Toronto police officers look on as people take part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Nov. 29, 2025.Doug Ives/The Canadian Press

The provincial government and the Toronto police are butting heads. The subject is how to manage pro-Palestinian protests in the city. The province says that the police are not doing enough. The police say they are doing everything they can within the law. The police, in this case, are right.

The clash comes against a background of rising antisemitism across Canada. The Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel and the ugly war in Gaza that followed were the match that lit the tinder.

Two-thirds of hate crimes in which religion was the issue were aimed at Jewish targets in 2024. Synagogues have been defaced and firebombed. A Toronto girls school was shot at repeatedly. Some pro-Palestinian demonstrators have even taken to marching through Jewish neighbourhoods, a revolting tactic with historic echoes that are hard to ignore.

Toronto officers not getting clear direction on policing pro-Palestinian protests, union says

Jewish leaders say their community is feeling profoundly shaken and they want authorities to step up. The police, some say, have failed in their duty to curb hate crime, maintain public........

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