Toronto Police Ban Protests in Neighbourhood Targeted by Anti-Israel Activists

The Toronto Police Service says protests will no longer be allowed in a residential neighbourhood of the city, days after incidents of anti-Semitic placards were displayed in the area.

Pro-Palestine and anti-Israel activists have regularly gathered at the intersection of Bathurst and Sheppard, a neighbourhood in North York with a large Jewish population, since the 2023 Hamas attacks against Israel and the ensuing war. Protest marches have also taken place in the area’s residential streets.

Toronto police advised protesters at the major intersection of Bathurst and Sheppard on March 22 that demonstrations would no longer be tolerated in the adjacent residential area.

“No protests on residential streets in the area of Bathurst and Sheppard,” one officer said, as first reported by independent journalist Caryma Sa’d. One protester accused police of “discrimination” in the video posted on X.

Toronto police Deputy Chief Frank Barredo made comments about the new rule at a press conference on March 24.

“The change is not so much about curtailing Charter rights any more than absolutely necessary,” Barredo told reporters. “We take limitations on that very seriously, and we think at this time that it is a reasonable limitation, as afforded to us by Section 1 of the Charter to limit the extent to which protest occurs.”

Section 1 refers to the “reasonable limits” that can be set on rights and freedoms.

Barredo said people would still be allowed to protest along Bathurst and Sheppard, but police will prevent movement inside residential areas.

“We will physically block them, and if they try to disobey that instruction, they will be arrested and charged,” Barredo said.

Barredo said the force has considered obtaining an injunction from a judge to limit protests in the area, adding that it is “not something that is necessarily easily available or even appropriate.”

‘Glorified Terrorism’

Toronto police Chief Superintendent Katherine Stephenson, speaking alongside Barredo, said approximately 20 protesters have been arrested so far at that location. She also said there’s an ongoing investigation into wilful promotion of hatred related to the display of certain signs.

Days earlier, police said on social media they became aware of anti-Semitic signs being displayed during a protest at the Bathurst-Sheppard intersection. Investigators with the force’s hate crime unit were consulting with the attorney general on March 16 about whether to press charges for the promotion of hatred under the Criminal Code, the post said.

The related incident apparently took place the preceding weekend. Protesters displayed anti-Semitic placards, including one depicting an undressed and emaciated orthodox Jewish man emerging from a cavern who says “Has Iran stopped?” This is an apparent reference to the armed conflict between Israel and Iran. Another sign displayed rats around a Star of David.

This led Jewish advocacy groups to write a letter to Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw to ask that incitement of hatred laws be enforced.

“This weekend, extremist protestors openly made threats of violence, glorified terrorism, and displayed imagery that portrays Jewish people as sub-human in terms reminiscent of Nazi incitement,” wrote the groups B’nai Brith Canada, the Centre for Israeli and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), and the United Jewish Appeal of Greater Toronto.

“If imagery portraying Jews as vermin and celebrating the elimination of the Jewish state does not meet the threshold for enforcement under Canada’s hate propaganda laws, what does?”

CIJA said the new police directive banning protests in the residential areas near Bathurst and Sheppard is a “meaningful and long-overdue step.”

“But it must be paired with consistent enforcement and protection for our community, not just here in Toronto, but across the city and beyond,” the group said on social media on March 24.

Toronto city councillor for the area, James Pasternak, said he planned to bring forward a motion to city council this week to support the residents living near Bathurst and Sheppard and call for the council to condemn hateful chants at rallies.

The federal MP for York Centre, Conservative Roman Baber, welcomed the new police enforcement on residential streets but said the incitement of violence should also be banned at the intersection.

Demkiw announced other new measures on March 24 to deal with heightened political violence in the city and in response to major attacks targeting the Jewish community in Australia and the United States in recent months.

“As the biggest municipal police service in Canada, we are operating within an increasingly volatile security environment, global conflicts, extremist ideologies and online radicalization, hostile foreign states, heightened polarization,” Demkiw said.

Toronto in recent weeks has seen shooting attacks against synagogues and the U.S. consulate.

Demkiw said the police service is launching the Task Force Guardian which involves the deployment of police officers wearing tactical gear and carrying rifles in tourist areas and near places of worship. The measure is not to respond to a specific threat but to serve as a deterrent and for rapid response, the chief said.

“What it means is we are strategically positioning resources to protect our communities and to be able to respond quickly if necessary,” he said.

Demkiw also announced the creation of a new stand alone counter-terrorism unit with its own analytical capability and dedicated leadership.