Misinformation that authorities stood by and allowed pro-Palestine protesters to “take over” the Eaton Centre spread on social media and talk radio after a demonstration in the mall lasted about 10 minutes on Boxing Day.
Amid a crowd of shoppers, about 40 protesters with the Palestinian Youth Movement chanted “Free, free Palestine” and unfurled a large banner depicting the face of Benjamin Netanyahu. The words “Arrest this criminal” were emblazoned on the banner, in reference to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant out for the Israeli prime minister. A second, smaller banner was unfurled that read “Canada is still arming Israel.”
The demonstration was timed with the end of the 4 p.m. light show held at the Eaton Centre’s Christmas tree, protest organizers told TorontoToday.
But after about 10 minutes, the protest was dispersed by mall security and police officers who were already on-site, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) told TorontoToday.
Security and police “asked the individuals to leave the premises” and the group exited the mall “without incident by 4:15 p.m.,” media relations officer Ashley Visser said. No injuries were reported and no arrests were made, TPS added.
Despite the brief nature of the protest, the demonstration ignited a firestorm of social media commentary, resulting in “Eaton Centre” trending on X for most of Friday. Several social media comments helped spread a false narrative that Toronto police and Eaton Centre security did nothing to disperse the protesters.
Terry Newman, a senior comment editor for the National Post, further spread the accusation in a radio interview with Spadina—Fort York MP Kevin Vuong. Newman witnessed the protest in person and posted a video of the demonstration that quickly went viral on X after being re-shared on multiple accounts.
“Security was there. They weren’t doing anything,” Newman told Vuong on 640 Toronto Friday morning. (Vuong is a regular contributor on 640 Toronto. He was ejected from the Liberal Party in 2021 due to a dropped sexual assault charge.)
Timestamped video reveals how quickly authorities stepped in, removed banners
Timestamped videos of the protest obtained by TorontoToday confirm TPS’ timeline of events and show authorities engaged the protesters almost immediately.
The large banner was unfurled at 4:03 p.m., kicking off the demonstration, video shows. Authorities in high-visibility jackets appeared two minutes later and began speaking to the protesters. Within three minutes, authorities removed the smaller banner, yanking it from the hands of protesters.
By 4:10 p.m., the large banner had been removed as well, and security and police officers ushered protesters toward the exit.
“We were being shoved, pushed and pressured to leave,” said Adham Diabas, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement who said the protest has been spun into something much larger than it was.
“There’s this narrative that we took over Eaton Centre,” he said. “There was no takeover … We were there for a total of 10 minutes.”
Eaton Centre owner Cadillac Fairview told TorontoToday that its security team “immediately engaged the group, who complied with direction to remove the banner and disperse from the property.”
“Cadillac Fairview respects the right of individuals to express their opinions through peaceful demonstrations. However, it's crucial to highlight that our centres are private property and we neither condone nor permit these activities within our properties,” the company added.
Allegations of a double standard
When asked whether Newman stood by her claim that authorities didn’t do anything to stop the protesters, she told TorontoToday “they may have cleared them eventually.”
She added the protest “seemed longer than 10 minutes to me” but she “did not stick around to time it.” Newman did not respond to a follow-up question about why she made such allegations on the radio if she didn’t stay longer than 10 minutes to see the protest be cleared.
In her radio interview with Vuong, Newman used mall security’s purported lack of action to accuse Cadillac Fairview of exercising a double standard — suggesting the corporation treated the Palestine supporters better than it treated Freedom Convoy protesters in Ottawa in 2022.
Allegations of a “double standard” were also spread by Shopify CEO Tobias Lutke, who suggested in an X post that law enforcement was giving preferential treatment to some protest movements.
“Some causes seem to be allowed behavior that would never be tolerated from other causes. This double standard has to stop,” he wrote, tagging Mayor Olivia Chow.
Lutke’s allegations come as some Palestine protesters accuse Toronto police of brutality and surveillance. One pro-Palestine protester who had charges dropped against him shared video of his arrest with media outlets that appeared to show a Toronto police officer kneeling on his neck for about eight seconds.
Toronto Sun columnist accuses protesters of ‘lying’ about not targeting Indigo, calls for their arrest
Lutke’s remarks came in response to an earlier post by Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilley, who claimed the Boxing Day protest targeted Indigo, a Canadian book store chain headed by CEO Heather Reisman.
Organizer Diabas told TorontoToday this is false. Palestine activists take issue with Indigo due to Reisman’s charitable support of former Israeli Defence Force soldiers through her HESEG Foundation, Diabas said, but that wasn’t the focus of the Boxing Day protest.
“The goal was to remind and, most importantly, educate the Canadian public that there is still an active genocide taking place,” Diabas said, adding that protesters reiterated their calls for an arms embargo between Canada and Israel.
“While you’re shopping, bombs are dropping,” reads a flyer the protesters dispersed on Boxing Day.
In an interview with TorontoToday, Lilley claimed protesters were “lying” about not targeting Indigo and doubled down on comments made online that protesters should be arrested and non-citizens deported.
“I think that arrests are necessary because this … mob has been holding the city hostage since October 7,” Lilley said by phone. “At a certain point you have to start enforcing the law. If that includes arresting people for a 10-minute demonstration like this to send a message that you are no longer in control of the streets, that you are no longer allowed to do whatever you want, then I am for that.”
Calls to arrest protesters are “dangerous,” according to Gur Tsabar, spokesperson for Jews Say No To Genocide.
“These are literally people who are asking for Canada to stop using our money, our taxpayer dollars, to fund and aid in the killing of their relatives,” he said. “To suppress that kind of speech should terrify every Canadian.”
Since the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre of Israelis by the militant group Hamas, more than 45,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, including around 14,500 young people.
Israel continues near daily airstrikes in the region. One UNICEF spokesperson said last week that “over 96% of women and children in Gaza cannot meet their basic nutritional needs,”
The initial Oct. 7 attack left about 1,200 people dead and saw 254 people taken hostage by Hamas, according to the U.S. State Department.
Diabas said he’s not surprised by the social media reaction to the Eaton Centre protest, but he said the discomfort of having one’s Boxing Day shopping disrupted for 10 minutes pales in comparison to the plight of Gazans, who have been “burnt, bombed, starved and buried under the rubble.”
Diabas told TorontoToday he was born in a refugee camp in the West Bank. He said over 40 members of his family have been killed in Gaza.
Diabas was arrested and charged with assault with a weapon for allegedly throwing a water bottle at police during a pro-Palestine protest. He told TorontoToday the charges are “bogus” and he expects them to be dropped.
