Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner is once again calling on the Toronto police to crack down on “hate-motivated offences,” citing “mob intimidation” during the anti-Israel protest at the Eaton Centre on Boxing Day.
Kerzner sent a letter to Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw and Toronto Police Services Board Chair Shelley Carroll this week calling on the force to take action.
The Dec. 30 letter, which Kerzner posted to social media, is a follow up to a longer letter that he sent to Demkiw and Carroll earlier in the month to express concern about “special holidays” being impacted by “incidents of hate.”
“I am writing to you both once again with urgency to underscore the need for firm, consistent and visible enforcement of hate, intimidation and harassment-motivated offences by the Toronto Police Service,” reads the Dec. 30 letter.
“Recent incidents, including mob intimidation and harassment at the Eaton Centre just last week, as well as ongoing and intimidating marches through residential neighbourhoods, near Bathurst and Sheppard, are completely unacceptable.”
Kerzner shared his Dec. 11 letter on social media two days before Christmas. In his most recent letter, Kerzner said residents are living in “a state of heightened fear and anxiety” and called on the Toronto police to rethink its approach to protests and marches.
“When such incidents occur repeatedly and without visible consequences, it substantially undermines public confidence in the rule of law and in the institutions responsible for upholding it,” he wrote.
A Toronto Police Service (TPS) spokesperson told The Epoch Times it has managed more than 800 demonstrations related to the conflict in the Middle East, resulting in nearly 500 arrests and more than 1,000 criminal charges linked to protests and hate crimes in the past two years.
The TPS Hate Crime Unit was also tripled in size as part of a service-wide response to the ongoing issue, the spokesperson said in a Dec. 31 email.
“At a time of heightened global unrest, Toronto Police officers have been on the ground day after day, supported by police leadership, with a clear purpose: protecting public safety,” the spokesperson wrote. “That includes enforcing the law and making arrests when criminal conduct occurs. Frontline officers are trained to make difficult decisions and operate within the limits of the laws as they are written, while upholding the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Those decisions are based on evidence and legal thresholds, not commentary.”
Demkiw has previously addressed the issue of anti-Semitism and reiterated his stance during the fifth annual Hanukkah ceremony at the Toronto Police headquarters on Dec. 17, emphasizing that combatting hate is a shared responsibility of both law enforcement and society.
“This is something all Torontonians, all Canadians should be paying attention to and participating in confronting,” Demkiw said at the event. “And for police, part of this work includes our presence in the community.”
He also promised an “increased and visible police presence” on city streets throughout Hanukkah. Toronto police also said in an Oct. 3 social media post that it planned to ramp up police presence at synagogues, and other places of worship ahead of the second anniversary of the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
Demkiw said stopping hate requires “ongoing training and dialogue, including ensuring officers receive essential education” on hate crimes and anti-Semitism.
“It also includes prevention and proactive measures, like the meaningful time our officers spend in communities, visiting synagogues, schools, listening and understanding,” he said. “Keeping our communities safe is a mission we carry out year-round, 24/7 and one where the contributions of community leaders, our members and consultative committees are truly invaluable.”
The Epoch Times also contacted the Toronto Police Services Board for comment but did not receive a response before publication time.
Anti-Israel Protests
The Boxing Day protest at the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto was marked by a large group of protesters inside the mall waving flags while some chanted “We demand an intifada” into megaphones. Intifada is an Arabic term used to describe rebellion or a resistance movement against Israel.
Several videos of the protest were posted to social media showing participants waving Palestine Liberation Organization flags while chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
The protest was the latest in a long line of anti-Israel demonstrations in Canada since Hamas attacked Israel. Many have taken place in Toronto. Masked activists have conducted a number of anti-Israel rallies on city streets, including through Jewish neighbourhoods, such as the Nov. 16 march in a residential area near Bathurst and Sheppard referenced in Kerzner’s letter.
Other demonstrations have included a gathering outside of Roy Thomson Hall during Toronto International Film Festival in September, a large protest on Oct. 4 at Sankofa Square, and a pro-Palestinian march outside Mount Sinai Hospital last February.
A video captured during the demonstration showed several protesters scaling scaffolding in front of the hospital, while another ascended to a ledge adjacent to a bank of windows to display a large Palestinian flag, as the crowd below shouted, chanted, and cheered.
Meanwhile, there has been a rise in shootings and arsons across Canada that specifically target Jewish facilities and businesses, including molotov cocktails thrown at synagogues and empty Jewish schools being sprayed with bullets.
Anti-Semitic incidents have skyrocketed since the 2023 attack, according to figures from Statistics Canada. Anti-Semitic occurrences rose 71 percent between 2022 and 2023 for a total of 900 reported crimes last year. Jewish-related hate crimes have risen steadily over the past four years with 331 incidents in 2020, 492 in 2021, and 527 in 2022.
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