WARMINGTON: Better late than never, Toronto cops now ban anti-Israel protests in Jewish hood

· Toronto Sun

It took more than 50 rounds of gunshots fired into synagogues for Toronto Police and war breaking out in Iran to do what they should have done two and a half years ago.

But better late than never.

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“Due to the changing security landscape in Toronto in recent weeks, including increased volatility and heightened fear in our communities, demonstrations moving into residential neighbourhoods in the Bathurst and Sheppard area presents an unacceptable risk to public safety,” Toronto Police spokesperson Nadine Ramadan tells the Toronto Sun.

“As a result, demonstrators will not be permitted to enter residential streets in this area.”

And they started adhering to that and enforcing that this Sunday past.

This came to light as a result of Toronto lawyer and independent journalist Caryma Sa’d capturing on video the moment police articulated this new rule to the very pro-Palestine protesters who came up to that infamous corner. Toronto Police Insp. Israel (Izzy) Bernardo, who Sa’d called “even handed” and “professional” in her experience, set the terms very clearly Sunday.

“Are you going to have flags, signs, face coverings, keffiyeh? That’s a protest,” he explained to the pro-Palestinian collective.

“If you are walking about your business to get to your car, that’s a different story,” he said, adding that wearing a keffiyeh in that context is fine.

Protesting in Jewish neighbourhoods banned by cops

But using a keffiyeh to cover one’s face, as one of the protesters who was questioned was doing, is stepping over into this category of protest and that on a residential street is no longer permitted. This means no more opportunity for anybody to use this as cover to steal mezuzahs from the front door of Jewish homes or scrawl swastikas on the sidewalk.

“We are not splitting hairs. If that’s a game you want to play, we will have a conversation,” said veteran cop Bernardo, who was concise in his language that there are to me “no protests on residential streets – in the area of Bathurst and Sheppard,” and if people don’t follow that and take to “inciting people that live there” then “we are going to have a conversation.”

This does not mean the people can’t protest there. It just means they can’t spread out into the neighbourhood as many have done for more than two years.

“Lawful demonstrations at the main intersection and along the main streets of Bathurst St. and Sheppard Ave. West may continue,” explained Ramadan. “This is a targeted response to specific concerns and a measured step to reduce the risk of escalation and maintain public safety.”

One of the worries, post the shooting of three synagogues in the GTA, is a Bondi Beach-style murder spree like Sydney, Australia suffered.

From the first anti-Israel protests in Toronto and Mississauga post Oct. 7, 2023, there were many, including myself, who warned that if you give people calling for global intifada and for Jews to be wiped out of Israel from the river to the sea an inch, they will take much more.

Under political pressure, police catered to the protest crowd and let them take these corners and streets without permits. Many times, people who stood up to them or walked on the same sidewalk to protest the event, were the ones who ended up in handcuffs.

Councillor Pasternak complained for years

It appears that appeasement is over. No one is happier than local Councillor James Pasternak, who has been calling for this very thing from the beginning of this madness.

“While this is overdue, I appreciate Toronto Police stopping protestors from entering the local Jewish neighbourhood to harass and incite local residents,” Pasternak told the Toronto Sun .

“It is about time the Charter rights of the local residents are protected and not just the mobs on our streets. Police should be thanked for this action.”

There was a lot of politics behind all of this.

“Over the years, any time I have a conversation with Toronto Police, I emphasize the fact that Charter rights are for everyone and not just the protesters,” said Pasternak. “What about our rights to go about our daily lives without harassment, intimidation, and incitement?”

Pasternak would routinely ask, “Why do the mobs seem to have all the rights?”

This all came to a head when Mayor Olivia Chow told Newstalk 1010’s John Moore that Chief of Police Myron Demkiw was being prevented from laying charges because of a “lawyer at headquarters,” to which the top cop said this was not true . No one ever got to the bottom of that, but no one can say the new directive is from that same lawyer because that counsellor is not at this time running that department.

None of this is rocket science. Protesters of anything should not be able to harass citizens, block roadways, trespass or go into residential areas or attend places of worship. They should only be protesting on the public square at City Hall or Queen’s Park in a public park.

But if they try to defy Demkiw on this, there will be no complaining that they were not warned.

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