"Toronto the Good" bows down to Iran

The Sights and Sounds from Toronto's Al-Quds March, from the Diary of a participant

Dear Diary,

We couldn’t believe our good fortune! Despite veiled threats from Toronto Police brass and Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner, our Al-Quds Day celebration march came off without a hitch.

If I’m being honest, we didn’t expect the authorities to let us even assemble without a parade permit; after all, it had only been 24 hours since Toronto Deputy Police Chief Lauren Pogue ominously stated:

"You can't disrupt the city, people are trying to go about their business, they're trying to attend medical appointments...you still have to operate within the law."

None of us knew what to make of that bold pronouncement. City staff had recently decided to enforce a minor Bylaw regarding posters on city utility poles, despite the fact the posters in question were raising awareness about baby hostage (aka future IDF soldier) Kfir Bibas.

Writer Semyon Dovzhik saw the city workers removing hostage posters from utility poles in the park and began to film and demand why they were taking the posters down. The municipal workers told Dovzhik not to film them.

“We were asked to,” said a city worker. “By our supervisor.”

Dovzhik attempted to explain that the posters were of people who were kidnapped.

“It doesn’t matter what the sign says – if it says for guitar lessons, we have to take it down, too,” said the city employee, who went on to add that anything on the utility poles had to be removed regardless of subject matter.

City of Toronto Spokesperson Russell Baker said that “City of Toronto staff are tasked with keeping our parks tidy, which includes bathroom upkeep, mowing parks, and ensuring these shared spaces are clean.”

If the City is going to be militant about cleanliness, there was a moment last Saturday when I thought that we’d finally pushed everyone too far by proceeding with a rally lauding so-called Terrorist Iran. This was the best opportunity the Toronto Police Service would have in 2024 to capitalize of the justified infamy of Al-Quds Day to round-up the worst of our agitators the moment we started our regular chorus of “intifada.”

We’d seen TPS officers finally lose their patience with some “Pro-Palestinian” protesters the prior weekend, and I wondered if that was a sign of things to come. Several very animated protestors practically spit in the face of a calm female Police Const. Reem Raza, but we were savvy enough to accuse her crew of being “racists.” There’s a reason why there are no policewomen in Iran! That these police forces expect our men to interact with the second class gender is a perfect example of what’s wrong with Canadian society.

Having tied up the city for six months straight, causing the already-constrained police force to spend an extra “$12 million” on “Pro-Palestinian” crowd control, it appeared that the Deputy Chief was trying to telegraph to Torontonians and the media at large that her team was not going to stand for an unsanctioned rally celebrating a foreign Dictator’s call for the destruction of Israel.

As much as The Great Satan refers to Iran as a “Terrorist Regime” (and Canada is quite tight with the Americans), it turned out that we had nothing to worry about. It eventually became clear that Police Chief Myron Demkiw agreed to Friday’s scripted TV performance in an effort to keep the silent majority at bay — but the cops know in their hearts that we now own the streets. Otherwise, they’re “racists.”

Part of that mentality is thanks to certain elements within the media. We were encouraged to see some sympathetic journalists fall for the Palestinian Youth Movement’s claims of “police brutality” when TPS horses were deployed on March 31st. When asked, Deputy Chief Pogue told the media that each horse did the work of “10 officers” and were a very effective tool for crowd control.

Didn’t we know it!

The arrests in question were largely expected, as several of us attempted to physically free a protester as they were (probably justifiably) being taken away by police. This particular protester had ignored several hours of police warnings to get down from a pickup’s flatbed as it moved about the city. We were incredulous that TPS had suddenly decided to enforce the Highway Traffic Act, having consciously ignored hundreds of statutory and criminal breaches over the prior weeks.

Such racists!

"For safety reasons, officers have been cautioning demonstration organizers [and drivers specifically] for over a month about not having people in the bed of the truck or attached trailer while it is in motion," said police spokesperson Laurie McCann.

"We made it clear that this stipulation would be in effect at all demonstrations."

While officers were seizing the truck, police allege demonstrators became "aggressive and assaultive" toward officers.

