Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow is defending her handling of protests over the Israel-Hamas war that have rocked the city over the past year, a day after she faced criticism for missing a vigil to mark the anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack which sparked the war.

In a sit-down interview with CP24 Breakfast Thursday, Chow was asked to address the perception that not enough is being done to police alleged hate speech at some protests, including calls for Israel’s destruction.

“The chief of police has the authority to lay charges if it’s a hate crime, and he has done that, and in Canada, the rule of law says that if there is a hate crime being committed, it is the police that make the decision who to arrest and who to charge, not a politician,” Chow said. “You don’t want that right, because you know, that’s what democracy is about.”

Chow told CP24 that “people have a right to assemble” so long as it “doesn’t cross the line.”

But she did acknowledge that there is a debate about where that line should be.

“What is the line is what is being debated right now, and is debated in law and debated in the courts, and there is a healthy debate out in the in the public realm,” she said.

Since Oct. 7, Toronto police have responded to more than 1,500 protests in the city and arrested 72 people.

A number of pro-Palestinian groups in the city have denied that their protests are hateful or antisemitic and have said their focus is on trying to end a war which has left more than 41,000 Palestinians dead.

However, some of the protests have at times included calls for Israel’s destruction, celebration and justification of the Oct. 7 massacre, and alleged hate speech.

Protesters have also targeted Jewish neighbourhoods, synagogues and community spaces, saying they are in fact targeting supporters of the Israel government rather than Jews per se.

There have also been instances in which protesters have blocked roads and flooded into shopping centres.

Toronto police charged a man with incitement of hatred in April in connection with a pro-Palestinian protest at Nathan Phillips Square, but such charges are rare.

Chow said Thursday her role as mayor is to “bring people together” and that it’s not her job to direct police or to push for charges.

However she noted that she did show up when a Jewish girls' school was shot at and when synagogues have been vandalized. She also pointed out that she condemned an incident earlier this year when protesters climbed on top of Mount Sinai Hospital to wave flags and said it is “totally unacceptable behavior.”

“In the last year or so it has probably been eight or nine times where I have been very clear to say that hate has no place in the city,” she said.

Chow’s comments on Thursday come after she faced criticism for skipping the vigil to mark the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre earlier this week.

In her interview on CP24, Chow was asked how it was that she attends so many events, but missed the vigil, which drew an estimated 20,000 people and 40 other invited dignitaries, including the premier and several councillors.

“You know, at the end of the day on Monday, I wore black,” Chow said. “Mourning the loss of life was top of my mind.”

Chow’s office initially said they didn’t receive an invitation to the event, but organizers shared three emails sent to the mayor’s office, one of them directly to her executive assistant. Coun. James Pasternak also confirmed he asked the mayor ahead of time if she planned to attend.

She told Newstalk 1010 Wednesday that she had a meeting on bike lanes to attend in The Kingsway area and she was exhausted afterward and didn’t know what time the vigil started.

She indicated Thursday that she was surprised to find she didn’t have an event on her schedule to mark the date.

“I just count on my staff to tell me where I’m going. And by late evening, when I finished it (the meeting on bike lanes), I thought, ‘Hmm, this is it?’” Chow said. “So then I may not have made it anyway. But it’s neither here nor there. I regret it not being able to be there. I apologize to the Jewish community and will do better.”

In May, Chow declined to attend a flag-raising for Israel Independence Day, saying it was “a bit divisive” given the war and the constant protests. A month later, she also skipped the “Walk with Israel,” which drew an estimated 50,000 people.

She did point out on Thursday that she took part in a lunchtime event earlier this week to mark the Jewish New Year at city hall. She said she also hosted a Passover dinner at city hall with leaders of the Jewish community, and has spoken out about rising antisemitism.

Toronto police said last week that hate crimes against the Jewish community are up 69 per cent year-to-date and hate crimes against the Muslim and Palestinian communities are up 40 per cent year-to-date.

“There is a lot of intense motions you see being played out on the street,” Chow said. “My role as the mayor is to build bridges to say that what’s happening in the Middle East is horrific, is terrible, and here in the city, we can see each other, take better care of each other and see if we could come together even more.”

She added that “we need to be very clear that this is a Toronto for all. Hate has no place.”

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs issued a statement Wednesday slamming Chow’s reasons for missing the vigil as “embarrassing” and saying the community was disappointed that she didn’t show up.

The Backlash

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow cited miscommunication, a lost email, and a busy work schedule as some of the reasons behind her glaring absence at a memorial and vigil marking the anniversary of the October 7 massacre on Monday.

Chow began a news conference before Wednesday’s city council meeting with a statement in which she “acknowledged the deep pain and anguish in our city.”

“Monday was a difficult day for so many people,” she said. “It was the grim anniversary of the October 7 attack by Hamas in Israel which claimed the lives of 1,200 people and the abduction of over 200, many of whom are still held hostage.

“For Toronto’s Jewish community, it was a deeply painful day.”

When asked by a journalist why she was just making a statement now, days after the anniversary, Chow shot back that she actually released a statement on Friday, days before the anniversary.

“It’s a very extensive statement,” she said.

“There’s a lot of grieving and emotions are very high and I regret that I missed the Jewish memorial, the anniversary … I think there was some miscommunication from my office and the organizers. But that’s in the past.”

Chow said she’s hoping to meet with Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and UJA Federation of Greater Toronto — the Jewish organizations that put on Monday’s vigil in an effort smooth things over.

