To his mother, Linda, Marc Pinizzotto was “an incredible father, son, husband, coach and friend of many.”
To the people across the country sending condolences and tributes in the wake his death in the line of duty, the Toronto police officer was a hero.
In a tribute to her son posted on social media Friday, Linda Pinizzotto said her family is devastated by his loss, but thankful for the outpouring of grief they have received.
“We are forever sincerely grateful for your heartfelt blessings, wonderful messages of condolence, and kindness,” she wrote. “His passing echoes deep inside us, our loving family is shattered as we search for words.”
Const. Marc Pinizzotto, 43, died after being shot at a fourth-floor apartment building in northwest Toronto Thursday, as officers carried out an investigation into multiple shootings, including one at the U.S. Consulate in March.
Hours after his death, hundreds of officers stood shoulder to shoulder, some wiping their eyes, as a procession carried Pinizzotto’s body from Sunnybrook hospital to the office of the chief coroner. Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw tearfully called him a “hero in life, not death.”
There have been tributes from a number of officials, including Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and Prime Minister Mark Carney.
At the House of Commons Thursday, legislators began question period by grieving the fallen officer, saying Ottawa was supporting the investigation into his killing.
Mayor Chow, who said she’s known Pinizzotto’s mother for years, said she was grateful for the constable’s service, and his family’s grief was shared by the people of Toronto.
Premier Ford extended his condolences to Pinizzotto’s family and colleagues, saying in a post on X that the shooting was “a sobering reminder of the sacrifices and risks faced by police officers across Ontario every day as they work to keep our province safe.”
Several Toronto city councillors and Greater Toronto Area police services also released statements paying tribute to Pinizzotto Thursday. The CN Tower said its bright lights were expected to dim for the first five minutes of every hour on Thursday night.
Pinizzotto’s death came days after Ontario Provincial Police Const. Tarun Bali was struck and killed by a vehicle near the northern Ontario town of Hearst, east of Thunder Bay. A procession transporting Bali to a funeral home in Thornhill was scheduled for Friday morning.
Ontario hockey community feeling loss
Pinizzotto worked relentlessly to protect his community as a dedicated emergency task force officer, and he was just as passionate about hockey, his mother wrote Friday.
The officer was an inspiration to a generation of young Oakville Rangers hockey players, whom he and his brothers helped coach and develop over the better part of a decade, club president John Vedon said.
“That’s about as good a legacy as I think a hockey guy could ever want to have,” he said.
The Ontario Junior Hockey League released a statement Thursday, sending condolences to Pinizotto’s family, colleagues and community, saying his death was also a loss to “the entire hockey world.”
Man facing charges, another still at large: police
Police say 19-year-old Nicholas Bennett faces a first-degree murder charge in connection to Pinizzotto’s death. They say Bennett was shot multiple times in the exchange of gunfire and remains in hospital.
A second suspect, 19-year-old Zara Jabbi, is on the loose. Police say Jabbi is wanted in the consulate shooting and should be considered armed and dangerous.
Police say they expect to provide more information on the investigation in the coming days.
The investigation Toronto police were undertaking Thursday, which looked into multiple shootings, including an incident at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto, has been linked to a recent FBI terrorism arrest.
Last month the FBI arrested Iraqi-Irani Mohammad Al-Saadi, a senior member of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, Kata’ib Hizballah, and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
He is allegedly tied to nearly 20 attacks throughout Europe and the U.S., as well as two attacks in Canada, including the consulate shooting this spring.

As the search for a suspect in the fatal shooting of a 43-year-old Toronto police officer continues, the family of Const. Marc Pinizzotto is grappling with the immeasurable loss — his mother trying to channel the breadth of her grief into a moving homage to her son on Instagram.
In a post on Friday morning, Linda Pinizzotto called him one of her “extraordinary sons” and “everyone’s hero.”
“His passing echoes deep inside us, our loving family is shattered as we search for words. We struggle to find sleep and solace in the darkness as our grief lingers, it is impossible,” she wrote, her pain palpable in the heart wrenching words.
