When I heard that the chief of Toronto Police Services (TPS), Myron Demkiw, was going to take listener calls on the radio, I made sure to tune in.
I have witnessed police excesses while attending protests several times in the past two years.
On Jan. 13, 2024, Toronto police attacked a solidarity walk at the Avenue Road overpass at Highway 401, just up the street from my apartment. That landed three protesters in hospital, including an elder Imam and a young woman who suffered two tailbone fractures and a high grade concussion after being shoved twice to the icy ground. Three people were arrested, two of them violently, on charges that were subsequently withdrawn.
Then on Sept. 11, 2024, I was at a jail support rally outside 51 Division downtown where police aggression landed at least six protesters in hospital, as reported by The Grind.
Those were just a couple of the incidents I was thinking about as I tuned in to Deb Hutton’s show on NEWSTALK 1010 (a Bell Media station) on July 31 and unsuccessfully tried to call in to get on the air.
Excessive police violence?
The first question Demkiw took was from a caller named Liz, who asked:
Since October 2023, it seems like the Toronto police has been attacking pro-Palestine supporters, including at least two documented instances of the controversial “knee on neck” technique. Dozens of people have ended up in the hospital as a result of police force, including, like, broken bones, concussions, torn ligament. And I’m just wondering: is the Toronto police perhaps using excessive force?
Chief Demkiw played down the police violence, responding that “specific to our response, which we refer to as Project Resolute, we’ve had hundreds and hundreds of events both planned and unplanned. And I think what’s important to reflect on is the vast majority of those events happen with no arrests.They happen with no use of force.”
He went on to say “There have been occasions from time to time since October 7th, 2023, where we needed to affect arrest … and arrests, by their very nature, involve some amount of use of force, but we do so proportionate to the circumstances each and every time.”
The Orange Hats are a legal observer organization that has monitored police behaviour at hundreds of Palestine solidarity protests in Toronto, as well as other protests. Through this work, they have documented the following injuries of protesters and bystanders caused by police violence, overwhelmingly at Palestine actions, since January 2024:
- 48 concussions
- 7 nasal fractures
- 3 bruised orbital bones
- 6 dislocated/separated shoulders
- 2 foot fractures
- 1 arm fracture
- 5 sprained ankles
- 3 meniscal tears
- 2 broken ribs
- 2 sprained ankles
- 1 cracked collar bone
- 1 kicked in the skull, damage still unknown
- 23 pushed and shoved, resulting in scrapes and bruises
- 18 soft tissue injuries caused by handcuffs
“I really actually do want to take the opportunity to commend our people,” Demkiw said of the Toronto police, “who have been incredibly resilient and thoughtful in their approach and frankly have, I think, done an incredible job keeping these events as safe as they can be.”
I recognized Liz’s voice when she called in. She has been a frequent volunteer police liaison at protests, a role that has put her on the front line of keeping the public safe from police escalations. Liz confirmed it was her and said of Demkiw’s answer:
It’s so hypocritical that they demand safety from the protesters when they’re the ones escalating actions and putting people in the hospital. I haven’t seen any protesters put anyone in the hospital. And the fact that they consider that a “proportionate response” says a lot about the Toronto police department, honestly. The fact that they’re blaming the victims of these assaults on the absolutely baseless claims of hateful actions or behaviour is nonsense and despicable.
Project Resolute and blocking traffic
TPS board chair Shelley Carroll was also on air responding to calls. She added to Demkiw’s response that “We will continue to protect people’s right to protest. That’s a fundamental right in Canada, but we have to demand safety and there has to be protest without … fear of hate…”
This aligns with the framing the police have given to Project Resolute, the over $20 million expansion of the Toronto police Hate Crimes Unit that happened after Oct. 7 and Israel’s genocidal response. Project Resolute has involved surveilling and criminalizing pro-Palestine activists, working in collaboration with provincial and federal police, as well as intelligence agencies.
Recently, TPS Deputy Chief Rob Johnson referred to Palestine solidarity demonstrations as “Project Resolute demonstrations and protests,” effectively framing all Palestine solidarity and opposition to genocide in Toronto as suspect for criminal hate.
