Protesters and counterprotesters demonstrate near the U.S. Consulate during a rally for Al-Quds Day in Toronto on Saturday.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
An Ontario judge has dismissed the province’s last-minute request to stop an Al-Quds Day rally in Toronto.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Centa on Saturday said there was “insufficient evidence” that police needed the injunction to keep the peace at the protest, and cited the Charter rights of the participants.
“The court expects the participants not to engage in any criminal or tortious activity during the protest. The court expects the police to enforce the law. No order of this court is necessary to achieve either of those ends,” the judge said in a brief decision delivered by videoconference, less than an hour before the rally march was set to begin.
“The right to assemble and speak freely must be maintained in times of global conflict. Perhaps at no other time is the protection of our civil liberties more important. At the same time, the security of all members of the public depend on the police enforcing the laws that are already on the books.”
Meanwhile, demonstrators were already starting to gather downtown as the judge delivered his ruling. Toronto Police confirmed that one person had been arrested for assault. Toronto Police spokeswoman Nadine Ramadan told The Globe that it was her understanding that the arrested individual was a counterprotester.
As the rally was underway, Toronto police on bicycles stood in the middle of the road, separating the demonstrators from a group of counterprotesters, some of whom waved Israeli, American and Trump flags.
Protesters and counterprotesters in downtown Toronto on Saturday.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Saturday said he was “extremely disappointed” that the court would not stop the rally, which he said “has long been a venue for antisemitism, hatred, intimidation and the glorification of terrorism.”
“While the judge cited Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, when we talk about rights we need to be clear that every person has the right to safety and security. We need to be clear that no one in Canada has the right to incite violence or free licence to intimidate and hate,” Mr. Ford said a statement.
“The judge also said that Toronto Police Service do not need an injunction to preserve the peace. That’s unbelievable! If that’s the case, I fully expect that the police will immediately intervene at the first sign of hate, violence or glorification of terrorist organizations.”
The Ontario government on Saturday filed the injunction hours before the start of the Al-Quds Day demonstration, alleging links between the Toronto rally and designated terrorist group Samidoun.
The Al-Quds protest, an annual event that features pro-Palestinian demonstrators, is taking place on the streets of downtown Toronto including outside the city’s United States Consulate, which was shot at in the early morning hours on Tuesday.
In its factum released on Saturday, the province alleged the Al-Quds Day rally “began as the brainchild of a terrorist regime,” and has a forum “for the expression of the most hateful antisemitism and for the counselling of violence.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Saturday that he was ‘extremely disappointed’ that the court would not stop the rally.Carlos Osorio/The Canadian Press
Tom Curry, a lawyer for Lenczner Slaght acting for the province, said the rally is linked with Samidoun, a designated terrorist group, which issued a “call to action” this week about Zionism and U.S. imperialism, and referenced the resistance of Iran and Lebanon.
“That is a very important connection between rising levels of antisemitism and extraordinary violence in the city,” Mr. Curry told the court in a hearing broadcast on Zoom.
Mr. Curry also said the Ontario Attorney-General showed “restraint” in waiting to file the injunction, until it was required “for the protection of the community,” referencing “escalating events” this week in Canada and abroad.
The province said the Al-Quds Day events in Toronto have historically attracted counterprotests from various groups, with Iranian-Canadian counterprotesters expected at the rally this year.
It said the risk of confrontation is particularly acute given recent incidents of violence across the Greater Toronto Area, including at shootings at Toronto synagogues and the consulate.
Shane Martinez, a lawyer for the organizers, said the province was attempting to stop the rally at the eleventh hour for political reasons and if the government was truly concerned about violence, the injunction would have happened earlier.
“It’s a politicized order from the executive,” he said.
Mr. Martinez said there is no evidence of arrests at previous rallies or links to any criminal activity, and denied connections to Samidoun.
“This suggestion that it carries some sort of antisemitic tone, I would say, has absolutely no basis in the record that’s before the court, and it simply defies reality,” Mr. Martinez said.
He said there is not a “scintilla” of evidence to suggest the organizers of Al Quds had any connection to the recent shootings at synagogues in Toronto or the American consulate.
“Those events are deplorable, absolutely, but they are not a basis again to trample on the Charter.”
With a report from Aleysha Haniff in Toronto