Toronto police will have an enhanced presence throughout the city as the Jewish community prepares to observe Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Police Chief Myron Demkiw detailed the security plans for the Jewish High Holidays during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, noting that the additional resources will be “both visible and covert.”
He said that the enhanced police presence will be deployed in time for Rosh Hashanah on Sept. 11 to 13 and remain through the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack next month.
Demkiw said that as part of the security plan for the Jewish holidays, a Toronto police task force consisting of officers with specialized tactical training and access to patrol rifles will also be deployed.
“We continue to work in close contact with the Jewish community and we will have Toronto police officers embedded with the Jewish security network over the coming weeks,” he said .
“We will also have command posts deployed in strategic areas, including one at Bathurst and Sheppard.”
‘Alarming increase’ in hate-motivated incidents
Demkiw said that there has been an “alarming increase” in hate-motivated incidents targeting the Jewish community in Toronto and elsewhere in the world in recent years.
Those incidents include a rash of shootings targeting GTA synagogues in March that police have linked to an alleged guns-for-hire network.
Two locations of Jewish-owned Kiva’s bagel bar were also targeted in separate incidents earlier this summer, including one where a window was struck by gunfire.
Speaking with reporters, Denkiw said that police have made 573 arrests in connection with hate-motivated incidents since Oct. 7, 2023 and will continue to dedicate significant resources to the file.
Already, he said that officers have spent nearly 100,000 hours engaging with community members at synagogues, schools and other community spaces as part of Project Resolute.
“If you engage in criminal behaviour we will find you, we will arrest you and we will lay criminal charges against you,” he said.
Mayor Olivia Chow also spoke at Tuesday’s news conference and addressed what she said has been a “despicable” rise in antisemitism in Toronto.
“Jewish Torontonians should not need police presence to go to a synagogue or a community centre, or simply to live proudly Jewish in our city but they do. In this moment of emboldened antisemitism, Jews, Jewish institutions and even Jewish neighbourhoods are being targeted,” she said.
Tuesday’s news conference came ahead of a mayoral candidates forum being hosted by the Jewish Lawyers of Canada tonight.
Mayoral candidates Brad Brandford and Chris Alexander are both participating in the event, but Chow declined an invite from organizers.
Asked about her decision to skip the event, Chow suggested Tuesday that she is not yet partaking in campaign events but will continue to work with the Jewish community.
“I am here as the mayor of Toronto. I will be launching my campaign later on. I am not here in a campaign capacity. We can talk about campaign activities later on and I will continue to engage with the Jewish communities with dialogue on safety, on antisemitism and how we can stamp out hate together,” she said.
