Juno News - March 25, 2026


Toronto police CRACK DOWN on anti-Israel protests in residential areas

Mentioned
Karima Saad Saad Lawyer Toronto Mark
Liberals push sweeping surveillance bill Toronto Star rips off Juno News reporting

Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

139.58

Word count

1,735

Sentence count

69


Summary

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

Pro-Palestinian protesters in a Jewish neighbourhood in Toronto are no longer allowed to march in residential areas. This comes after weeks of clashes with police in the area of Bathurst and Shepherds St. Sheffield. Our guest today is lawyer and journalist Karima Saad, who broke the story.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 Those noisy pro-Palestinian demonstrations are coming to an end at least in certain residential
00:00:10 areas of Toronto. Police are banning protesters from a Jewish neighborhood in Toronto. This is
00:00:18 what happened when police read the riot act to protesters near Bathurst and Shepard Avenue.
00:00:23 Are you going to have flags, signs, space coverage, graffiti? That's a protest. If you're walking
00:00:28 about your business to get to your car that's parked there that's a different story but you
00:00:32 know now we're splitting here that's a game that if you want to play we'll have a conversation
00:00:36 because i know that's a game you're probably willing to play some of you that are here
00:00:40 but yes oh that's fine the flags are off to put away but you're not we know what a protest is
00:00:47 you're not here walking around on a rainy day uh you know you're there to do something if it's
00:00:51 inciting people that live there and they're causing a fear, sure. We're going to have a
00:00:57 conversation about it. But we don't know what the next press release from TPS is going to be, right?
00:01:01 So we just want to be 100% clear, right? Yeah, no protests on residential streets in the area
00:01:08 of Bank of St. Sheffield. Now, some protesters claim the ban violates their rights. Now,
00:01:14 that particular area of the city has been the scene of regular protests since the October 7th
00:01:20 attacks on Israel. Police are worried things could get out of
00:01:24 hand. Now, three synagogues in the area were hit with gunfire
00:01:29 recently. Demonstrations can still continue on major roads.
00:01:34 Protesters who venture into residential neighborhoods could
00:01:37 face arrest. Our guest today is lawyer and independent
00:01:42 journalist, Karima Saad, who broke that story. Welcome to the
00:01:44 show, Karima. Thanks for having me.
00:01:48 Tell me what you saw and what you remember from that incident where you captured the
00:01:52 image of the officer basically reading the riot act to these protesters who'd been
00:01:57 used to doing pretty much whatever they want.
00:02:01 So for those who aren't familiar, Bathurst and Shepherd is an intersection in Toronto
00:02:07 that has been the site of weekly protests and counter-protests for about two and a half years.
00:02:12 It started with Save the Hostage demonstrations shortly after October 7, and about a year into that, you had Palestinian protesters show up across the street, and there have been various kerfuffles that have ensued since then.
00:02:30 This past weekend, my videographer captured the inspector giving a directive to protesters that they are no longer allowed to march down residential areas.
00:02:43 This comes after weeks of protesters dressing up in sort of Hamas fighter costumes and marching down residential areas, confronting people while they're on their driveways.
00:02:59 And in particular, last week, because that tactic did sort of fade out, but last week we saw signs that were extremely and blatantly anti-Semitic in nature.
00:03:13 So I think that's what triggered police to finally sort of put their foot down and say, you can't do this anymore.
00:03:19 If you continue, we're going to warn you and tell you to stop and then you might be arrested.
00:03:23 And I understand that there were also some synagogues that were shot up, correct?
00:03:32 That is correct.
00:03:34 You know, anyone who's been paying attention to the news in Toronto over the past several weeks will have seen synagogues being shot at businesses, you know, private businesses, a gym, a bakery.
00:03:48 And there's no direct link that has been made public or that I'm aware of between protesters and these more violent incidents, but I think that the general atmosphere of tension and fear finally reached a tipping point where police are now in the position of really having to enforce some basic rules of decency in that neighbourhood.
00:04:18 The police have been criticized heavily by some residents,
00:04:22 even some politicians and local politicians.
00:04:26 I mean, that incident where one of them got coffee
00:04:29 or one of the protesters blew up.
00:04:33 A lot of people thought that that was inappropriate for police to do.
00:04:37 And it seemed that they were on the side of the protesters.
00:04:41 And this has been going on for months.
00:04:45 And so the fact that it was seemingly changed like overnight
00:04:48 has some people wondering whether there's been a change in attitudes from on high from you know
00:04:54 the politicians from the police chief these people maybe have gotten the message that this has gone
00:05:01 on for too long what do you think I think that there has long been perhaps a discrepancy between
00:05:09 frontline officers and what they would like to do as far as enforce the law and the orders they
