Activists hold a sit-in organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement at Scotiabank Plaza in Toronto, on Nov. 17, 2023. Dania Majid, president of the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association, said police ‘tactics’ and ‘messaging’ are re-enforcing anti-Palestinian racism and creating a public perception that Palestinians and Arabs are a threat to public safety. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Asked what police can do to ensure they are not adding to the polarization, Perry said the issue is “not something we can police our way out of.
“What’s needed is open dialogue and … finding a way, to reduce the tension and the anxiety in a way that allows [both] Jewish communities and and pro-Palestinian communities to both feel safe and both feel heard.”
Earlier this week, Demkiw publicly apologized after an officer was filmed handing coffee to a protester at a pro-Palestinian demonstration, adding questions had been raised about a particular interaction on Saturday between officers and a person at the Avenue Road bridge demonstration.
“Whether consciously or not, I think that [police] are trying to find that balance and perhaps this is a reaction,” Perry said, referring to the demonstration ban on the overpass.
“I suspect that there’s been lots of pressure brought to bear on police services, whether it’s from the police board or … perhaps Jewish organizations in the area. So I think that they’re probably responding to that pressure as well.”
Palestinian, Jewish groups respond to charges
Dania Majid, president of the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association, said police “tactics” and “messaging” are re-enforcing anti-Palestinian racism and creating a public perception that Palestinians and Arabs are a threat to public safety.
“As police themselves have noted, the numerous large-scale protests in support of Palestinians have passed peacefully without incident,” Majid said in an email Friday.
“Yet, police are increasingly taking a heavy-handed approach towards anti-genocide protesters, and criminalizing Palestinian freedom of expression and assembly.”
Majid added that a long-standing distrust of police authorities by Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims has resulted in the under-reporting of hate crimes.
“They are, in fact, victimized at a significantly higher rate than what the data published by the police indicates,” she said.
In a statement Friday, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) said it welcomes the police’s move to lay charges.
“These latest actions taken by the Toronto Police Service come at a critical point, as the Jewish community deals with an extreme surge in antisemitic incidents and acts of intimidation,” said FSWC President and CEO Michael Levitt.
“Day after day, Jews in Toronto and across the country have been targeted, harassed and intimidated.”