Carroll further emphasized that the “fundamental right” to protest has to happen “without blocking traffic.”
But protesters are fully within their rights to march in the street, even in circumstances where this causes drivers the minor inconvenience of rerouting by a couple of blocks.
In instances where people shut down and block a roadway indefinitely with the intention to intimidate others, police have more discretion to make arrests but are supposed to balance this with respect for people’s Charter right to freedom of expression.
Toronto-based criminal lawyer Shane Martinez tells me that “Any claim by the police that protesters must ‘stay off the road’ because it is ‘critical infrastructure’ has no basis in the Highway Traffic Act. Similarly, police do not have the discretion to arbitrarily dictate when and where people can engage in Charter-protected freedom of expression.”
Costly arrests of protesters and no convictions
Another caller, Diane, returned to the issue of the police response to Palestine solidarity protests:
Through media reports I’ve heard that over 130 people have been arrested [supporting Palestine]. But half the people have had their charges withdrawn or received discharges. And as of today there’s been no convictions of any of these people. So clearly either the charges are bogus or they’re not sticking for some reason. And my question specifically to the chief is: how much has this kind of TPS over-arresting people cost us as taxpayers?
Demkiw responded “I do want to correct the record a little bit in that, yes, there have been arrests, and there have been convictions.“
But Rachelle Friesen from the Legal Support Committee (LSC) confirmed the caller’s claim that of the more than 130 arrests of Palestine solidarity protesters in Toronto, not a single one has resulted in a conviction to date. All of the arrestees who have been processed have either had their charges withdrawn or received discharges.
In the case of an absolute or conditional discharge, “a finding of guilt is made, but no conviction is registered,” according to Legal Aid Ontario. A discharge is appropriate for minor offenses where a judge “considers it to be in the best interests of the accused and not contrary to the public interest,” as per the Criminal Code.
Friesen emphasized that “many of these 130-plus protest-related arrestees have found themselves saddled with onerous bail conditions including protest bans, a clear violation of their Section 2 Charter rights.”
According to the LSC, 14 arrestees were given protest bans as a condition for their release in July 2025 alone.
In Demkiw’s response on air, it was possible that he was thinking of a conviction of someone not involved in the protest movement. A man was found guilty of assaulting a woman in November 2023 who was putting up Israeli hostage posters in North York. The man unsuccessfully claimed self defence. There have also been two convictions in York Region related to Israel-Palestine but again not of people involved in the protest movement. York Region is north of Toronto and outside of TPS jurisdiction.
Police using knee-on-neck technique?
A third caller, identifying themselves as Ben, asked again TPS use of the “knee on neck” technique.
Infamously, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin used this technique to murder George Floyd in May 2020.
Ben asked Demkiw if it is a prohibited technique for Toronto police, yes or no.
“This question is of particular interest to me,” Ben explained on air, “because in late 2023 my wife was knocked to the ground by a Toronto police officer at a Human Rights Day protest for Palestine and multiple officers used force, including a ‘knee on neck’ restraint against me in a way that has now been well documented on video. TPS continues to stand by their earlier statement that an officer did not place a knee on my neck. And it is my understanding that there was an internal review that cleared the officer of any wrongdoing.”
Demkiw responded that TPS “does not train or use knee-to-neck restraints.”
He did not say that the practice is prohibited, only that it is not used, even though there is video evidence of police doing it.
Demkiw did not contest the caller’s claim that the officer in question was internally cleared of any wrongdoing.
Why aren’t legacy media journalists asking these questions?
The past twenty-two months have convinced me that the Toronto Police, rather than serving the public, have become weaponized against it by pro-Israel groups while that settler-colonial apartheid state is blatantly committing genocide. Demkiw and Carroll’s appearance on NEWSTALK 1010 did not change my mind.
The question that came to mind was: Why are leaders like Demkiw and Carroll only being confronted by these questions now, after at least 48 police-induced protester brain injuries? Where are the journalists?
Unfortunately, the establishment media has too often been complicit in allowing this weaponization to happen.