“We will talk about how we will not miss each other again and yes I will apologize for not being able to make Monday evening’s event. It is important to mourn and grieve together. It was a deeply painful day.”

When asked to elaborate on what she meant by “miscommunication” she added: “I don’t know the details but my office did not get the email (about the event) that was sent to us.”

Chow said the City’s IT department was looking in it, but she tried to shut down questions that sought further detail.

“I wasn’t there and let’s do better,” she said, before also adding that a heavy work load ahead of this week’s council meetings played a role.

“Our office, as you know, was getting ready for council on Wednesday,” she said. She also noted that there were “several shootings” in Toronto.

“Myself and my office, we were stretched,” she explained. “There was a substantial amount of work that was in front of us.”

Not long after Chow’s conference, CIJA released a statement calling her excuses “embarrassing exercises in avoiding accountability for her and her staff who disappointed thousands and thousands of members of Toronto’s Jewish community.”

CIJA also cited an interview Chow gave to a local radio station where she reportedly said she was “exhausted” after a meeting about bike lanes that went late on Monday.

“As exhausting as discussing bike lanes may be for the Mayor, we assure her the Jewish community is more exhausted. Over the last year, Toronto’s Jewish community has had to justify their right to exist as Jews, feeling unsafe as constituents in the city Mayor Chow is purported to lead. Although she claims she wants her city to be safe and inclusive for everyone, her persistent inaction says otherwise.”

During Wednesday’s press conference, Chow said she accepted an invitation by Coun. James Pasternak to attend a Rosh Hashanah event.

“Let me be clear,” CIJA responded. “Showing up to a Rosh Hashanah event to celebrate the Jewish New Year is not the same as paying respects to the 1,200 lives lost and the 101 hostages remaining in Gaza since October 7, 2023.”

A Divided Council

Several members of Chow’s council weighed in on her controversial absence and the way she’s handled it.

Coun. Jon Burnside called Chow’s lost email excuse “a bit embarrassing.”

“I know Coun. Pasternak already inquired if she would be going to the vigil,” he said. “(A lost email) is not the answer I would have liked to heard. Missing an email about a really important event seems like you have either a real problem in your office, you aren’t aware of the days of the week, or there’s something more going on. It was a pretty disappointing answer in my opinion.”

Burnside admitted that he didn’t attend the memorial either, saying he was at a long-planned community town hall on Monday night. “Quite frankly I’m not the mayor,” he said, stressing that the mayor’s job is to represent all of the city.

Coun. Brad Bradford, one of Chow’s most vocal opponents, also wasn’t buying the missed email story.

“She’s known about October 7 for 365 days. Nobody else didn’t get the email, didn’t get the memo,” he said. “At the end of the day it’s disappointing, it’s heartbreaking. There are so many people in the Jewish community who are reeling right now.”

“Leadership is about showing up.”

Coun. Diane Saxe wasn’t so quick to judge. “I don’t know what happened, certainly I would have been grateful to have her there. I know that she has many other demands on her time and there can be mix-ups. I just don’t know what happened.”

Coun. Pasternak says while there’s no point in harbouring bad feelings towards the mayor, he’s skeptical about her reasons for missing the event, confirming that he personally spoke to Chow about attending, and says he’s seen evidence of multiple emails that were sent to her office.

“I must admit it was disappointing she wasn’t there,” he said. “This was a major community event. She is the mayor of all Torontonians regardless of various beliefs. At the same time I see no point in carrying a grudge or going beyond that. We are disappointed but I hope we can get her out to future events.

“I asked her whether she was going to come,” he explained, adding that organizers sent at least three email invites. “I think the organizers did everything they could to make her realize she was welcome.”

“I don’t know the operations of her office. If these emails didn’t make it to her desk … I can’t speak to that. The invitations were expressed and were given and it was our hope that she would be there.”

A Sombre Anniversary

Thousands gathered at Lipa Green Centre in North York to commemorate the one year anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Israel. The North York event was organized by the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, a Toronto-based Jewish organization with the mission “to preserve and strengthen the quality of Jewish life in Greater Toronto, Canada, Israel and around the world,” according to its website. Several politicians, including other members of city council, such as Brad Bradford and Dianne Saxe, attended the event on the evening of Oct. 7, including Premier Doug Ford.

The anniversary of the 2023 attack in Israel, in which Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted roughly 240 others, was sombrely marked across the city. Since the initial attack by Hamas, Israel has responded with an ongoing bombardment of Gaza that local health officials say has killed roughly 42,000 Palestinians and displaced many more as the landscape of Gaza has been turned into rubble.

Chow said her staff were stretched thin Monday, responding to a spate of violence that occurred over the past week, a park maintenance report that highlighted shortcomings in the oversight of staff, the continued saga of the vacant home tax and the return of city council Wednesday.

“So myself and my officer were extensively … we were stretched because this is council week and there was a substantial amount of work that was in front of us.”

“I don’t know at this point, it doesn’t matter,” Chow said after being pressed for details on why she didn’t attend.

“I wasn’t there,” Chow said. “Let’s be better.”

The mayor said she would be meeting leaders from UJA and CIJA, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, on Wednesday to apologize for not being able to make it to the vigil.

“I will apologize for not being able to make Monday evening’s event.”

With files from Ben Spurr 

Andy Takagi is a Toronto-based general assignment reporter for the Star. Reach him via email: [email protected]

To join the conversation set a first and last name in your user profile.

Sign in or register for free to join the Conversation