Letter from Michael Teper to Chief of Toronto Police & Councillor James Pasternak on Mar 29, 2026, expressing disappointment with police actions during the weekly anti-Israel demonstration...

...at Bathurst St. and Sheppard Ave. in which officers "escorted" demonstrators past Jewish residences, a synagogue and school. Where is the enforcement of legislation to keep the haters away from Jewish institutions and out of Jewish residential areas?

To Chief Myron Demkiew and Councillor James Pasternak,

CAEF is disappointed at the Toronto Police handling of the anti-Israel demonstrators at Bathurst and Sheppard today.

TPS constables allowed the demonstrators to march past the Darchei Noam Synagogue, the L’Chaim seniors residence and the Toronto Heschel School as they paraded on Sheppard Avenue from Bathurst Street to Wilson Heights and back to Bathurst Street.  Their route took them past a dozen apartment buildings with a high population of Jewish residents.

There are over 200 intersections in the City of Toronto.

Yet the geographic centre of the Jewish community is where these demonstrators assemble every week.  Their purpose is not to convince the public of the rightness of their message; their purpose is to intimidate Jews.

Their chanting included “All the Zionists are racist.  All the Zionists are terrorists” along with numerous sexual obscenities.

Toronto Police would not tolerate a parade of fanatics hostile to the LGBTQ+ community to parade up and down Church Street between Bloor and Carleton.  Toronto police would not tolerate a white supremacist parade up and down Jane Street between Finch and Sheppard.  So why are Toronto’s Jews required to tolerate a hate parade in the part of the city where we make our homes and community?

Why are we second-class citizens? It’s not just about their Charter rights.  We have Charter rights too.

We demand civic equality and equal treatment under the law and equal protection of the law.

Michael Teper, President, Canadian Antisemitism  Education Foundation.