If you peered out of your home’s window, it may have looked like something from a horror movie.
This gaggle of people looked like a militia from Gaza: Their heads, faces and eyes are all covered as they walked in unison along a quiet residential Toronto street, while chanting anti-Israel and anti-Jewish slogans.
“Hang your head in shame,” wrote Jordan Peterson on X. “This is 1933 Nazi Germany level Pathology.”
It certainly stood out in North York on Sunday.
Once a demonstrator is on a residential street with his or her face covered by a keffiyeh and wearing sunglasses so no one can recognize them, they can no longer be called a peaceful counter-protester. It sure seems like harassment, intimidation and anti-Semitism.
An in-your-face version of it.
“You are a baby killer, that’s all you are. That’s what you do,” says a woman to another woman in a video recorded on Hove St. on Sunday, just an hour after the United Jewish Appeal’s Walk With Israel.
“You are supporting genocide,” says a man. “You are a filthy Zionist rat, that’s all you are.”
All of this is on video and within the sight of Toronto Police, who were riding on bikes alongside these mystery disrupters.
“Come officers, do something,” one neighbour says.
The officers were keeping an eye on the interlopers, trying to get them to move along. There were no arrests.
Hove is a quiet residential street with families just west of Bathurst St. and just off Sheppard Ave. Those who live there had never seen anything like this. This seemed to be a provocation.
About 30 anti-Israel participants made their way onto this street wearing red and white or black and white keffiyeh head scarves and literally got right in the faces of people walking there.
“To have roving mobs going through neighbourhoods to harass Jewish or any residents is the sum of all fears for any city,” said Councillor James Pasternak. “This outrageous and (allegedly) illegal behaviour must be met by the full force of the law and our criminal justice system. Current laws, hate and criminal, are outdated and they must updated so we give police the tools they need to stop this madness.”
It’s disturbing and not the Toronto we remember while growing up.
So far Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have not responded to requests for a comment.
Toronto Police are on this.
“Police received one report about a theft following a confrontation between protesters and participants of the walk, who were returning to their vehicle on Hove St. A hat worn by a participant is alleged to have been taken by a protester. No assaults or injuries have been reported,” said Toronto Police spokesperson Stephanie Sayer. “We are investigating.”
It won’t be easy. It’s hard to tell who’s who because of what they are wearing. But those outfits could end up being what gets them arrested.
Section 351(2) of the Criminal Code of Canada says that “everyone who, with intent to commit an indictable offence, has his face masked or coloured or is otherwise disguised is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years.”
Police have the laws and the power to arrest these cowardly thugs.
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Meanwhile, a man in Wolfie’s Deli told me he was “swarmed” by about 20 people and ended up with a broken thumb. Toronto Police are looking into it.
Earlier, I saw this crowd marching up Hove past Pasternak’s office – just after a similar crew also made their way through a ravine just north of Sheppard and breached their way into where the Jewish participants were finishing up their peaceful walk. Toronto Police quickly escorted them out of the area.
In total, six people were arrested that day.
This would be a good case for the hate squad to pursue. There were also other concerning images from Sunday’s event. At the corner of Bathurst and Sheppard, there was a woman holding up a swastika and there are pictures of some young guys appearing to stand on a mannequin draped in an Israeli flag.
“We think all of these things should be investigated,” said Israel Now’s Meir Weinstein, whose team shot video and pictures of a lot of these activities. “People should not be bothered in their neighbourhoods because they are Jewish.”
But they were being bothered. And so far, little is being done about it.