OTTAWA—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.

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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.

On Wednesday morning, the Alberta Muslim Public Affairs Council (AMPAC) posted a letter on Facebook and Twitter that was delivered to Markaz Ul Islam in southeast Edmonton, addressed on behalf of “real Albertans” and saying, “You and your religion don’t belong here in Alberta.”

It is not clear who wrote the letter, but the Edmonton Police Service confirmed its hate crimes and violent extremism unit is investigating the incident.

“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.

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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.

She said mosques and other institutions are often the target of incidents that don’t make the news but threaten the “sense of peace and security of many mosques and other Islamic organizations.

“When the 2017 shooting occurred, I think it really brought those fears to the forefront,” Nasr said in an interview.

“Given the increase in hate crimes reported by Statistics Canada and others, not just against Muslim communities but against the Jewish community, Sikh community and others, more funding certainly wouldn’t hurt,” she said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hinted last November that more assistance was coming when he spoke about anti-Semitism past and present. The occasion was an apology for the 1939 decision by the then-Liberal government to turn away the ocean liner St. Louis and the more than 900 German Jews onboard. The ship returned to Europe and many of those passengers were murdered in the Holocaust.

Trudeau said that anti-Semitism is still prevalent today, noting that Jewish institutions and neighbourhoods are vandalized. He highlighted how the Pittsburgh attack just weeks earlier left Jewish Canadians feeling vulnerable.

“Places of worship are sacred, and they should be sanctuaries for all faith communities,” Trudeau said.

He noted the “clear calls” to enhance the infrastructure program, adding, “I pledge to you now, we will do more.”

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Tuesday said the government is reviewing recommendations from community groups for further improvements. “I’m a great believer in making further improvements where you can. So I’m hopeful,” Goodale said.

Toronto lawyer Arnold Recht, a member of the Chabad Flamingo synagogue on Bathurst St. reached out to Goodale’s office seeking the government’s help in the wake of the Pittsburgh shooting.

“I was asking what does the government intend on doing. I said it was a dire situation,” Recht said in an interview.

His own synagogue has introduced further security measures in addition to the police officer who is on paid duty at the synagogue on the Sabbath. “Even what we’ve done, that doesn’t guarantee our security,” he said.

While the synagogue attack in Pittsburgh has gone from the headlines, the horror of the incident and the unsettling sense of vulnerability has not diminished for members of Recht’s congregation and those at other synagogues, he said.

“It’s just something that most people cannot get out of their mind,” Recht said.

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