Toronto police investigating reports of antisemitic caricatures of Jews at North York demonstration

The Toronto Police Service logo is pictured in this file photo.

Toronto police say the Hate Crime Unit is investigating reports that posters featuring antisemitic caricatures of Jews were paraded around at a demonstration in the middle of a Jewish neighbourhood over the weekend.

The images began surfacing on social media following a demonstration at Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue on Sunday. They show demonstrators holding signs that depict Jews variously as gaunt monsters with long noses coming out of the ground, and as rats.

In an email, Toronto police confirmed they are aware of the incident and are looking at possible charges.

“Hate Crime Unit investigators are consulting with the Ministry of the Attorney General regarding promotion of hatred offences,” TPS Spokesperson Amy Davey wrote.

“Willful promotion of hatred is a hate propaganda (hate speech) offence which requires the Attorney General’s consent to lay charges.”

Davey noted those charges are often laid at a later time.

Several Jewish groups and politicians issued statements expressing outrage at the images, which some said called to mind Nazi-era propaganda about Jews.

“Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) is outraged by virulent antisemitic imagery displayed yesterday at an anti-Israel demonstration in North York,” the group said in a statement.

The group, which filed a complaint with police over the incident, said the “vile antisemitic caricatures” demonized and dehumanized Jews.

“This abhorrent display is yet another example of the systemic and sustained promotion of antisemitic sentiment and intimidation targeting Jews in Canada, and it comes at a time when Jewish institutions, including synagogues, are being attacked,” FSWC President and CEO Michael Levitt said in the group’s statement.

He said the weekly demonstrations at the intersection have repeatedly crossed a line and called on authorities to lay charges.

That sentiment was echoed by Coun. Josh Matlow, who wrote about the incident in a post on X.

“These hateful antisemitic signs being displayed at Bathurst and Sheppard are reminiscent of 1930s Nazi Germany,” Matlow wrote.

“No matter the cause, you’re not allowed to harass people where they live or target them with hate. Our Jewish community, like everyone, should be able to rely on their governments and police to keep them safe and never allow this kind of criminal behavior to be normalized. Laws that protect our communities from harassment, intimidation violence, and hate must be effectively enforced.”

Toronto’s Jewish community has been the target of increasingly aggressive acts of harassment and violence, with three synagogues recently shot up inside of a week.

Speaking at Queen’s Park Tuesday, Premier Doug Ford spoke out against rising antisemitism and said federal hate crime laws may need to be changed to reflect some of what has happened.

“It’s despicable that we’ve come to this point that you can go after certain communities and nothing happens,” Ford said. “You can say that you want to kill every single Jew in the world. Nothing happens. They have signs, I think it’s absolutely inappropriate. We have 110 nationalities. Everyone gets along, but this has to stop.”