She went on to call him an incredible father, son, husband, coach and friend to many.
“His devastating passing, the cruel heartbreak of reality has brought us to our knees,” she continued. “Our family must find peace, somehow accept and stand proud of his decisions and amazing accomplishments.”
“Marc is our beacon of hope, guiding us with his message to bring an end to violence and unite our brotherhood in a quest for peace,” she added, before thanking Mayor Olivia Chow, Chief Myron Demkiw, the staff at Sunnybrook hospital and all members of the police, fire and paramedic services.
Pinizzotto died after being shot at a fourth-floor apartment building Thursday, as officers carried out an investigation into multiple shootings, including one at the U.S. Consulate in March. It is believed he was the first officer through the door.
Police say 19-year-old Nicholas Bennett faces a first-degree murder charge, while a second suspect, 19-year-old Zara Jabbi, is on the loose.
The Special Investigations Unit has invoked its mandate and said one of the suspects discharged his firearm at Pinizzotto. Thereafter a second officer discharged his firearm and struck Bennett, who is now in the hospital.
Tributes poured in from Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Chow posted on X saying the death of the 18-year police force veteran “is heartbreaking news for our city.”
“There are no words that can ease the pain for the officer’s family, loved ones, and colleagues across the service. This grief is shared across the entire city. Police officers go to work every day knowing the risks, putting themselves in harm’s way to protect others, and today is a devastating reminder of that sacrifice,” she said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford extended his condolences to the family and fellow Toronto police service members on X as well.
“Today is a sobering reminder of the sacrifices and risks faced by police officers across Ontario every day as they work to keep our province safe.”
Pinizzotto’s death came days after Ontario Provincial Police Const. Tarun Bali was struck and killed by a vehicle near the northern Ontario town of Hearst, east of Thunder Bay.
Prime Minister Mark Carney posted a tribute to both fallen officers on X.
“Canada mourns the loss of these brave officers who dedicated their lives to protecting their communities. My prayers are with their loved ones, their fellow officers, and their communities in this time of grief,” he said.
Speaking at a press conference hours after Pinizzotto’s passing in hospital on Thursday, an emotional Chief Demkiw expressed his grief and solidarity with the officer’s family and the larger policing family.
“This loss will have a profound impact on the Toronto police family. Our service, our members, and all members of the larger policing family are deeply saddened,” he said.
“No words can capture the impact on Marc’s family, who expected him to come home today. We, as a service, will support them and each other.”
At a procession Thursday that saw Pinizzotto’s body taken from Sunnybrook hospital to the office of the chief coroner, hundreds of officers stood shoulder to shoulder, some wiping tears from their eyes.
Toronto’s most prominent landmark, the CN Tower, dimmed its bright lights for the first five minutes of every hour on Thursday night in memory of the fallen officer.
With files from The Canadian Press

DUBLIN — Two contrasting ways of dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump are set to politely collide this weekend, when Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney makes his first official visit to Ireland.
Carney has been embroiled in a clash with Trump since taking office last year. The president frequently insults his Canadian counterpart and has even floated the idea of making America’s neighbor to the north its 51st state. In response to the relentless shellacking, the prime minister has taken to promoting the idea of a world in which smaller democracies band together to resist bullying by the big powers.
But that message is unlikely to be embraced fully by Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who is set to meet Carney in Dublin before the Canadian leader travels to his ancestral home in County Mayo. Ireland is a country that is dedicated to schmoozing Washington and is reluctant to do anything that could undermine the great pains it has taken to stay on the U.S. president’s good side.
“We will be resolutely and sincerely pro-Canada. We will just as resolutely avoid saying a syllable that might be construed in any way as critical of Donald Trump or his administration,” an Irish government official helping to plan Carney’s visit told POLITICO.
“We’re all about building bridges and staying out of any unnecessary fights,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to speak frankly about Ireland’s diplomatic realpolitik.
“It wouldn’t be in our interests to criticize any ally or any partner — but particularly not America with Canada in town,” the official added. “We are hugely dependent on staying in America’s good graces and I’m sure Mark Carney understands that well.”
