Vicious anti-Semitism has been allowed to become normalized in Toronto

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Toronto is a place where people openly celebrate the dropping of Iranian bombs on Israel, lighting smoke canisters and chanting “Allahu Akbar”.

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Toronto is a place where people carve a swastika over a poster of a child held by Hamas.

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Toronto is where someone has been accused of sending hateful messages to Jewish children about their parents.

Toronto is a place where police are forced to set up temporary field command posts because of threats to Jewish citizens.

Toronto is not an easy place to be Jewish.

Homes and businesses of the Jewish people were attacked or damaged. Synagogues and Jewish schools too. Jewish students don't feel safe at universities, and people expressing concern about the Black Saturday hostages on Oct. 7, when 1,200 innocent people were killed, are said to have worn “Save Our Hostage” shirts at a Toronto Raptors game.

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B'nai B'rith Canada's Richard Robertson said, “The continued level of heated and inflammatory protests across the city underscores the concerns of Jewish Torontonians about their safety.”

“There is no place in our society for demonstrations that glorify terrorism, incite anti-Semitism and glorify the satanic Iranian regime.”

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But as Conservative deputy leader MP Melissa Lanzman said, it's no surprise.

“This was never about a ceasefire,” he wrote X. “Support for terror against Western democracy poured into the streets of our country 6 months ago and governments in Canada did nothing.”

Historians study this dark time in Toronto's history like the Christie Pitts riots.

But for the Jewish people who live here, that history is something they now have to endure. They live in fear.

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Toronto police understand this reality.

“In light of events around the world, we will continue to deploy officers on special patrols around places of worship, schools and community centers,” TPS X said in a statement. “There is a command post in Bathurst near Glencairn and officers are there to talk to residents. There are no known threats to Toronto.”

But many Jewish Torontonians tell me they feel threatened at any moment. What happened here is very wrong. There was so much anti-Semitism that it became the norm.

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If it is directed at another religious or ethnic group, none of it is allowed. It should not be. It's something City Councilors James Pasternak and Brad Bradford, MPP Goldie Gamari, and MP Marco Mendicino have all pointed out for months, as they warned against it.

That said, the command post is thankfully in place and was up and running outside the Bathurst Jewish School on Sunday.

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“The community is grateful for the stability of the Toronto Police Service,” said Robertson. “Mobile command centers are a powerful deterrent against those who wish to harm the Jewish community.”

But the fact that such an action is necessary should be a great shame for Toronto, a home of diversity. The video, shot by independent journalist Karima Saad, which presents a negative picture of the city and country around the world, was picked up by multiple news outlets, including the Jerusalem Post, which reported that “people gathered to celebrate, and the protest leader led them.” “Allahu akbar!” when he shouted. and boasted that “this was in direct response to Israel's bombing of many countries, including Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon.”

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What's interesting is that the Toronto Jewish community doesn't say much about how respectful the rally is. You don't hear hate there – something MP Kevin Vuong pointed out in his X post after attending a rally in Sheppard and Bathurst on Sunday.

“Proud to stand in solidarity with the Toronto Jewish community in the wake of Iran's attack on Israel…shame on the 'peaceful protesters' who romanticized terrorism and supported the Islamic regime on the streets of Toronto yesterday. This is what a peaceful rally looks like.”

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