How city hall is keeping a tenuous peace
Protest-free ‘bubble zones’ motion shows split in council
As last month’s Toronto city council meeting stretched late into the evening, a debate began that the mayor and some of her council allies had been trying to avoid.
For months, some city councils, Queen’s Park and Parliament have seen fierce clashes over how to respond to the Israel-Hamas war, and an escalating death toll in Gaza.
Councillors and city hall insiders tell the Star there has been a focus on private, sometimes difficult conversations and behind-the-scenes advocacy over how best to deal with local issues, from the safety concerns of the city’s Jewish community to the Charter rights of pro-Palestinian protesters, with the mayor trying to stick to middle ground and avoid a blowout that would both be unhelpful to the business of city hall, and irresponsibly sow further division in an already tense city.
But the introduction of a motion to request that the province create protest-free “bubble zones” around places of worship and faith-based school and daycares at the last council session threatened to undermine the fragile detente.
The emotional council discussion pit the fears of some councillors and many Jewish Torontonians over a failure to respond to rising antisemitism in the city against the need to protect the right to protest.
Some councillors argued there was a lack of evidence to show “bubble zones” — similar to safe access zones used by abortion providers — are actually needed, and pointed to the broader implications of such legislation that could, for example, curtail the ability of workers to picket.
External groups including The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and Progress Toronto weighed in.
The bubble zone idea came from Vaughan Mayor Stephen Del Duca following a large protest and counter protest at a synagogue hosting a controversial Israeli real estate fair that included land in illegal West Bank settlements.
While Del Duca has tasked Vaughan city staff with creating its own bylaw — a challenging legal proposition — the Toronto motion from Coun. Brad Bradford, seconded by Coun. James Pasternak, would formally ask the province to do it. (Pasternak has already personally advocated for this to the province.)
Instead, by an extremely narrow vote of 13-11, an amendment from Coun. Josh Matlow, who is Jewish, and supported by Mayor Olivia Chow, won. The city manager is now tasked with creating an “action plan” that both allows people to access places of worship without intimidation, and protects the right to protest, using the tools already available to Toronto police and the city.
Chow told the Star this spring that, after Hamas attacked Israel in October, with emotions high among people, including councillors, she gathered them together and said: “We can come together and say ‘no’ to hate.”
Chow, who apologized for early messaging on the conflict that triggered criticism from both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian sides, said her office has worked closely with those of very different views to ensure council’s actions or statements aren’t hurtful to anyone and keep the city focused on many pressing local issues over which it has some control.
“We try our best to find common ground, to have a harmonious council even though there are distinctly different points of view,” Chow said at the time, “and we haven’t seen major conflict.” There have been close calls. After calling a ceremony to raise the Israeli flag for its national day at city hall “divisive” due to the war in Gaza, Chow drew criticism from both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian advocates. She did not attend the flag-raising.
A previous iteration of the bubble zone motion from Bradford was quietly discussed for hours during the March council session, but Chow allies and staff managed to keep it off the agenda.
In February, a motion by the staunchly pro-Israel Pasternak asked Toronto police to set a framework to “conduct enforcement” on protests. It narrowly passed, with the mayor unexpectedly breaking a tie. The motion didn’t mention Israel or pro-Palestinian demonstrations but it didn’t have to — everyone knew the unwritten subtext.
Pasternak, who is Jewish and has been personally targeted, including a protest choir that linked him with Palestinian children’s deaths and a threat that triggered a criminal charge, has moderated his motions and speeches. He says he has consulted Chow and, colleagues confirm, worked to craft motions that will garner majority support rather than provoke dissent — a different approach from some of his advocacy efforts outside city hall.
“The first rule of debating the Middle East is not to debate the Middle East,” Pasternak told the Star.
“It is too messy, it is too complicated, it creates unnecessary friction,” and Torontonians want council to focus on local issues, the veteran councillor added.
An example of the unified approach is an anti-hate motion brought by Chow in October that included a request for police to create “community safety zones” that would entail consulting with potential hate targets, including places of worship and cultural or religious schools and daycares “about steps that can be taken to be and feel safe from hate.”
The motion passed unanimously, but the frustrations of Pasternak and Coun. Dianne Saxe, a Jewish councillor who has also expressed her concerns in council about rising antisemitism, have continued to grow as they say they have seen no progress on these “community safety zones.”
That’s what led to the motion in last month’s council session, which Pasternak acknowledged brought the conflict to the council floor.
“We cannot ignore the fear that our city is no longer safe for all, police services have been stretched to the limit, and there are no easy fixes to the crisis that we face. These all need a response by our municipal government,” Pasternak said, citing both frequent protests and the university student encampments.
“There is a lot of healing to do in the city and a lot of work that has to be done around the council chamber.”
Saxe was also disappointed that the bubble zone motion failed, but said she is looking forward to “seeing the ‘action plan’ lead to some visible action.”
“Many Jewish Torontonians (and others) understandably feel abandoned by the city, as well as unfairly blamed for a horrible foreign war that we did not start and cannot control,” Saxe said in an email, criticizing the lack of implementation of the community safety zones.
“Public safety is a shared public responsibility, but Jewish organizations and institutions are being left to shoulder huge private security costs in order to run everyday activities such as a prayer service, a daycare, a school or a meeting. Or must choose not to gather as Jews because of burgeoning security costs.”
While Pasternak condemned “illegal hate protests” in Toronto criticizing Israel as threatening the city’s social cohesion and international reputation for harmony, other councillors have stressed pro-Palestinian protesters have the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
Pasternak described a recent letter signed by a handful of councillors closely allied with Chow supporting the right to protest in the wake of police clashes with protesters as throwing a “grenade” into the issue — the very opposite of the conciliatory approach the mayor has been taking.
The councillors’ letter came after some pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested at a demonstration in March. Other protesters present described excessive use of force by police after the downtown march was stopped.
“Our city relies on preserving the peace and de-escalation as priorities especially during protests, marches, and large gatherings, and treating all people with respect and dignity,” Coun. Ausma Malik posted on X alongside the letter, which drew the ire of the Toronto police union.
Coun. Alejandra Bravo, one of those who signed the letter, disagreed strongly with Pasternak’s characterization of the letter, noting that she has not had a private conversation with Pasternak other than during a council meeting to discuss the importance of protecting protest rights.
Canadians’ rights to expression and assembly are foundational and cannot be abandoned, Bravo said, noting the statement doesn’t criticize any group.
“If we start to clamp down (on those rights) for one situation, what does that do for other communities?” she said. “Labour organizing, for example, or, Indigenous people who are asserting their rights within Canada.
“I think we’re responding to the concerns that are coming from our constituents … that they want to be able to exercise these rights freely and that calls to limit them are problematic to democracy.”
We cannot ignore the fear that our city is no longer safe for all, police services have been stretched to the limit, and there are no easy fixes to the crisis that we face. These all need a response by our municipal government.
JAMES PASTERNAK CITY COUNCILLOR