In stunning pre-dawn raids, Toronto police ‘terrorize’ Palestine activists
In stunning pre-dawn raids, Toronto police ‘terrorize’ Palestine activists
After operation that policing expert say may have cost 'seven figures', Toronto police pursuing hate-crime charges against activists who postered Indigo
“Armed police raiding activists’ homes to execute warrants in the early morning is an egregious overreach,” said Irina Ceric, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Windsor. “It appears to be an attempt to intimidate and terrorize these activists.”
Yeah, what is the purpose of going at that time and ransacking their home? What public danger did these protestors that put up a poster and threw red paint present? Sure, charge them for committing a crime, even a hate-crime if you need to, but what the police did here is an entirely unnecessary abuse of power.
This event may have been necessary to terrorize me (someone not at those protests) into believing - whether true or false - that if I say "Palestine" or "two-state solution" (among other phrases) on the public record, in Canada, that I will be unsafe.
In recent Canadian news we've heard of an MPP, an art director at the AGO, and a medical resident at U Ottawa disciplined to varying extents for expressing concerns about what's happening to the people in Gaza. We also know that Bell Media has forbidden all broadcast outlets for mentioning "Palestine" and provided other instructions for how to present relevant news coverage.
But this... Toronto Police raids in the middle of the night (as used for armed gangs) for the alleged crimes of vandalism with water soluble paint and protests that haven't contained any true antisemitism from what I've read so far and by my interpretation is legitimately terrorizing. It is for sending a message - that there is a penalty for questioning the mainstream narrative around a geopolitical conflict/crisis halfway across the world.
Forgive me for venting. I feel so unsettled by this. Intersectionally, I'm pretty removed from the issue: I have pale white skin, Western European ethnicity, was born in Canada, am a citizen, and I'm agnostic. Yet I feel very impacted by the mainstream narrative around what's happening in Gaza and the surrounding policing of that narrative. Maybe that's because I am a critical thinker, and that feels very much under attack right now. This intended-to-intimidate police raid really undermines my sense of free speech in this country. Also, I could imagine that some Canadians who are non-citizens, Arabic, or Muslim or Jewish might feel even more threatened by this stuff than me
Wow. So people can't peacefully protest now? Because we might upset Israel relations...
They did commit vandalism, but I do agree this kind of police response is way out of line for such an offense.
I'm fairly pro Israel in this conflict, but even I don't think this vandalism was hate motivated based on what I see in the posters or what was said.
Yeah I don't see hate, just a protest calling out a CEO funding recruitment to an army that is shelling civilians...which is a different topic than if war is justified and who has the best propoganda. But the police over reach is looking like dictatorship countries that squash information
Can't upset the Israel. Look at the difference between people talking out about Israel and the ones talking out about Gaza. Talk bad about Gaza/Palestinians nothing happens talk bad about Israel and you get in trouble, specially actors.
This wasn't a peaceful protest though. This was a crime motivated by hate according to the police ...and frankly the social media posts the perpetrators made backs that up. They attacked a Canadian business that has no say or vote in Israeli politics.