Toronto鈥檚 most recent car attack was a targeted crime, not a mass聽attack
On April 15, Toronto once again experienced a soft-target vehicular ramming attack when a passenger vehicle on the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) campus.
Almost exactly seven years ago, in the , Alek Minassian intentionally . Motivated by individual extremism with a basis in , Minassian killed and injured 16 more.
History seems to repeat itself in Toronto, with car attacks being a means of choice for criminals. Regardless of whether the latest car attack is a terror-related mass attack or an individually targeted crime, the intentional hit-and-run incident shows these attacks have become a grim reality facing the city.
A traumatic event
The attack took place on a Tuesday afternoon just before 2 p.m. on Nelson Mandela Walk in the heart of the downtown TMU campus. The public walkway was designated as a pedestrian-only space, located between the campus library and an academic building.
Investigators have , and have described it as an .
Police statements allege and hit several people, including innocent bystanders. , with one sustaining serious but not life-threatening injuries. All are expected to recover.
The suspect remains at large, and other than indicating that the attack was intentional, Toronto Police Service has not yet elaborated on motives or the relationship between the intended victim and the suspect.
The day after the attack, TMU issued a statement and mentioned that campus-based supports had been made available for anyone .
Barriers against future attacks
In the hours after the attack, immediate actions were taken to plug the gap the attacker exploited to drive onto the pedestrian walkway, and temporary planter-type barriers were placed at the attack site.
TMU also issued a second . It acknowledged the troubling event while attempting to quell campus safety concerns:
鈥淭he university is discussing with the City of Toronto what additional safety measures can be implemented to ensure pedestrian walkways used by TMU community members and the public are safe while maintaining accessibility for emergency vehicles.鈥
Conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians
A dedicated attacker exploited a gap where a car was able to enter a zone dedicated to pedestrians. In hindsight, the easy question to ask is: why wasn鈥檛 that gap plugged beforehand?
This sidesteps the ubiquitous nature of the problem, which is that potential conflict between vehicles and pedestrians exists almost everywhere in a complex urban environment.
In 2020, to enhance quality, safety and accessibility. Standard traffic management activities to reduce conflict 鈥 referred to as 鈥溾 鈥 were in place prior to the incident.
The walkway had a visually separate streetscape from the traffic lanes of nearby Gerrard Street: the interlocked brick surface, decorative trees and benches clearly indicated it was not a street for cars.
In addition, posted signs indicated the area was for pedestrian use only. Barriers such as bollards, fences, cement trash cans and large planters were present at points along the walkway.
In this case, a criminal found one gap in protection and intentionally ignored and evaded all of the elements that were in place to separate people from cars.
Targeted mass attacks
The 2025 TMU car attack highlighted a problem that is not new to Toronto: targeted criminal activity that can cascade into a mass casualty incident.
In 2019, four people were wounded at Nathan Phillips Square when gunfire erupted during the celebrations for the . This was another example of a targeted attack that almost resulted in a wider mass casualty incident.
More than 100,000 people were in the area near the shooting, and it was determined , not a mass attack on the celebration itself.
While Toronto鈥檚 most recent vehicular attack at TMU had the elements of a mass attack, it was apparently a targeted crime focused on one individual. Nonetheless these incidents, and not just terrorist-type mass attacks, have the potential to result in a mass casualty incident.
By Associate Professor , Disaster and Emergency Management, 91亚色
