Ontario government call for Toronto police to crack down on protests puts free expression at risk: expert

An expert in release verbal expression feels Ontario’s canvasser superior general is attempting to pressure level Toronto police to change how they handle protests for political reasons. 

This comes after Solicitor General Michael Kerzner issued a letter to the Toronto Police Service (TPS) on Dec. 30, calling out what he described as a lack of enforcement for hate, intimidation and harassment-motivated offences at protests in the city.

But James Turk, director of the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University, is worried about Kerzner’s motivations.

Toronto passes bylaw to restrict protests around places of worship, schools

Since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza, Toronto police have attended more than 800 demonstrations related to the conflict, according to TPS spokesperson Stephanie Sayer.

Officers have also made almost 500 arrests, she said, and laid more than 1,000 criminal charges related to protests and hate crimes during that time.

But calls for stricter laws around protests have also increased, playing a part in city council’s decision to introduce a “bubble zone” bylaw last year that restricts protests within 50 metres of schools and places of worship under certain circumstances.

Kerzner’s letter aligns with those calls, highlighting a pro-Palestinian protest at the Toronto Eaton Centre on Boxing Day, as well as ongoing marches in predominantly Jewish neighbourhoods near Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue W.

“These incidents have left many residents living in a state of heightened fear and anxiety, concerned about a lack of visible response and feeling unable to move freely and safely in public spaces,” he wrote.

But Turk says it’s not as simple as police making more arrests and laying more charges. 

“Our courts have been very clear that our democracy depends on ongoing public discourse about what's legitimate and what's not legitimate in a society,” he said. “There's just a lot of things that people don't like, they may find offensive or hateful, that are perfectly legal in a democratic society.”

It’s not the job of police to shut those things down, nor the province’s to urge them to do so, Turk said. 

Bashar Al-Shawwa, a Palestinian human rights activist that moved to Canada in 2024, echoed those sentiments. 

The political framing of Kerzner’s letter is dangerous, Al-Shawwa said.

Meanwhile, some in the Jewish community feel many of the protests have gone too far and something needs to be done. 

“We welcome the solicitor general's clear and forceful message that hate, intimidation, harassment must be met with firm and visible enforcement,” he said. 

Coun. James Pasternak (York Centre) has also been a vocal critic of ongoing protests. 

But the protests aren’t illegal, Turk clarified. 

Peaceful assembly is a protected right under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, he said, noting that police can and do act on illegal activities that occur at these demonstrations.

Some of the debate focuses on phrases like “globalize the intifada" and "from the river to the sea," with Pasternak arguing they should be banned and considered hate speech. 

In Canada, these phrases are not illegal, unless they're used in a context that makes clear they are part of an explicit call for violence or incitement of hatred against an identifiable group, Turk said.

While he acknowledged they often cause frustration and anxiety, he said disruptive but peaceful protests are necessary in a democracy. 

“If those objections are successful, then we're going down a road to a more authoritarian type of society,” Turk said.

Reporter

Tyler Cheese reports on local and provincial news in Toronto and the GTA. You can contact him at tyler.cheese@cbc.ca or @TylerRCheese on X.

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