Toronto pro-Palestinian activists have been subjected to two attacks with noxious substances in just over two weeks, according to the Toronto Police Service (TPS) and the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM).
A 59-year-old man was arrested on Monday and charged with assault with a weapon and administering a noxious substance after spraying participants of a Palestinian flag raising at Toronto City Hall.
TPS said that resident Darren Richmond had approached the victim, sprayed him with the substance, then fled the scene before he was located by officers.
NCCM said on X/Twitter that Richmond appeared to be opposed to the raising of the flag to commemorate the Palestinian National Council’s 1988 adoption of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence.
“Let us make no mistake about it – this kind of action is designed to cause terror, fear, and intimidation at an event at the City of Toronto,” said NCCM.
Pro-Palestine protesters threatened with chemicals
Just over two weeks prior, another person was arrested for threatening pro-Palestinian protesters with a chemical.
Gabriella Bodis was arrested and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon on November 2. The 67-year-old Toronto woman got into a verbal altercation with a demonstrator and shook a bottle with the apparent intention of spraying a liquid at the victim. Officers intervened and arrested the woman.
NCCM published on social media a picture of a woman wearing a Jewish Defense League shirt and holding a bottle of ammonium hydroxide.
The weekly anti-Israel protests in the heavily Jewish Bathurst and Sheppard area have drawn the ire of the community.
Conservative Party deputy leader Melissa Lantsman said on social media on Monday that the masked protests were aimed at intimidating Jews where they lived.
“Toronto Police are allowing it and politicians are silent when agitators [are] marching through a Jewish community, parading in front of a synagogue founded by Holocaust survivors to protest a foreign conflict,” said Lantsman. “It’s arrogant and yet completely normalized and clearly has nothing to do with Israel anymore.”