HANNAFORD: Time to end the race-baiting in Toronto

Even more than our democratic right to vote, most of us lust for fairness. The sight therefore of the Toronto Police Service (TPS) handing out coffee and doughnuts to pro-Hamas demonstrators (the latter being busily engaged at the time in terrorising the city’s Jews,) is deeply repugnant at so many levels.How dare they! In Canada, we have laws about racially motivated protests. Whose side are the damn police on? They’re not even supposed to have a side! And so on. All fair and suitable comment.Well, the police have now apologised. Sort of. “The impact has been cause to concern [sic] and for that, I am sorry,” said TPS Chief Myron Demkiw. For this writer, that carries the same weight of sincerity as ‘I am sorry you were offended by my offensive comment.’ Thanks a lot.So let's be very clear. What is happening in Toronto is intolerable. That is, in what we love to think of as a free country, we cannot tolerate protests that include outrageous actions directed at any identifiable ethnic (or religious) group.Consider:A Jewish deli firebombed.Pro-Hamas protesters harassing customers at a Jewish deli.Likewise, Jewish women harassed on the Toronto subway. Given the details of mass rape, sexual torture, dismemberment and death delivered to some Israeli women on Octber 7th, in that order, the feelings of the harassed women are better imagined than described.A pro-Hamas mob invades a shopping mall during the Christmas rush and a thug apparently threatens the life of a police officer. (Who does nothing.)And for the past few weeks, we have mobs trying to block roads, bridges and highways. TPS Deputy Chief Lauren Pogue has gone on the record before Christmas that “lawful demonstrations do not include protesting inside privately owned spaces, which include malls, blocking critical infrastructures such as our highways or hospitals, or causing disturbances at the expense of other residents.”But all of this, unfortunately, is what we’re seeing. The coffee incident happened when protesters tried to take over a bridge near an area with a concentrated Jewish population. The police pre-emptively closed it (it’s all about safety, you see) at which point the protester supply chain was interrupted.No problem, though. The police were willing to hand the Tim Hortons refreshments along to people breaking the law for the express purpose, remember, of intimidating Toronto's Jews.The recipient gratefully acknowledged that the police were “now becoming our little messengers between us.”"Little messengers?"Let us say this for Toronto's police. From what I saw in the 2010 Toronto G8, I am confident that they are well-trained, gutsy and will do whatever they’re ordered to do. It would be quite the fistfight, but they could restore order in an afternoon.But clearly, Toronto’s politicians can’t be depended upon to back them up. So, if the politicians are too timid — or cynical — to say what needs to be said, it’s hard for the police to do what needs to be done. Which is to clear the streets and protect a vulnerable population from harm. What’s happening now in Toronto is the crudest form of race-baiting we’ve seen in a civilized country since before the war. And it’s not even a Canadian issue. Not that it would be better if it was, but who asked for this?I know some people will want to argue that if the police were tolerant of the Truckers Freedom Convoy, they should be tolerant of this.No. False comparison. The truckers were Canadians standing up for their rights and freedoms and the rights and freedoms of other Canadians — not people in another country — and specifically were not calling for harm and destruction to other Canadian citizens, or indeed anybody else. They did not firebomb restaurants, harass passersby, try to intimidate the police or attack ethnic minorities.This is somebody else’s problem but it’s Canadian (Jewish) citizens who are being attacked. No, not the same thing at all. Canada's Jews deserve the full protection of the state. There is no reason why they should have to put up with these attacks while the perpetrators face no consequences. Have we gone mad in this country? Does somebody have to get killed?Whatever the lunatics governing Toronto might think, they’re projecting weakness. All over the Arab world they now know that in Canada if you protest against Israel, the police bring you coffee.Hint: You will get more of the behaviour you reward. Are you ready for that, Toronto?End it.Now.And while we’re at it, could the prime minister condemn this in unequivocal terms? Perhaps something along the lines of what he called the truckers? ‘Racist misogynists with unacceptable ideas?’ Seems fair to me.