The rationale for Irish obsequiousness is grounded in the reality that Ireland today serves as an American corporate satellite off the coast of Europe.
While Canada is keen to transform its economy to be less dependent on U.S. tech giants, Ireland can’t imagine a world without them. The country is home to nearly 1,000 U.S. multinationals — among them, a Who’s Who of top American tech, pharma and medical companies — who have been wooed here, in part, by low taxes.
That concentration of U.S. firms funds nearly a fifth of Irish wages, even more of its tax base, and has transformed tiny Ireland into an export superpower. Much of the goods produced, particularly in pharma, go back to the U.S. market rather than into the EU, producing one of America’s biggest trade imbalances.
And the Irish tax take from U.S. companies based here keeps hitting record highs despite Trump policies designed to reverse the flow.
While the economic ties that bind Dublin and Washington are fundamental, the Irish have forged more humble links with Ottawa, with only 75 Canadian companies operating from Ireland.
And the Irish haven’t done much to change that dynamic. Ireland is among the EU laggards in ratifying the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the decade-old treaty seeking to boost business between Canada and Europe that has been provisionally in force since 2017.
That status quo may finally change this weekend. After years pledging to complete the CETA’s ratification “soon,” Martin is expected to announce that move during Carney’s visit.
The land of 100,000 welcomes
The Irish are famous for their hospitality, and have used it to their advantage by charming American leaders with Irish roots going back to the ’60s. During past presidential visits to the island, authorities delighted John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and even Barack Obama by highlighting their familial ties to the country. Most recently, County Mayo rolled out the red carpet for Joe Biden, who hails on his mother’s side from Ballina.
The Irish are going much the same distance to dazzle Carney. The prime minister first will be honored at a state dinner in Dublin Castle on Saturday, then attend a series of receptions in Mayo, most crucially in Aghagower, from where his grandparents Robert and Nora Carney emigrated to Quebec in 1925. He’s expected to attend Mass in St. Patrick’s Church in the crossroads village and learn about the Carney clan buried in the adjoining cemetery.
According to the Mayo News, the Canadian leader has a few first cousins and 21 second cousins waiting to meet him; the Irish Times, for its part, puts the count at 22. One of Aghagower’s local business boosters has told Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTÉ, that Carney’s greeting will be “just as huge as JFK and President Biden.”
Underscoring their non-partisan dedication to buttering up foreign leaders, Irish authorities are already at work planning a similarly warm reception for Trump. This September the U.S. president is expected to travel to his golf resort in County Clare, which is hosting the Irish Open.
“This weekend we will give Prime Minister Carney all the admiration and respect we can muster,” the Irish official told POLITICO. “Come September, if he does come for the golf, we’ll do the same for Donald Trump. Protecting our interests means we provide céad míle fáilte [Irish for ‘100,000 welcomes’] to all our guests.”

Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Paris, where he is set to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of the G7 summit next week.
A government official who briefed reporters ahead of the trip framed the meeting as Canada passing the G7 presidency baton to France and said the leaders will likely discuss how to advance a strategic partnership between the two countries.
The prime minister will meet Macron at the Palais de l’Elysée on Friday evening, where the leaders will deliver joint statements.
Carney will also hold a news conference before attending a dinner held by Macron.
Explainer: How close is Carney to achieving his top promises? Here’s a status report
Sen. Peter Boehm, who served as personal representative for prime ministers Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau for six G7 summits, said Carney’s pre-summit visit with Macron offers an opportunity for the two leaders to strategize.
He added that Carney is expected to demonstrate “pragmatic diplomacy” at the international event, given how his recent Davos speech drew widespread international interest.
In his speech at the World Economic Forum in January, Carney said the world has entered a risky new age of great power rivalries and that Canada is working to expand non-U.S. trade in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies.
The bilateral meeting could be one of the last between the two leaders, as Macron’s second term in office is set to end in May 2027. Boehm said the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains will mark Macron’s tenth and final G7 summit as president.
The G7 member hosting the summit is responsible for setting priorities for the year and organizing ministerial meetings.
