A rally organized to call an end to military trade between Canada and Israel took place in Toronto on Sunday, Mar. 24, starting at the intersection of Yonge and St. Clair.
The demonstration was organized by a group of pro-Palestinian groups, including Showing Up for Racial Justice – Toronto (SURJ-TO), Palestinian Youth Movement – Toronto, World Beyond War Toronto, Toronto-St. Paul’s for Palestine and Jews Say No to Genocide (JSNTG), which is a coalition of four Jewish groups and includes Jewish members of two other groups.
Purim controversy
The demonstration was also planned to coincide with Purim, a Jewish holiday commemorating the saving of Jewish people from extermination in biblical times. Contemporary Purim celebrations are often raucous, and many people dress up in costumes.
Gur Tsabar, a spokesperson for JSNTG who also attended the march, described his personal experience with Purim, and says it offered a way to positively join Jewish values with solidarity with Palestine.
“A core part of Purim is using noise to disrupt your enemies, basically,” Tsabar tells The Grind by phone. “A really great way for us to celebrate Purim is to have this march, which was really supposed to be focused on a two way arms embargo [between Canada and Israel].”
Despite being organized, in part, by a large coalition of Jewish organizations, public figures claimed online the day before the protest that it was antisemitic for tying itself to Purim.
Melissa Lantsman, MP for Thornhill and deputy leader of the federal Conservatives, said on X (formerly Twitter) that those who didn’t see the demonstration as antisemitic “are the problem.”
Ya’ara Saks, Liberal MP for York Centre, similarly posted about the event described it as antisemitism, “full stop.”
Robyn Urback, columnist for the Globe and Mail, posted, “what does a Jewish holiday have to do with a march for Palestine?” JSNTG replied, “As a Jewish coalition we speak out against the way Israel weaponizes (and tries to co-opt) our Jewishness.”
Urback’s thinking was similar to that of the Centre of Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA). They decried the demonstration as “antisemitic” for being associated with Purim. Despite CIJA saying that Purim had nothing to do with “a war in the Middle East,” they had posted about Purim two days earlier and directly associated it with the hostages taken by Hamas in Gaza.
IsraelNow, an organization led by Meir Weinstein, previously of the Jewish Defence League (JDL), which disbanded in 2021, also labelled the protestors as “Hamas supporters” and called the march a display of “Jew hatred.” In the U.S. the FBI has designated the JDL as a terrorist organization, but Canadian law enforcement did not apply the same label to the Canadian version.
Rachel Small, a representative for World Beyond War Canada and a Jewish participant in the march, expressed her disappointment at the framing of the event by these organizations and individuals.
“The promotion for this march made it absolutely clear that Jewish people involved in organizing it were using it as a moment to collectively and powerfully celebrate their own Jewish holiday of Purim as part of a march demanding justice,” she says. “It was very clear on the poster that was what was happening.”
The march
At 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, a large crowd gathered around the Scotiabank building at Yonge and St. Clair, with a heavy police presence both lining up across the intersection and keeping the demonstrators on the sidewalk. The rally was organized to draw attention to Canada’s arms trade with Israel, so the location was chosen, according to organizers, to highlight Scotiabank’s investment in Elbit systems, an Israeli defense firm.
Though there was a small contingent of Israel supporters on the south-west side of the Yonge and St. Clair intersection before the march, the number of pro-Palestinian demonstrators dwarfed them. Police focused on the pro-Palestinian side.
With IsraelNow’s specific ties to organizations like the JDL, Tsabar with JSNTG says there hasn’t been enough focus by police on their actions.
“I’m actually shocked that there hasn’t been stronger enforcement on these guys, because they put out some pretty grotesque flyers that has had very strong, violence-oriented language,” he says. “This is not the first time that they’ve attempted to counter a rally of ours.”
Shortly after speeches, demonstrators moved into the intersection. They then began marching southward on Yonge. The original intention was to march into nearby neighbourhoods. According to Small, this was done to expand the scope of the protests and bring the issue closer to home.
“We retain the right to protest in all the neighborhoods that we all live in,” Small says. “This march follows marches that have gone through other ridings in the city, as well. This is certainly not the first time a march has left the downtown core.”
As the protest turned west on Balmoral Ave, the Toronto Police set up a line blocking the road in at Toronto Fire Station 311.
One arrest occurred after police frisked an individual at the front of the line. In a press release, the police said they received a complaint that the accused had a knife on them. The arrested was charged with carrying a concealed weapon after one was supposedly found.
Jay Geerts, an attendee at the rally, provided video of the arrest to The Grind. It shows Toronto Police accosting protestors on the frontline before selecting the individual, frisking under his coat, then pulling him from the crowd. A video taken by an attendee and posted online showed one officer aggressively pushing other demonstrators multiple times at the time of arrest.
After a tense stand-off between the Toronto police and the protestors, demonstrators made the decision to pull back from the police line, which had stopped the crowd in front of the fire station.
“The police are not letting us march through our neighbourhood,” one speaker said as the police blocked the demonstrators’ path. She continued, “The police are forcing us to block a fire station! For shame!”
Small, of WBW, says that this wasn’t the first time the Toronto Police had prevented demonstrators from moving freely.
“They would not allow us to march down to St. Clair, the main street that we were gathered on, and when the march turned onto another streets, they suddenly decided we ‘won’t let you march here, either.’”
The march continued down Yonge street with one other incident.
An individual reportedly shouted “white power” before allegedly assaulting a pro-Palestinian demonstrator. Toronto police arrested the individual, charging him with four offences, including assault and possession of a weapon. The Toronto Police press release said the individual had a knife in his possession.
At the end of the march, in front of the Israeli Consulate at the intersection of Yonge & Bloor, Small took the mic to address the crowd.
“For those who aren’t familiar, every Purim we make noise against violence. That’s what the holiday is about,” Small says. “But to do it with thousands of you today is just fucking beautiful!”
What’s next?
Tsabar says the escalated Toronto Police presence at the rally is directly connected to the demonization of the rally by Canadian institutions and politicians.
“Any time the Zionist community expresses concerns about anything, anything, TPS is on high alert,” Tsabar says. “We know that TPS monitors all these social channels.”
He also says JSNTG and other pro-Palestinian organizations will continue to demonstrate in order to show the federal government where Canadians stand on the issue.
Recently, the federal government announced they would not issue any new arms permits to Israel. But as The Maple reported, this would not cancel current military permits, which includes $28.5 million in export goods permits approved in the first two months after Oct. 7.
“People will not be dissuaded and are not succumbing to either deliberate misinformation or exaggerations of what the government is actually doing,” says Small.
She says the numbers that showed up for the rally show an uncomfortable truth to Canadian politicians.
“It’s really clear that what many people in power thought would be happening at this point is not,” she says. “Toronto solidarity organizing and protests are not stopping or not shrinking.”
