Toronto councillor calls on Attorney General for religious safe zones

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A Toronto city councilor has written to the Attorney General of Ontario asking for the creation of “safety zones” around places of worship and community social infrastructure.

In his letter to Doug Downey, Councillor Brad Bradford of Toronto’s Beaches-East York ward notes that Toronto police last week reported a 93 per cent increase in hate crimes in the city since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

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“A shocking 56% of incidents have been anti-semitic and target Toronto’s Jewish community,” the letter states, “but there have also been increases in anti-LGBTQ hate, anti-Black hate, and anti-Arab, Muslim and Palestinian hate.”

In adds: “Devastatingly, protests and demonstrations continue to target places of worship and other religious or culturally affiliated spaces, thereby creating fear and distress for many Torontonians. No one should be made to feel unsafe in their community, unsafe openly practicing their faith or unsafe accessing other critical community social infrastructure.”

Bradford noted that six months have passed since the city’s councillors unanimously passed a motion called “Keeping Toronto Safe from Hate.” This motion included a request to the Toronto Police Services Board to create “community safety zones … inclusive of areas surrounding places of worship and cultural and religious daycares and schools recognized as a potential target for hate.”

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However, the letter says that, to date, no such zones have been created in Toronto. “There is a clear need for leadership to ensure everyone in our city feels safe,” it says.

“This is why I am writing to urge you to introduce legislation at the earliest opportunity to create safety zones (modelled on Ontario’s “bubble zone” law that protects women’s access to reproductive health) around places of worship, faith-based schools, community centres, and other institutions of a religious or cultural nature,” Bradford writes.

“While we must protect the right to peaceful protest and to voice one’s opinions, these rights are not without limits and must not extend to protests that target known gathering places of identifiable groups under the Ontario Human Rights Code.”

Bradford’s letter comes a week after a similar announcement by Steven Del Duca, mayor of Vaughan, who called for city staff to bring forward a bylaw designed to protect places of worship and other institutions from unruly protesters.

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