Juno News - May 28, 2025


Pro-Hamas counterprotesters descend on Toronto's Walk with Israel

Topics
counterprotesters and march
Mentioned
Yahya Sinwar Daniel Boardman
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Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

151.73

Word count

1,428

Sentence count

119

Harmful content

Toxicity

12

sentences flagged

Hate speech

7

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

On October 7th, a candlelight vigil was held in support of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. On October 8th, counter-protesters began gathering at the same spot. They dressed up in cosplay as Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas. On the eve of the vigil, police blocked off the protest because of the counter-demonstrators.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 This is Clayton DeMaine with True North in Toronto.
00:00:15.420 We're at the corner of Bathurst and Shepherd, a Jewish neighborhood where protesters have
00:00:20.700 been gathering since a week after October 7th, every week on Sunday.
00:00:26.760 There's been a lot of counter-protesters.
00:00:28.400 We're standing actually on the site where Hamas supporters dressed up in cosplay as Yahya
00:00:34.680 Sinwar, the leader of Hamas.
00:00:37.120 So it seems as if police have separated the counter-protesters and the protesters for this
00:00:41.480 march.
00:00:42.420 We're here, they're gathering here because counter-protesters have said that they were
00:00:47.300 going to try to blockade the march this time.
00:00:50.360 So we're just hours before the march happens, so we're going to take this time to ask supporters
00:00:54.980 of Israel of why they're here, what matters to them, and also try to talk to the counter-protesters
00:01:01.260 if they would be willing to speak with us about why they're here.
00:01:04.820 You know, I've heard that you guys have been here gathering at this corner since a week after
00:01:11.200 October 7th.
00:01:13.060 So, can you just talk to me about some of the things that you guys have experienced here?
00:01:19.340 Certainly.
00:01:20.020 Well, yeah, there's been a gathering here of people from the Jewish community and certainly
00:01:25.560 other people who have joined us as well to set up sort of like a vigil for the hostages
00:01:34.460 that were taken by Hamas on October 7th.
00:01:37.620 That has been ongoing till now, in fact, because there still are hostages, believe it or not,
00:01:44.540 in Gaza, held by Hamas.
00:01:46.620 And nobody raises the issue that they're starved, food isn't getting to them, the Red Cross is
00:01:53.560 not looking after them.
00:01:55.440 Everybody ignores that.
00:01:57.060 And while this vigil has been going on since October 8th, or a week after October 7th, there
00:02:06.880 have been Hamas people, Hamas supporters gathering here, glorifying Hamas, glorifying the slaughter, 0.85
00:02:14.800 rape, murder of Jews.
00:02:17.920 In fact, they came to dress up as Yahya Sinwar, who was the leader of Hamas. 0.65
00:02:25.720 So, it's been very serious, and unfortunately, the Toronto police are not enforcing the law
00:02:32.960 either.
00:02:33.480 What do you make of the counter-protesters there, who are kind of in between, where the
00:02:39.540 walk will come?
00:02:40.360 It's crazy.
00:02:40.860 It's absolutely absurd.
00:02:42.340 It should never be allowed to happen.
00:02:43.820 You see, what you have on this walk, it's a walk that's been going on for more than 50
00:02:48.000 years.
00:02:48.720 Every summer, there's a walk for Israel.
00:02:50.520 It has nothing to do with the current situation in Gaza.
00:02:53.340 And what you have are families with little children, babies, toddlers, walking through,
00:03:00.000 being yelled at, like all Zionists are terrorists from the river to the sea. 0.98
00:03:06.160 Why should they be listening to this Jew hatred? 0.93
00:03:10.060 And how is this hatred allowed in a democratic society where people aren't free?
00:03:14.540 There's a rise in anti-Semitism, in Toronto especially.
00:03:19.560 Why do you think it's important that all these people come out and show support for Israel and
00:03:24.460 the Jewish community?
00:03:25.360 It's very important.
00:03:26.480 They have to, the anti, the Hamas supporters have to know that they're overwhelmingly in the
00:03:33.920 minority.
00:03:35.060 The minute they're not confronted, they gain momentum and gain power.
00:03:39.800 So you must confront them.
00:03:41.940 But in terms of anti-Semitism, there's nothing new.
00:03:45.000 It's nothing new.
00:03:46.520 It's just out in the open now because of the way society is with the proliferation of social
00:03:51.200 media and the like.
00:03:52.740 But it didn't just happen.
00:03:55.160 Everybody who's a Jew hater was a Jew hater before October 7th.
00:03:58.020 But now they can come out and proclaim it.
00:04:00.460 Why do you think the Islamic regime of Iran's supporters are, or even, and the state, like
00:04:08.040 why are they involved in the Israel-Palestine situation?
00:04:12.880 Why do you think that they want Israel to be destroyed?
00:04:16.120 Actually, if you take a look at it and see, you can see how many of these people are the
00:04:21.460 proxies of the regime in Iran.
