{"id":561038,"date":"2026-03-26T02:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/561038\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T02:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:00:08","slug":"new-toronto-police-counter-terrorism-unit-gets-mixed-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/561038\/","title":{"rendered":"New Toronto police counter-terrorism unit gets mixed response"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than 24 hours after police officials announced plans for a new counter-terrorism and rapid response unit, the vision of heavily-armed police officers patrolling the streets of Toronto isn\u2019t sitting well with some residents.<\/p>\n<p>Police say the new unit is a response to growing security\u00a0concerns, including recent attacks targeting places like consulates and synagogues. While the move is being praised by some who believe it is necessary, it is also being criticized by others who say it goes too far.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think a lot of other people are going to be very disturbed about it,\u201d said John Sewell, a former Toronto mayor and the coordinator of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, who calls it an overreaction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s going to scare a lot of people. Kids are going to\u00a0be scared of it. It gives a whole different idea about what the city and what police are all about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sewel adds\u00a0that the public should have been consulted, especially during a time when public trust in the police is low, given recent events <a href=\"https:\/\/toronto.citynews.ca\/2026\/02\/05\/toronto-police-service-officers-arrested-project-south-organized-crime\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">like Project South<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Toronto Police Services Board should be involved in it and should be holding hearings where getting some opinions from the public about it,\u201d he said. \u201cThis idea that the police should just operate on their own and that they know what\u2019s best for the city, I\u00a0don\u2019t buy it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) says it appreciates\u00a0any announcement and action taken to protect the Jewish community.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver the past few weeks, we\u2019ve seen gunfire at synagogues, we\u2019ve seen violent imagery, we\u2019ve seen extremists\u00a0target Jewish neighbourhoods, with anti-Semitic\u00a0imagery as well,\u201d said Josh Landau, CIJA\u2019s Director of Government Relations.<\/p>\n<p>Landau adds that with the escalating attacks, enhanced policing measures are needed and that Jewish community members are fearful for their safety \u2013 a sentiment CityNews heard from residents in the affected area when asked what they think of the move by Toronto Police<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis area in particular, my mother lives around the corner, lots of Synagogues, Jewish Day schools, things like that. The intimidation that has been brought to bear is unreasonable,\u201d said one woman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve worked here a long time and its horrible what\u2019s going on in this area, it would never be done in any other area of the city,\u201d added another man.<\/p>\n<p>The new counter-terrorism unit is set to be launched in the coming days and comes just months before Toronto hosts six FIFA World Cup games, when tens of thousands of people are expected to visit the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 24 hours after police officials announced plans for a new counter-terrorism and rapid response unit, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-561038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561038","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=561038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}