Police said "several people" interfered with the arrest. Four males were arrested for breach of the peace, according to the release. Three were later released unconditionally while one was wanted on a warrant for an unrelated matter and turned over to the OPP.

More importantly, despite arresting them for the Criminal Code violation of breaching the peace, the majority of our Martyrs were later released by TPS’s 51 Division with no conditions! That’s one of the many things we love about Canada.

The Staff Sergeant on duty could have easily charged the four of them with wilfully obstructing a public officer, and possibly police assault, which would have caused them all sorts of problems later in life: no Nexus cards, no crossing at the U.S. border, no airport or banking jobs…. Those who aren’t Canadian citizens could’ve been deported upon conviction of any of these crimes, but TPS turned out to be all bark - no bite, even when we rushed them en masse on Parliament Street.

Could it be that they’re as oblivious of the details of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms as we are?

As we approached our Al-Quds demo’s 3pm start time, I was surprised to find that the TPS Mounted Unit was no where in sight. They’d been shadowing many of our previous weekend rallies, including the March 24th four hour “shut down” of Yonge St. This didn’t make any sense. The Deputy Chief had just given a press conference about us not “disrupting” the city, but it was pretty clear that our accusations of "racism” and “police brutality” had the desired effect on Chief Demkiw: the horse battalion had been put out to pasture for the weekend.

Praise be to God!

We chose the perfect spot on University Avenue to begin our latest “shut down” of Toronto: right in the shadows of the U.S. Consulate, the Ontario Superior Court and the Royal Canadian Military Institute. All three of which we simultaneously mock when we celebrate today’s Iran. After an hour of speeches, we were about to head north towards University Ave. & Dundas Street when I saw TPS arrest a well-known Canadian-Iranian activist by the name of Salman Sima.

TPS accused him of breaching the peace because he was too close to our illegal pro-Iran/ pro-Terror rally. Think about that for a second.

Here I am, blocking northbound access to three different hospitals, waving the flag of Iran, honouring Ayatollah Khomeini - a cold-blooded murderer, arm-in-arm with the Communists, and Toronto’s Finest arrest someone who is brave enough to protest the insanity of it all. The very rally that Ontario’s Premier promised in 2018 would no longer be allowed (and that was long before Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed over a thousand Israelis).

Praise be to God!

As our crowd made it’s way north on University Avenue, we passed the Canadian Airmen’s Memorial. Erected in 1984, this gorgeous monument honours the Canadian airmen and women who fell during the wars, with a particular focus on those who earned the Victoria Cross — the ultimate military honour for gallantry in the British Commonwealth.

Lt. Robert Hampton Gray, VC (RCNVR) is one such pilot, “who fought in the skies to preserve freedom and order in this world.”

As he looked down from Heaven that afternoon, I wondered what Lt. Gray would think of our group’s cause. There’s certainly no “order” in Toronto these days, and the Iranian Regime personifies everything that a brave freedom-loving pilot such as Lt. Gray would despise. Whatever you might think about Iran’s financial and logistical support of Hamas and Hezbollah, it’s hard to believe that Canadians have forgotten that the current Iranian Regime provided support for Osama Bin-Laden’s long and highly effective terrorist campaign against the Western world.

Including 9/11.

I cracked a smile as these Wokesters arrested the one guy protesting the fact that we are defiling Lt. Gray’s memory, along with the hundreds of thousands of other selfless Canadian volunteers who’ve given their bodies and lives since the mid-19th century to ensure that countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Poland, Ukraine, Holland, South Korea, Kuwait and so many more could be free of tyranny; to prevent dictators like Ayatollah Khomeini from thriving.

I wonder how Lt. Gray feels to discover that he died so that Canada could be a nation where people such as myself are allowed — even encouraged — to twist that very freedom into a pointless protest in front of a Jewish-owned coffee shop on Bloor Street, block a CN rail line (see prior post “"No Justice" in Gaza means "No Peace" in Toronto” Mar. 29-24), or call for the death of Jews around the world.

Praise be to God!

MRM

(note: this Diary entry reflects a fictional participant)

(photo credits: MRM)