00:04:24.020 They've been financed for over 40-some-odd years to make trouble in the Middle East.
00:04:30.520 And that's exactly why.
00:04:32.140 They've been fed by the Islamic regime in Iran.
00:04:36.640 And that's the reason.
00:04:38.500 You can't say anything else but that.
00:04:40.840 This is time for us to be united and get rid of the regime that sits in Iran and cause 1.00
00:04:48.760 all this nonsense.
00:04:50.800 October 7th is only one of the tricks they pulled out of that hat.
00:04:58.280 Only one way to bring back the stability to the whole region is to free Iran and some maximum 1.00
00:05:07.600 support for Iran and putting the maximum pressure on the regime.
00:05:12.200 Once and for all, get rid of the regime that causes all this trouble in the Middle East. 0.99
00:05:16.840 I heard there is only one solution.
00:05:19.060 Intifada revolution.
00:05:21.020 You know, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
00:05:24.520 What do you make, as a Jewish Canadian, what do you make of those chants?
00:05:30.540 I mean, like, I've always found from the river to the sea to be kind of funny.
00:05:33.960 Because if you know the deep history, you're like, what river?
00:05:35.780 Rutsi.
00:05:36.700 But, like, the mandate for Palestine covers Jordan. 0.88
00:05:39.460 So, like, that one's just silly.
00:05:41.380 But the other one you said is rather insidious.
00:05:44.500 Like, there's only one solution.
00:05:46.180 Intifada revolution.
00:05:47.220 That's clearly a Holocaust reference.
00:05:49.280 That's clearly a pro-Adolf Hitler, pro-Adolf Eichmann, pro-ethnic cleansing. 0.91
00:05:54.340 There's only one solution.
00:05:55.500 Antifada revolution.
00:05:56.660 Because I grew up in the second antifada.
00:05:58.440 Like, I remember, right?
00:05:59.780 So, being a Jewish Canadian in North America, what I learned on 9-11 is, oh, terrorism happens to other people as well.
00:06:07.120 So, the antifadas were just, I remember, you know, one of the teachers at a Jewish day school running out of the classroom crying.
00:06:14.620 And that was during the second antifada.
00:06:16.120 Because her nephew had just been blown up on a bus.
00:06:19.000 That's an antifada. 1.00
00:06:20.140 So, when you say the only one solution is the antifada revolution, you mean our solution, and you mean final solution, is kill all the Jews. 1.00
00:06:27.380 And I say no. 1.00
00:06:28.300 I say you're a bunch of Nazis, and we will stand up to you. 0.94
00:06:31.340 Even my grandfather fought for Canada in the Second World War. 0.94
00:06:34.100 He was in the Canadian Air Force, and he fought Nazis.
00:06:37.040 And I'll fight Nazis here, whether they be at Bathurst and the Shepherd, or in Europe, or anywhere else. 0.58
00:06:43.120 Like, that's a moral imperative.
00:06:44.620 That's what Canadians do.
00:06:45.800 And I'm proud to be Canadian, just like my grandfather was.
00:06:49.080 So, that's what I say to them.
00:06:50.400 You're from Israel.
00:06:52.240 You served in the IDF for 20 years.
00:06:54.900 When did you guys come here?
00:06:56.540 1986.
00:06:57.640 In 1986, we came here.
00:06:59.820 It was all my family, wife and two girls.
00:07:03.060 I said, after 11 years in the Israeli Air Force, very proud in the time of Canada.
00:07:09.080 These days, I struggle.
00:07:10.920 I see that Canada is really holding and supporting terrorist groups. 0.77
00:07:18.320 It's horrible, criminal. 0.99
00:07:22.200 They kill kids. 0.98
00:07:23.480 They mutilate them, and we still support them.
00:07:26.240 You know, you'd hear from the other side a lot about, like, criticisms of the Israeli action against, you know, Gaza and Hamas.
00:07:34.380 What is something that you think that Canadians just don't understand about the situation there?
00:07:38.420 The Canadians don't understand that Hamas is using children, women, as protecting themselves in hospitals, babysitting places.
00:07:53.720 And it's very hard.
00:07:55.480 And Israel, by the way, lost many, many soldiers because they try to avoid killing children and women.
00:08:04.140 Unfortunately, when it's side by side, things can happen.
00:08:09.000 But lots of people don't understand.
00:08:11.220 I was part of them.
00:08:12.160 I know how difficult it is, and it's very difficult.
00:08:16.520 I think that they need to go there and see to themselves and after talk about, but they'll refuse to do it because people don't want to believe in the truth.
00:08:29.320 It's just to blame Israel because we always are blamed.
00:08:32.920 So the Walk for Israel is wrapping up.
00:08:36.220 It is raining.
00:08:37.160 So most of the Israeli supporters are going home.
00:08:41.280 But we can see that the people here, the anti-Israel crowd, are so motivated.
00:08:46.640 They're willing to stand in the rain to shout at Jews.
00:08:49.560 Things like globalize the Intifada.
00:08:52.720 There is only one solution.
00:08:54.140 We've spoken to Daniel Boardman, a journalist, who was telling us that that saying is very close to the final solution of the Nazi German government.
00:09:06.040 There was an estimated 50,000 people.
00:09:08.600 We tried to speak with the anti-Israel side, but they wouldn't speak to us.
00:09:14.100 They would only, you know, yell their favorite slogans.
00:09:18.540 So this has been Clayton Demain with True North reporting at Bathurst and Shepherd in Toronto.