Police in Canada's largest cities are bracing for rising tensions and protests as the anniversary of the start of the Israel-Hamas war approaches.
Monday marks one year since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel, and police in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver have reported a sharp spike in protests and alleged hate crimes since the war began.
"In the first 100 days following the Oct. 7 attacks, we saw a 62 per cent increase in reports of antisemitism," Vancouver police Chief Cont. Adam Palmer said on Friday as he announced the deployment of officers to a number of "strategic locations" in the days around Oct. 7.
Vancouver police say there have been 344 protests in the city related to the Israel-Hamas war since it began, leading to 47 criminal charges recommended to Crown counsel and amounting to more than 3,000 overtime shifts by police, costing $4.1 million.
"We do support lawful and peaceful protests," Palmer said. "What we will not put up with is violence and hatred or crimes against other people. There's no criminality, no violence, no unlawfulness allowed."
In Montreal, police say there have been more than 340 protests related to the war in Gaza over the past year and police have made more than 100 arrests.
Police in Montreal say they have recorded a total of 288 hate crime complaints since Oct. 7, 2023, with 213 targeting the Jewish community and 75 aimed at the Arab-Muslim community, while 41 people have been charged with hate crimes.
Earlier this week, police arrested five people in Montreal with incendiary devices in their possession, in separate incidents they say are linked to the conflict in the Middle East.
Deputy Chief Vincent Richer said police began putting more officers on the ground on Oct. 1 this year and will continue that approach for the next 24 days.
Richer told reporters that police have been in contact with the city’s Jewish and Arab-Muslim communities and will focus much of their attention on places of worship over the next few days.
“We want to make sure that people feel safe in Montreal," Richer said.
Numerous protests or vigils are planned for this weekend, including in front of McGill University, the site where students set up an encampment for several months demanding the school cut ties with Israel.
McGill has announced it will be restricting access to its campuses from Oct. 5 to 7, and moved some of its classes online in anticipation of potential tensions that may boil over.
In Toronto, police Chief Myron Demkiw said this week that command posts will be set up in Jewish neighbourhoods and near mosques, while more plain clothes and uniformed officers will be dispatched across the city in anticipation of the Oct. 7 date.
Demkiw said there will be three police command posts in Jewish neighbourhoods, and a fourth will move between various mosques across the city.
"We know emotions are intense, and as demonstrations continue, we must balance the right to assembly with the need to maintain public order and public safety," he said of the anticipated protests.
Toronto police say there have been more than 1,500 demonstrations across the city since last October, with 72 protest-related arrests.
To date, there have been 350 alleged hate crimes reported in Toronto this year, which Demkiw said is a 40 per cent increase from last year.
He said the greatest increase — 69 per cent — has been in alleged hate crimes against Jewish residents, and protesters have become "increasingly confrontational" against police, including the alleged use of weapons and assaults against officers.
In Vancouver, Palmer said planned and unplanned protests across the city are posing a "significant" risk of disorder, and officers trained specifically for large-scale events will be deployed for this weekend's rallies.
Among the groups planning events over the weekend and on Monday is pro-Palestinian group Samidoun, which is promoting its events on social media by referring to the Oct. 7 attacks as "Al-Aqsa Flood," the Hamas code name for the operation.
The "week of action" includes what Samidoun calls a "teach-in" about the operation and a rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Monday, as well as attending an Oct. 8 court appearance the group says will be made by Samidoun organizer Charlotte Kates.
Kates was arrested last year in a hate-crime investigation after praising the Oct. 7 attack as "heroic and brave" in a speech at a rally, and the BC Civil Liberties Association wrote to the Vancouver Police Department in June to express concern about her arrest.
"Most times, people are pretty co-operative," Palmer said of Vancouver police's proactive efforts to reach out to protest organizers before the rallies. "Not always. Sometimes they can be very unco-operative. But in many cases, we try to form a dialogue and we come to terms with them and try to work through it together.
"To be clear, we serve everyone in our community. And I'm committed to making sure everyone, regardless of their race, religion, language or culture, feel safe."
Vancouver police say uniformed school liaison officers will be highly visible during student pickup and drop-off at faith-based schools on Monday, and tactical response and uniformed officers will be placed at "key locations" in consultation with leaders of both the Jewish and Muslim communities.
The Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel killed more than 1,200 people, while another 250 were abducted, triggering an Israeli counter-offensive in Gaza that the health ministry there says has left more than 41,000 dead.
- By Chuck Chiang in Vancouver
- With files from Joe Bongiorno
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2024.
The Canadian Press
