Toronto police spent $19.5M on response to Israel-Gaza war protests last year: report
Figure includes cost of engagement with Jewish and Muslim communities, report says
Toronto police spent $19.5 million in 2024 on policing demonstrations and "proactive engagement" with Jewish and Muslim communities amid the Israel-Gaza war, according to a new report.
The report, written by Chief Myron Demkiw, says officers responded to over 2,000 unplanned events last year — more than half of which were related to Project Resolute, the service's term for policing protests and increasing their presence among targeted communities after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the resulting war in Gaza.
A spokesperson for Toronto police said officers have conducted more than 60,000 community visits since October 7, 2023 but would not provide specific examples.
Eighty-seven per cent of these visits were to places of worship, followed by day schools at 12 per cent, and attendance at "festivals, events, and other places of significance," Stephanie Sayer said in an email on Friday.
"This heightened visibility and presence in communities across the city aims to enhance community safety and provide residents with a greater sense of security," she said.
In Demkiw's report, which will be presented at a Toronto police board meeting on April 10, he wrote the nearly $20 million figure includes $8 million in premium pay costs. These costs happen when officers work beyond their shift or are required to work additional shifts.
Demkiw said this reliance on premium pay happened because less officers were available to respond to unplanned events, due to redeployment of officers to other units and changes in the police scheduling model,
Police had also "dedicated substantial on-duty resources to [Project Resolute], resulting in premium pay expenses in units experiencing cascading impacts due to staffing shortages from this reallocation," Demkiw wrote.
Hate crimes spiked in Toronto last year
In June, police said reports of hate incidents had spiked 64 per cent in Toronto since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023.
More than half of the reported hate crimes targeted Jewish people, police said at the time. This was followed by, in order, incidents against the 2SLGBTQ+ community, Black and Muslim communities. Police also expressed concern that Islamophobic incidents are being significantly underreported.
Many of the hate crimes have involved graffiti, threats and assaults — often at synagogues and mosques — but include a Jewish girls school that was shot at three times in 2024 and suspected arson at a Jewish-owned deli.
After the Oct. 7 attack, police said they immediately increased patrols in Jewish communities in the city, as well as cultural centres, synagogues, mosques, schools and other places of worship.
They also established a command centre in a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood and made regular check-ins with synagogues and mosques in the city, police said in June.
But Toronto police have been criticized for their policing after the war broke out, with pro-Palestinian demonstrators accusing officers of police brutality after several people were arrested at a protest in March 2024.
In response, deputy chief Lauren Pogue said demonstrators had become increasingly aggressive.
"We respect the right to assembly and to expression, but it's crucial to understand these rights are not limitless," she said at the time.
"I'm also here to tell people that if they're going to break the law, they're going to assault our police officers or assault our police forces, there will be consequences, and they will be arrested."
Last December, demonstrators released a video appearing to show a Toronto police officer kneeling on a man's neck during a pro-Palestinian protest, though police said the tactic was not used.
Activists also criticized the police response after an Indigo store on Bay and Bloor streets was vandalized by pro-Palestinian protestors in November 2023.
The chain has been the target of a national boycott campaign, which protestors say is due to Indigo CEO Heather Reisman's patronage of a charity that gives scholarships to Israeli Defence Forces veterans.
While Jewish groups called the vandalism an antisemitic attack — because Reisman is Jewish — activists said that police took excessive steps while arresting the protestors, such as raiding homes in the middle of the night and ransacking their apartments.
Police have said officers conducted "judicially authorized" search warrants as part of their investigation. Charges have since been dropped for seven of the 11 people who were initially charged in the vandalism.
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With files from Ioanna Roumeliotis and Mia Sheldon