two men were arrested for terrorism after throwing a homemade bomb at anti-Islam protesters.
For those working at the U.S. Department of State, these developments should certainly be concerning. Although the actions of the few rarely predict the beliefs of the many, it is still clear that U.S. foreign policy decisions are not agreeable to all fashions of people and that, in these cases, people are willing to commit manslaughter if that brings them publicity. In the most direct manner, such actions are deplorable. But, they are taken as a last resort and are oftentimes indicative of how U.S. foreign policy is received.
The United States Department of State has already made statements regarding the issue, acknowledging the incident and reporting that they will work in hand with local law enforcement. The U.S. and Israel will obviously have a stake in maintaining embassies and consulates safe, so these attacks may lead to increased security presence at such sites in order to ensure their continued operation. Of course, almost every time Americans are sent to claim and protect embassies, casualties usually follow. If attacking American embassies is made into a habit, then those in the Middle East are perhaps set for the worst.
International law dictates the safety of diplomatic envoys, and embassies and consulates are no different. It is ultimately up to the host nation to provide protection for these buildings, so it should be expected that Canada would make an attempt to up security around areas where they may predict violence to occur. Though, of course, the American diplomats are only there at the invitation of their host nations, so the option is always on the table for countries to reject American envoys, though such actions would be reprehensible and likely only serve to hurt the host nation.
