New Toronto group rallies, marches outside city hall to show opposition to extremism

Members of a newly formed group rallied and marched outside Toronto city hall on Sunday to show their opposition to extremism and their support for Ottawa residents.

Community Solidarity Toronto, a coalition of labour, anti-racist and social organizations, said its rally and march was intended to be non-confrontational. The coalition says it is inspired by and takes it name from Community Solidarity Ottawa, a group of anti-convoy protestors.

On Facebook, the coalition said Ottawa neighbourhoods "have been subjected to almost three weeks of racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny and homophobic harassment, bullying and intimidation" and residents "have had to live with the noise and toxic fumes of diesel engines and at times the blaring of truck horns."

The coalition said: "We are marching to ensure that this does not happen in the streets and neighbourhoods of Toronto."

Philip Berger, a coalition member and a doctor who helped organize a counter protest in Toronto two weeks ago, said health-care workers have been subject to what he calls racist, misogynist and homophobic attacks simply for vaccinating and speaking out in favour of public health measures.

Berger said the coalition wanted to show its support for the work that health care workers are doing.

The coalition, however, also opposes "racism, right wingers taking over the country, people occupying our capital, failure of government to deal with the blockades across the country, the occupation of Ottawa," he said.

"We are also here because some parliamentarians who have encouraged this occupation have lauded the occupiers who have betrayed our country as heroes, which they're not."

Berger said he does not believe what happened in Ottawa will happen in Toronto, saying "the police are incredibly well prepared, they have good intelligence, and if it did happen here, the community would rise up very quickly and push them back as they eventually did in Ottawa."

On Saturday, police in Ottawa regained parts of the downtown core from protesters against vaccine mandates. Officers, including members of the Ontario Provincial Police, Sûreté du Quebec, Toronto's public order unit and Durham Region in Ontario, took part in Saturday's operation. 

Yolanda B'Dacy, a member of the executive board of the Toronto York Regional Labour Council and an executive member of Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario Local 12, said Sunday's rally in Toronto was very important.

"There's been a lot of negative talk from people who have been spreading hate in our nation's capital and in our city," B'Dacy said. 

"I wanted to come to say that the majority of people, the majority of workers and community members stand with and support health-care workers."

B'Dacy said the views expressed by convoy protesters do not represent the views of most Canadians, saying the COVID-19 vaccine mandates are not designed to take away freedoms.