The government of France says priorities at the summit will include settling major geopolitical crises, including through G7 support to Ukraine, crime and online protection for children.
Opinion: Europe is flailing, so why would Canada hitch its wagon to the EU?
Earlier this year, French lawmakers approved a bill banning social media for children under 15. The idea of setting a minimum age for use of the platforms has gained momentum across Europe.
The Liberal government introduced its own online safety legislation this week. If passed, it would require social media companies to block access for kids under 16, though platforms will be able to obtain an exemption if they put sufficient safeguards in place.
Bill C-34, introduced Wednesday in the House of Commons, would also regulate the companies behind AI chatbots by imposing on them a duty to act responsibly. That includes measures to lower the risk of chatbots communicating harmful content and putting in place crisis intervention protocols for cases involving self-harm, suicide or violence.
Macron applauded the move on social media Thursday, saying “thanks for joining the movement.”
Looking ahead to the summit, Boehm said there’s always some carry-on elements from previous years.
“The discussions at Kananaskis on artificial intelligence, for example, and on the global economy will have an impact on the discussions at Evian as well,” he said.
A Canadian government official said this week there will likely not be a comprehensive final communiqué from leaders at the end of the summit.
They said people can instead expect issue-specific statements from leaders throughout the event.
Boehm said the decision to publish several individual declarations, rather than one, is likely due to Trump.
“I think that’s a very big factor, because what’s the point of trying to get consensus when what you’re doing is watering down what you’ve got and then you’re not credible,” he said, adding that statements could be about online harms, AI or various global issues.
Boehm said the geopolitical scene will also be a discussion at the summit, given the ongoing war in the Middle East while the U.S. Agency for International Development has been “gutted” by the Trump administration.
France is Canada’s third-largest merchandise export market in the European Union and its fifth-largest source of foreign investment.

The federal government said Thursday that it is introducing new legislation to stop the import of goods made with forced labour – the latest in a series of measures aimed at addressing U.S. concerns as Ottawa looks to strike a trade deal with Washington.
Last week, the Trump administration said it would impose tariffs on 60 countries, including Canada, for allegedly not doing enough to address forced labour in their supply chains. The move was widely seen as a bid to rebuild parts of the administration’s tariff wall that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down earlier this year.
The proposed U.S. tariffs have a carve-out that means they won’t apply to products compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, which covers most Canadian goods. But Ottawa’s quick response suggests an eagerness to demonstrate alignment with Washington. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand announced Thursday the new forced labour legislation would be tabled in the coming days.
It’s the second apparent move in recent weeks by Canada to soothe U.S. trade concerns.
Last week, The Globe and Mail reported that Ottawa was preparing to direct the federal broadcast and telecommunications regulator to scrap rules requiring foreign streaming services to help fund local news and niche broadcasters. This was a trade irritant for the U.S. because of the costs it imposes on American companies, such as Netflix and Amazon.
Analysis: Trump’s latest comments on the USMCA evidence of his conflicting views on trade
Prime Minister Mark Carney has said the Trump administration has a list of around 30 issues it wants Canada to address in order to reach some sort of resolution to the trade war.
Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade, said on Thursday that he had spoken with his counterpart U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer a number of times in recent weeks to discuss ways Canada could address U.S. complaints about various Canadian policies.
“We’re doing the important work of answering some of the long-standing concerns that the United States has publicly spoken about in terms of non-tariff barriers,” Mr. LeBlanc said at the U.S.-Canada Summit hosted by Royal Bank of Canada and the Eurasia Group in Toronto.
“I had a sense that ambassador Greer and his colleagues saw the progress that they have been looking for.”
Canada previously pledged to the U.S. that it would ban imports of products made with forced labour as part of negotiations that led to the USMCA, signed in 2018.
But the U.S. has complained that Canada is not doing enough to enforce its own rules – most recently in the 2026 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, which is seen as the bible of U.S. trade concerns.
In late 2024, the former Trudeau government pledged to create an oversight agency to block foreign goods made with forced labour, measures it said would increase the onus on importers to demonstrate their shipments are free of coerced work. It did not follow through.
