{"id":13188,"date":"2025-07-21T15:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T15:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/13188\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T15:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T15:22:10","slug":"eleven-arrested-following-weekend-protest-in-downtown-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/13188\/","title":{"rendered":"Eleven arrested following weekend protest in downtown Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Eleven people are facing charges <a href=\"https:\/\/toronto.citynews.ca\/2025\/07\/19\/police-say-11-arrested-during-demonstration-in-harbourfront-neighbourhood\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">following a weekend demonstration in downtown Toronto<\/a> that police say escalated into an unlawful assembly, with some participants allegedly assaulting officers.<\/p>\n<p>The protest began around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 19, near Spadina Avenue and Front Street West, where a large group gathered in the intersection, causing traffic disruptions. <\/p>\n<p>Toronto police say officers issued several lawful orders for protesters to clear the roadway and remain on the sidewalk to minimize congestion in the downtown core. <\/p>\n<p>When demonstrators allegedly refused to comply and continued to block the intersection, police officers intervened, and authorities say tensions escalated when officers attempted to disperse the crowd. It\u2019s alleged that some individuals resisted and became aggressive.<\/p>\n<p>Several people were taken into custody at the scene, facing a range of charges including assaulting peace officers, obstructing police, and mischief.<\/p>\n<p>Among those arrested was Ghassan Abulawi, 30, of Toronto, who was charged with obstructing a peace officer and failing to comply with an undertaking. He appeared for a bail hearing on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Others charged include the following:<\/p>\n<p>Deirdre Cahill, 43, of Oakville \u2013 mischief\/interfering with property<\/p>\n<p>Anna Ellergodt, 28, of Toronto \u2013 obstructing a peace officer, assaulting a peace officer<\/p>\n<p>Yusif Alizada, 32, of Toronto \u2013 obstructing a peace officer, possession of a prohibited weapon, carrying a concealed weapon<\/p>\n<p>Nour Abu-Ali, 28, of Mississauga \u2013 obstructing a peace officer<\/p>\n<p>Thomas Butko, 38, of Georgina \u2013 two counts of assaulting a peace officer<\/p>\n<p>Salim Elewa, 28, of Burlington \u2013 assaulting a peace officer, causing disturbance, mischief\/interfering with property<\/p>\n<p>Adham Diabas, 26, of Brampton \u2013 obstructing a peace officer<\/p>\n<p>Leslie Solomonian, 47, of Toronto \u2013 obstructing a peace officer<\/p>\n<p>Jamiel Nasser, 23, of Windsor \u2013 obstructing a peace officer, assaulting a peace officer<\/p>\n<p>Most of the accused are scheduled to appear in court on either Sept. 8 or Sept. 12, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities say Ahlam Mohammed, 32, of Toronto, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tps.ca\/media-centre\/news-releases\/63531\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was also arrested on Saturday<\/a>. She was an outstanding suspect in a mischief investigation that began on April 24, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Mohammed faces charges that include forcible entry, mischief\/interfering with property and unlawful assembly. She will appear in court on Aug. 22, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Toronto police say the investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eleven people are facing charges following a weekend demonstration in downtown Toronto that police say escalated into an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-13188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}