Hamas controls the streets of Toronto now.
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They know it. Jewish Torontonians know it. Everybody knows it.
When you can go into a Jewish neighbourhood and put on a display to support terrorists who orchestrated the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on the Gaza border, slaughtering 1,200 Jews, and police arrest a reporter, it’s clear who the boss is.
And the Jewish community has rightfully had enough.
“Following the shameful and caustic displays of hate witnessed this weekend, Torontonians deserve some answers from their leaders,” said Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s director of research and advocacy. “Have they thrown in the towel and acquiesced to the hateful mobs who have been holding our city hostage? Are they content with the city being referred to internationally as a city where antisemitism is rampant?”
In Mayor Olivia Chow’s Toronto, police arrest and harass journalists who cover antisemitic protests instead of the pro-Hamas, terror sympathizers. Toronto routinely bends a knee to those calling for the death of Jews and turns a blind eye to constant intimidation from masked thugs who — in the name of Palestine — operate unimpeded.
They can block streets to protest, pray or intimidate people anytime they choose. They can terrify moms at daycare, call in bomb threats to schools, shoot them up, scrawl Swastikas and assault people at will.
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Just before Toronto Police frogmarched a Jewish journalist in handcuffs with an escort of cheering pro-Hamas protesters waving Palestinian flags in celebration Sunday, an officer said something peculiar.
“I am the law.”
The Toronto Police officer told journalist Ezra Levant, of Rebel News, he could not continue trying to document something he felt was a “hate crime,” because he was trying to “incite” the crowd. But Levant is not the only journalist to be manhandled for merely trying to cover an event on a Toronto street.
Rebel journalist David Menzies, independent journalist Caryma Sa’d, her photographer and I have been pushed around. This is how journalists are treated in Gaza and Tehran; it’s not safe to cover these things.
Hamas is in charge in Trudeau’s Canada. We saw that on Friday in Montreal, where cars and an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were burned. Journalists were assaulted.
Toronto Police have not yet commented on something as absurd as the time officers delivered coffee to the Pro-Hamas supporters trying to block an overpass in a Jewish part of Toronto. The police’s job is to apply the law, not be the law.
Police, who have pandered to those who support terrorists and throw the book at those who try to document them, have demonstrated a pro-Hamas bias.
“What will it take for our authorities to act, if making a mockery of Canadian rights and freedoms by cosplaying as a terrorist to intimidate peaceful protesters provokes no response?” asked Robertson. “Now is the time for our authorities to act, or the public will be left with no choice but to recognize Toronto for what it is denigrating into — an antisemitic city.”
It might be too late. Chow not only snubbed an Oct. 7 Gaza slaughter vigil but has skipped many Jewish invitations.
Some officers seem tone-deaf out there.
Saying dismissively it’s “just a chair,” a police officer didn’t concern himself with a display of a bloody chair, with a masked person representing Hamas leader Yayha Sinwar in his final moments before being killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.
Instead, they arrested Levant, 52, on a public sidewalk in his own neighbourhood as he tried to take a picture of the chair and antisemitic symbols and signs held by protesters who used keffiyehs to cover their faces.
Hamas is the law!
“Shocking to see images today of someone cosplaying as Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader behind the Oct. 7 massacre, in a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood in Toronto,” said the Centre of Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) in an X post.
Meanwhile, the same officer, Staff Sgt. Jeff MacDuff, who arrested Levant was seen just prior laughing with a pro-Hamas protester. Moments later, came the now infamous image of Levant being hauled off to jail in handcuffs. The optics are gross and reminiscent of Kristallnacht in 1938 Germany where Jews were rounded up.
“I was arrested because I am a Jew,” Levant declared, adding for weeks, police have been acting like “concierge” to those coming to a Jewish neighbourhood to intimidate and demoralize residents.
There was no justification to handcuff Levant, or take him to a police station where he was searched and put in a cell. He has the same rights as Hamas supporters. Theirs were respected. His were violated.
“It’s odious,” said Levant, who was invited on FOX News. “It’s tantamount to the KKK burning a cross outside a Black church.”
“Why are they allowed into a Jewish neighbourhood to harass those at a peaceful gathering?” asked Councillor James Pasternak Monday. “This targeted hate will continue endlessly unless there are consequences and the law is enforced.”
It’s not enforced on those calling for harm to Jews. In fact, in the name of “keeping the peace,” the police protect them.
The ineffective strategy is failing and escalating with each week.
“About a month ago, the anti-Israel mob showed up doing everything possible to incite and harass the Jewish community,” said Pasternak. “There are violations of the Criminal Code and city bylaws by the anti-Israel group, and yet there is little enforcement action taken.”
The world sees what’s happening.
“If a Jewish man wants to take a picture of pro-Palestinian protesters, it’s a breach of the peace,” American podcaster Tim Pool posted to his 2 million followers.
Politico Mike Cernovich posted to his 1.3-million followers that “Trudeau is having political enemies arrested.”
“The arrest of Ezra Levant Sunday was absurd and unjust,” Toronto Sun columnist Lorrie Goldstein posted to X, adding it’s “equivalent to staging a tribute to a dead KKK leader” in a black neighbourhood.
Calling out the taunts of “free flights to Amsterdam,” author Dahlia Kurtz posted to X “a Jewish neighbourhood in Toronto tries to put on a rally for hostages, the mob invades it dressed like terrorists ready for combat” but “police tell the Jews to move back. Hey, police, do we have to sit at the back of the bus too?”
“This is a disgrace, as is the officer who cuffed him,” added author and journalist Tasha Kheiriddin.
There is a big problem brewing.
Police need to recalculate their strategy before next Sunday to avoid Christie Pits-style flare up.
You can’t have one side feeling they can do whatever they want, while the other side is patronized and taunted, and expect it to work out well.
Take back the rudder from Hamas — and do it fast.