Why Bathurst and Sheppard Matters
- Mark Sandler
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
When our community evaluates the policing response to antisemitism in Toronto, Bathurst and Sheppard inevitably comes up. With good reason. Pro-Hamas agitators have chosen over many months to target a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. Their speech often surpasses the merely offensive, rising to the level of hate speech. And their conduct is not designed to persuade anybody, but instead, to harass and intimidate.
This explains why ALCCA repeatedly has pressed for three things:
Use of public incitement and wilful promotion of hatred charges to address hate speech against Jews
Greater use of conventional criminal law offences to counter illegal conduct, such as blocking intersections, or wearing disguises while committing other crimes
Taking specific action to prevent intimidation and harassment on nearby residential streets.
For some time, the policing response was inadequate – not merely at Bathurst and Sheppard but more generally. Police failed to fully understand the impact of hate speech on our community, measuring success too frequently by whether opposing groups were kept apart and whether the police had prevented or addressed on-scene violence. Preventing on-scene violence is a laudable goal, but insufficient when inaction emboldens escalating hate activities.
Shootings of synagogues, schools, businesses, plans to kill Jews, do not take place in a vacuum. They are fueled by incendiary language. To the credit of the Toronto police, we are now seeing the heightened use of the criminal law to combat antisemitic hate.
This week, five individuals were charged with both public incitement and wilful promotion of hatred arising out of events that took place on March 15. These charges followed search warrants executed in various locations in Toronto and Durham Region. The accused are as follows:
Hosaam Hemdan, 19
Omer Turcan, 43
Syed Hussaini, 43
Hasan Ayid, 48
Yasaf Shaikh, 46
Three of the five accused were also charged with wearing a disguise with the intent to commit an indictable offence.
We previously reported on charges of public incitement and wilful promotion of hatred laid against Muhammed Anas Sial, 33 arising out of the same events.
TPS’s formation of the Counter-Terrorism Security Unit has yielded significant results in a number of recent investigations. The Attorney General of Ontario also personally consented, as required by law, to the wilful promotion of hatred charges recently laid.
As indicated, we have also urged that police take steps to prevent intimidation and harassment on nearby residential streets. We have witnessed substantial human resources devoted to preventing access by agitators to those streets. Again, this is a welcome development, although we recognize that week-to-week the situation is a dynamic one, and police must respond accordingly.
This past Sunday, notorious Firas Al Najim, through his use of a megaphone and a flag closely resembling the flag of the designated terrorist group, Hizbollah, targeted the Upper Canada Lodge B’nai Brith, a seniors’ residence along Bathurst Street before he and others dispersed as officers arrived. There can be no tolerance for activities designed to intimidate Jewish seniors.
My last observation concerns repeated chants that “all Zionists are terrorists” and “all Zionists are racist” which we continue to hear and see at various locations, including Bathurst and Sheppard and this past week, at Pearson airport when agitators welcomed the return of a participant in the Gaza flotilla, a notorious Bathurst and Sheppard ringleader.
After a complaint to Peel Regional Police, agitators were trespassed from the airport property by police when they reappeared days later to welcome another returning flotilla participant. On both occasions, demonstrators spewed antizionist rhetoric including the chants noted above as well as “Viva, Viva Intifada.”
The continuing distortion of what Zionism means has led to the normalization of language that vilifies all Zionists, without distinction, as genocidal, racist or as terrorists. Zionism, properly understood as the belief in Jewish self-determination in our ancestral lands is supported by the vast majority of Jews and of course Israelis, both protected groups under our Criminal Code. This isn’t about those who criticize Israel, its government or policies. It would be unacceptable to promote hatred by calling all Muslims, Arabs or Palestinians terrorists. Why is it acceptable to indiscriminately promote hatred against all those who support Israel’s right to exist?
Jews and Israelis should never have to be exposed to this hatred in public spaces, particularly when they are fully entitled to lawfully use and enjoy those spaces. A human rights tribunal judge in Melbourne, Australia (see our previous article on the decision) recognized that the chant, “All Zionists are terrorists” incites hatred against Jews. The reasoning is impeccable. I commend the judgement to the reader. The decision has equal application to the outpouring of Jew-hatred and hatred of all Israelis being experienced here in Canada. This cannot be normalized.
We will continue to address these issues and press for meaningful responses to antisemitism.
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About the Author
Mark Sandler, LL.B., LL.D. (honoris causa), ALCCA’s Chair, is widely recognized as one of Canada’s leading criminal lawyers and pro bono advocates. He has been involved in combatting antisemitism for over 40 years. He has lectured extensively on legal remedies to combat hate and has promoted respectful Muslim-Jewish, Sikh-Jewish and Black-Jewish dialogues. He has appeared before Parliamentary committees and in the Supreme Court of Canada on multiple occasions on issues relating to antisemitism and hate activities. He is a former member of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, a three-time elected Bencher of the Law Society of Ontario, and recipient of the criminal profession’s highest honour, the G. Arthur Martin Medal, for his contributions to the administration of criminal justice.