A crowd of nearly 20,000 packed Toronto’s Mel Lastman Square Monday night to offer their prayers to a Jewish state under siege.
Amid scenes of the horrific atrocities left behind by Hamas terrorists and on-the-ground messages from Canadians living in Israel, they cried, sang Hebrew songs, shouted “Am Yisrael Chai” (The state of Israel lives) and heard messages of support from representatives of all three levels of government.
Security was tight, with hundreds of Toronto police and OPP officers in attendance and streets cut off for blocks. A small contingent of Israel haters lined Yonge St. shrieking their usual messages about freeing Palestine.
Premier Doug Ford said he, like others, has been “watching in horror” the scenes of violence out of Israel – of children and even Holocaust survivors being “stolen, beaten and murdered”
“We must condemn this evil,” he said to thunderous applause. “We must speak plainly about what it is… heinous acts of terror, antisemitic attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel and the Jewish people.”
He said now is the time for “moral clarity” – that there should be no confusion that Israel has the right to “defend itself and its citizens.”
“In Canada and Ontario we must stand firm in our support for the Jewish people,” Ford said.
He referred to the hate rallies across Canada celebrating the Hamas terror, specifically the hatefest Monday at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square where union radicals were said to serve as marshals and Israel haters burned a bloody Israeli flag.
“It’s reprehensible, it’s disgusting and these rallies have no place here in Ontario,” he said to more resounding applause. “These hate rallies are another painful reminder of work left to do to stamp out antisemitism once and for all.
“Solidarity to Israel!” Ford said.
Not being astute to the nature of her audience, Deputy Prime Minister Chrysta Freeland gave her speech in English and French asking for a moment of silence for the lives lost almost in an upbeat tone of voice.
“We recognize Israel’s right to defend itself. We stand in solidarity with you,” she said. “It means we call for the hostages to be released immediately.”
She also said “terror” has no place in Canada, despite the fact that her leader’s immigration policies have opened and continue to open the country’s doors to would-be terrorists.
Freeland did not mention the fact that the Canadian embassy was closed the entire Thanksgiving weekend, leaving Canadians stranded in Israel.
Despite Jewish Councillor James Pasternak’s attempts to run interference, Mayor Olivia Chow was booed by the crowd for her flip-flopping over her messaging over the past few days. She appeared surrounded by a few councillors. Missing most conspicuously was her deputy mayor, Ausma Malik, who was revealed by this writer in 2014 to have protested in Toronto holding a Hezbollah flag and not being friendly to the Jewish community.
In fact she introduced Jennifer McKelvie as deputy mayor, who was replaced by Malik when Chow came to power.
Chow, who often rambled inarticulately, called the attack on Israelis “atrocious” and said she unequivocally condemns them.
She tripped over the words unequivocally and Holocaust.
“As mayor, I will not stand in silence…in this darkest hour I stand with you,” she said, carefully ignoring the hateful protest that occurred Monday afternoon right outside her office window in Nathan Phillips Square.
She said city flags are being flown at half-mast and the Toronto sign is lit with the colours of the Israeli flag as a “beacon of solidarity.”
“I know the pain you must feel right now is insurmountable,” she said.
Chow said she’ll be introducing a motion at Wednesday’s council to establish “inclusionary zones” around places of worship and schools to “ensure all Torontonians feel safe.”
“In the coming days we must not let hate and fear divide us,” she said, ending with her usual platitudes.
Deputy Conservative leader Melissa Lantsman – speaking on behalf of leader Pierre Polievre – was on fire, telling the crowd to great applause that the massacre of a democratic state occurred in front of the whole world on the great holiday of Simchat Torah and the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War .
She noted, as others have, that the greatest number of Jews were killed in one day since the Holocaust.
The number of dead has topped 1,000 to date, including 40 babies found on one kibbutz with their heads chopped off. Another 150 have been taken hostage in Gaza.
She called out the hatefests by those celebrating the brutal terror insisting, quite rightly they are a “product of a world that sanitizes the brutality of Hamas and demonizes Israel.”
“Conservatives unequivocally condemn the sadistic violence perpetrated on innocent civilians… children in cages, women raped, bodies desecrated and elderly ripped from their homes… the world needs to know.”
She emphasized the “extremist bullies” must be confronted for the chaos across Israel and these attacks should “shake everyone to their core.”
