Toronto police chief reverses course, identifies 'terrorist flag' waved at demonstration

A day after refusing to identify the "terrorist flag" held at a demonstration last weekend that led to charges being laid against a man for public incitement of hatred, Toronto's police chief said the flag belongs to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

On its website, Public Safety Canada lists both the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — General Command (PFLP-GC) as "terrorist entities."

"The goals of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) are the destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of a communist government in Palestine," the federal website reads.

"The concern we have and what we're alleging is that this individual displayed that flag and that [it] constitutes evidence of an offence of public incitement of hatred under the Criminal Code," Chief Myron Demkiw told CBC Radio's Metro Morning Friday.

At a Toronto Police Services Board meeting Thursday, police announced that a 41-year-old man was charged with public incitement of hatred for allegedly waving the flag while marching through the city's downtown Sunday.

Demkiw called the charge "unprecedented," noting the "very high threshold" to charge anyone with a hate propaganda offence.

LISTEN | Demkiw reverses course, identifies 'terrorist flag':

Friday's about-face came after Demkiw refused to say what the flag depicts and which group it is associated with at the Thursday meeting.

"What I'm very conscious of is not inadvertently doing anything to in any way promote or otherwise send a message that these kinds of images are trying to send," he told Metro Morning Friday.

"I did not want to show the imagery of the flag at all under any circumstances. I'll take steps not to do that."

It's "too early" to tell if Demkiw's move to reverse course and identify the group was a result of miscommunication or miscalculation, Barbara Perry, the director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism at Ontario Tech University, told CBC News.

"Will this increase the problem? Will this increase their aggressiveness? ... I think that the next couple of days will tell the tale."

Avenue Road bridge demonstrations now prohibited

Police announced Thursday that demonstrations on the Avenue Road bridge over Highway 401 are now prohibited as they pose a threat to public safety and have made many in the surrounding Jewish community feel intimidated, Demkiw said Thursday.

The recurrent demonstration has been criticized by some city councillors and Jewish groups for its location in a neighbourhood with a large Jewish population.

Perry said the move to ban demonstrations on the Avenue Road bridge over Highway 401 has "real potential to enhance the polarization rather than decrease it.

"It can actually have a boomerang effect … or create backlash against that and further enhance hostilities I think, because this will be understood as an unfair infringement. You know, one side is being protected, the other isn't," she said in an interview.

Activists hold a sit-in organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement at Scotiabank Plaza in Toronto, on Nov. 17, 2023. Dania Majid, president of the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association, said police 'tactics' and 'messaging' are re-enforcing anti-Palestinian racism and creating a public perception that Palestinians and Arabs are a threat to public safety. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

Asked what police can do to ensure they are not adding to the polarization, Perry said the issue is "not something we can police our way out of.

"What's needed is open dialogue and … finding a way, to reduce the tension and the anxiety in a way that allows [both] Jewish communities and and pro-Palestinian communities to both feel safe and both feel heard."

Earlier this week, Demkiw publicly apologized after an officer was filmed handing coffee to a protester at a pro-Palestinian demonstration, adding questions had been raised about a particular interaction on Saturday between officers and a person at the Avenue Road bridge demonstration.

"Whether consciously or not, I think that [police] are trying to find that balance and perhaps this is a reaction," Perry said, referring to the demonstration ban on the overpass.

"I suspect that there's been lots of pressure brought to bear on police services, whether it's from the police board or … perhaps Jewish organizations in the area. So I think that they're probably responding to that pressure as well."

Palestinian, Jewish groups respond to charges

Dania Majid, president of the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association, said police "tactics" and "messaging" are re-enforcing anti-Palestinian racism and creating a public perception that Palestinians and Arabs are a threat to public safety.

"As police themselves have noted, the numerous large-scale protests in support of Palestinians have passed peacefully without incident," Majid said in an email Friday.

"Yet, police are increasingly taking a heavy-handed approach towards anti-genocide protesters, and criminalizing Palestinian freedom of expression and assembly."

Majid added that a long-standing distrust of police authorities by Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims has resulted in the under-reporting of hate crimes.

"They are, in fact, victimized at a significantly higher rate than what the data published by the police indicates," she said.

In a statement Friday, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) said it welcomes the police's move to lay charges.

"These latest actions taken by the Toronto Police Service come at a critical point, as the Jewish community deals with an extreme surge in antisemitic incidents and acts of intimidation," said FSWC President and CEO Michael Levitt.

"Day after day, Jews in Toronto and across the country have been targeted, harassed and intimidated."