Opinion: North American free trade is gone, dead and buried
Mr. Carney, speaking to reporters Thursday at an unrelated announcement in Toronto, acknowledged Canada has had problems policing imports made with forced labour.
He said the new legislation is an effort to more effectively implement safeguards to stop goods made with coerced labour.
“We have a very strong legal framework and standards and responsibilities,” he said. But, the Prime Minister added, Canada has been “less effective in fully enforcing those, and some of that relates to how the responsibilities are structured legally, some of it relates to resources.”
Stephen Pike, a Toronto-based lawyer with Gowling WLG and co-leader of the firm’s environmental, social and governance advisory services practice, said it’s possible the new legislation could include mandatory human rights due diligence requirements, similar to laws already in force in France, Germany and Norway. These laws require big companies to identify, prevent and mitigate human-rights risks throughout their operations and supply chains. He said this could be quite onerous for companies, depending on how it’s structured.
Another possibility, Mr. Pike said, would a “rebuttable presumption” approach, similar to the U.S. Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, under which goods from designated regions or entities would be presumed to be produced with forced or child labour unless importers can demonstrate otherwise.
Ottawa has made a number of concessions to Washington over the past year to try to move trade talks forward and get some relief for Canadian industries, such as automobiles, industrial metals and wood products, that are being hit by tariffs. This includes scrapping the digital services tax and removing most of the retaliatory tariffs Ottawa placed on U.S. products last year.
Ottawa has also tightened its own tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from overseas – partly to protect the Canadian industry and partly to address U.S. concerns about Chinese metals entering North American supply chains through Canada.
So far, these moves haven’t secured any tariff relief. But trade talks are once again heating up ahead of the six-year review of the USMCA, which is meant to take place on July 1.
The three countries have the option to renew the agreement for 16 years, although officials from all three countries have suggested this is unlikely. If they can’t agree to an extension, the agreement will remain in place but move into a period of annual reviews for 10 years. Any of the countries can also withdraw from the deal with six months notice.
Whatever happens to the USMCA itself, it’s becoming clear that any settlement of trade frictions will likely involve separate deals between Washington and Ottawa and Washington and Mexico City, Mr. LeBlanc told the Toronto audience.
“I would expect that we’ll have bilateral arrangements between Canada and the United States, between the United States and Mexico, sort of adjacent to the trilateral framework,” he said.
This echoes comments by Mr. Greer that the U.S. wants to maintain the “pillars” of the USMCA while layering separate bilateral deals with Canada and Mexico on top. In effect, the USMCA would remain the rulebook for trade, subject to annual reviews, but Mexico and Canada could strike separate arrangements with Washington, potentially trading bilateral concessions for relief from sectoral tariffs.
Mr. LeBlanc’s remarks on Thursday were the most clear he has been about the likely path forward for trade talks.
“If those [bilateral] agreements resolve issues that all three countries are trying to resolve, I’m hopeful that we might at that point have the extension [of the USMCA]. But if not, we’ll continue to do what’s necessary to preserve the trilateral framework,” Mr. LeBlanc said.
U.S. ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra and former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer – who led the U.S. trade negotiating team during President Donald Trump’s first term in office – also spoke at the conference in Toronto. Both offered a fairly optimistic take on the Canada-U.S. relationship and the odds of arriving at some sort of trade deal.
Mr. Hoekstra sought to reframe Mr. Trump’s remarks a day earlier that the U.S. does not need anything from Canada and may not renew the USMCA.
“You maybe don’t like the way the President says it,” he said. “But what he’s saying is we’re open to offers. Make your case.”
Mr. Hoekstra said the Trump administration knows it needs things from international partners, even as it looks to reshore key industries and build up U.S. manufacturing. Canada, he said, can be the preferred partner across a range of industries if it can make the argument to Washington.
Mr. Lighthizer said he thought Ottawa and Washington would be able to reach some sort of trade deal, although it would not be a return to zero tariffs.
“Nobody here has a grandchild in whose lifetime America is going to be free trade, right? It’s not going to happen,” he said.