{"id":142247,"date":"2025-09-14T01:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T01:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/142247\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T01:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T01:03:08","slug":"toronto-police-arrest-10-people-at-christie-pits-during-duelling-rallies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/142247\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto police arrest 10 people at Christie Pits during duelling rallies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toronto police say they\u00a0arrested 10\u00a0people at Christie Pits Park where a large anti-immigration rally and counter demonstration took place Saturday afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Police said one man was arrested for assault at an ongoing demonstration in the Bloor Street West and Christie Street area at around 12:40 p.m. in a social media post<\/a>.\u00a0Police later confirmed to CBC Toronto via email that a\u00a0total of 10 people were arrested in connection with the two demonstrations.<\/p>\n

Attendees gathered at the Toronto park Saturday afternoon for a rally dubbed the\u00a0Canada First Patriot Rally.\u00a0In an Instagram post, organizers said they were calling for a stop to “mass immigration.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This is the time for true Canadian patriots to stand together. Our country is changing fast and not for the better. If we don’t fight for what we have, we will lose it,” the post’s description reads.<\/p>\n

The Canada First rally’s organizer\u00a0Joe Anidjar\u00a0said the demonstration was about “putting Canadian people first, putting our country first.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

“At the end of the day, when you allow millions of people from other countries around the world, it puts strain on our resources,” he told Radio-Canada at the rally Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hundreds of other people also came to the park Saturday for a counter rally,\u00a0aiming to show support for\u00a0migrant communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The park has a rich history of anti-fascist organizing. To this day, it’s an important gathering space for migrants, Indigenous people, queer and trans people, survivors of sexual violence, unhoused people, artists, students, and families,” says a\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0from organizers posted on the Ontario Federation of Labour’s Facebook page.<\/p>\n

Workers’\u00a0Action Centre executive director Deena Ladd, who was at the counter\u00a0rally on Saturday, said the Canada First rally organizers were unfairly blaming newcomers for social problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I really want them to know that they that\u00a0that they shouldn’t be blaming immigrants for the economic issues that they’re putting forward,”\u00a0Ladd told CBC Toronto.<\/p>\n

“They’re blaming our communities for the fact that we can’t find affordable housing, blaming our communities for the fact that there’s not enough food in food banks and that people can’t get the health services that they want. That’s not the fault of immigrants.”<\/p>\n

Coun.\u00a0Dianne Saxe (University-Rosedale) said in a statement dated Aug. 26 that she was appalled individuals would choose to hold an anti-immigrant rally at a park like Christie Pits and said the rally “does not represent what we stand for as a city or as Canadians.”<\/p>\n

“Rather, it’s reflective of an effort by its organizers to seek and gain undeserved notoriety through intimidation, puffery, and stoking division rooted in the belief that immigrants somehow struggle less, work less, or contribute less to our country,” she said in the statement posted to X.<\/p>\n

Police said Bloor Street West was closed around Christie Street for a few hours Saturday and drivers should expect delays near Bay Street and on Yonge Street and Wellesley Street. Police have since\u00a0said all roads have reopened as demonstrators reached Sankofa Square.<\/p>\n

TPS said it will release more information on the arrests at a later time in a news release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto police say they\u00a0arrested 10\u00a0people at Christie Pits Park where a large anti-immigration rally and counter demonstration took…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-142247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142247","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=142247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}