00:05:15 receive from higher up. So perhaps what we are now observing is a bridging of that. And, you know, it
00:05:24 yes, this directive could have come a long time ago. So I sympathize with the residents who are
00:05:33 frustrated about it. Speaking as a lawyer who has an interest in civil liberties more broadly beyond
00:05:42 this specific conflict. It's not a great precedent to set, but I do think that something had to be
00:05:50 done in order to address legitimate community concerns. Well, maybe you could talk a little
00:05:59 bit about the other side, the protesters. Some of the protesters, as I understand it, were not happy,
00:06:04 not pleased by this. They say it's a violation of their rights. Did you get a chance to chat
00:06:09 with some of them? So the protesters who feel that way, you know, in their mind, they are
00:06:17 there to bring awareness to an issue as Canadian citizens or residents have the right to do that
00:06:27 and feel curtailed upon now that there is a limitation that has presented itself.
00:06:35 You know, the responding question is, well, why here? Why this intersection? And you might hear them say, well, it's because there were these demonstrations and we know that there's a high concentration of people in this area who may feel differently than us.
00:06:54 we want to bring our message to them. But the fact is that the actual demonstration that's been
00:07:02 going on isn't one that's very conducive to dialogue or reasoned discussion or anything
00:07:09 productive. So yes, the protesters I think do feel aggrieved and that this is an injustice that has
00:07:18 been brought upon them. Unfortunately for them, there have been too many incidents where
00:07:27 the optics are not just problematic, but deeply disturbing, and I think have lodged themselves
00:07:34 in people's brains, like some of these images that have come out of this intersection.
00:07:39 Yeah, unfortunately, when you've been doing it as long as they have, the public's eyes
00:07:45 being to glaze over because it's just another protest and they don't pay attention and i guess
00:07:50 from the perspective of the protesters they have to up the ante as it were in order to get the
00:07:55 attention of the public as to their cause to what degree do you think that has some validity i i
00:08:03 think that that's an excellent point um and i think that that does explain um some of the escalation
00:08:08 that we saw whether it was a matter of boredom or trying to sort of create a new splash that
00:08:16 ultimately led protesters to go down residential streets because that wasn't part of what was
00:08:21 happening when there was a competing demonstration who they could yell across the street at once you
00:08:27 no longer had that they looked for other outlets or at least that's what it seemed to me and you
00:08:34 know they're the protesters themselves would say or reiterate there's no connection between us
00:08:40 and any of these shootings um you know we're being unfairly targeted or penalized but they are also
00:08:48 the only group that really is using this tactic and so while the rule may feel specific to them
00:08:56 and it is specific to them it's because no one else has been doing this and that's what the
00:09:03 officer told them right there was also the shooting at the u.s embassy which may be something entirely
00:09:09 different but then again who knows i mean um you've had a chance maybe to to find out a little
00:09:17 bit about these protesters having been in close contact with them i mean do you know who these
00:09:22 people are where they're from and what about the people who are behind them i mean i can't help but
00:09:28 wonder that they must be getting some money somewhere they for them to spend time protesting
00:09:33 rather than being at work you know sure yeah i'll start there um so like with any protest movement
00:09:43 you get a mixed bag um so who shows up at bathurst and shepherd um you have actual palestinians you
00:09:51 have other Arabs. You have, I would say, a high percentage of Muslims or people who ascribe to
00:10:02 Islam. What is the driving or connecting force? Some of them have appeared at other protest
00:10:11 demonstrations um they do appear to be connected um to a larger network but where does this support
00:10:22 like the material support actually come from i suspect some of it is locally crowdfunded
00:10:29 um you know it's not the purchase of flags and signs i think we've had a little bit of a freeze
00:10:35 there um but it is a big question mark actually um apart from the professed concern about what's
00:10:45 happening in palestine um which i think all of them would say is their driving force um is there
00:10:52 something cuniery on top of that uh i don't know um i can say that their actual demonstration
00:11:00 um you know to what degree does that influence in a positive way anything they are actually
00:11:07 trying to accomplish or stating is their intent and that's not clear to me either
00:11:13 how do people follow your terrific work online
00:11:18 thank you um i post primarily on social media so twitter or x instagram facebook
00:11:25 If you look up my name, Karima Saad, C-A-R-Y-M-A, or just Google Saad Lawyer Toronto, you can also find me at protestmania.com.
00:11:36 Fantastic. Thank you so much for coming on the show, Karima. We appreciate it.
00:11:40 Thank you. Thank you, Mark.
00:11:42 And if you enjoyed this show, consider supporting independent journalism by becoming a premier member of Juno News.
00:11:48 Go to junonews.com backslash straight up. It helps us do what we do. We'll see you next time.
00:11:55 Thank you.