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The banning of protests in a Jewish neighbourhood in North York proved to be easier said than done.

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Toronto Police found out about that.

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They gave it their best try. Still, pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel demonstrators did their darndest to defy last week’s edict from Insp. Israel “Izzy” Bernardo that forbade them from going into residential areas near Bathurst St. and Sheppard Ave.

While they didn’t achieve their ultimate goal thanks to robust efforts by cops to stop them, several dozen still managed to make area residents feel uncomfortable.

“Remember, this is the Sunday before Passover,” said Meir Weinstein of Israel Now. “This really disrupted people.”

It was profane and mean out there. It was surreal. The one protester who seemed to be ushered along was a man wearing a full niqab while donning a pride-style rainbow flag. All of this is happening in what should be a neighbourhood living in peace and tranquility. It hasn’t been like that at this corner for years.

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Toronto is a city where police have established a new counter-terrorism unit and Task Force Guardian because of “heightened polarization” and the influence of “hostile foreign actors” here. What the hell happened to us? Why do the leaders stand for any of this?

Despite warning, police made no arrests

“Enough is enough,’ said Councillor James Pasternak. “This harassment and incitement and draining of precious police resources has to be stopped.”

But how will they do that if protesters won’t listen.

The participants were told they would be charged if they violated this ban, although police on Monday said there were no arrests. As lawyer and independent journalist Caryma Sa’d indicated, police stopped many challenges to their control of the area and managed to keep a protest march on the sidewalks of the main thoroughfares without it entering residential streets.

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Insp. Avelino Carvalho, Staff Sgt. Jeff MacDuff and their team, said Sa’d, worked hard to make sure of that. This, however, did not stop the crowd from ignoring the police and marching in front of Jewish sites protected by an anti-protest bubble zone.

“The mob should have never been allowed to cross from the east side of Bathurst to the west side (since) that’s when the trouble started,” said Pasternak. “True, they were blocked from side streets, but they walked past synagogues, a Jewish school and Jewish-owned businesses (and a Jewish retirement residence) in an intimidating way. Sheppard Ave. was a chaotic mess.”

Situation in North York ‘unacceptable’

At one point B’nai Brith CEO Simon Wolle, captured in a video by Sa’d, emotionally asked a police officer in a vehicle why they were not enforcing the ban.

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“What transpired yesterday (Sunday) at Bathurst and Sheppard was unacceptable,” Wolle said on Monday. “Protesters were allowed to intimidate and harass members of the Jewish community and Jewish institutions.”

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Many of Toronto’s Jewish citizens are fed up with the non-stop barrage of hate and want authorities to hold the culprits accountable.

“The days of Jewish Torontonians soft-peddling this issue ended when those synagogues were victims of terrorism this month,” said human rights and Jewish community advocate Marty York, who grew in this neighbourhood and understands their fears.

“The people I talk with say they want real action and no more excuses.”

Wolle added that law enforcement being “instructed to not interfere with the protest, as long as it did not enter onto side streets, is a dangerous and reckless precedent” and that the “inaction and lack of accountability on the part of police must be immediately addressed.”

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Jewish community targeted for years

What’s the hurry? After all, it’s been like that in Toronto since Oct. 7, 2023, when Israel was attacked by the Hamas terrorist group. Since then, Jewish schools, businesses, synagogues and the U.S. Consulate have been shot up with no arrests made so far.

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Sa’d acknowledged that this is no easy file for the cops who have been put in a tough position by their political masters.

If they had made it clear from the beginning that the only place where people can protest is in public squares, at Queen’s Park or at City Hall and that there would be zero tolerance for any shenanigans, then perhaps it would not have gotten away on them as it has.

But with no major incident, police contended that Sunday was a success.

“Restrictions were enforced and officers ensured the group did not enter residential streets,” said Toronto Police spokesperson Nicole Ramadan.

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Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder. The protesters feel like they are free to protest in Canada and the police feel like they kept them away from homes, while the Jewish community rightfully points out that they deserve to exist without harassment and violence.

Pasternak hopes it goes better next time.

“While I thank police for their commitment, I hope this is a teaching moment,” he said. “It seems the charter rights are for the angry mob and not those who want to be free of harassment,”

Stay tuned to see what happens on Easter Sunday.

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