WARMINGTON: Pro-Hamas protesters playing games with police

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Pro-Hamas protesters keep pushing their luck and pretty soon their luck is going to run out.

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Certainly, the city’s patience has.

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And now Toronto Police have started to push back. But they need full the support of Mayor Olivia Chow, Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Cops also need to know the citizens of Toronto have their backs as well. And that support has to be clear and concise.

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Neither the Avenue Rd. bridge over Hwy. 401, nor any other part of Toronto, belongs to these protesters. So if the anti-Israel bullies won’t take their protest elsewhere, then they need to be taken to jail.

They are behaving like thugs and Toronto Police have been nothing but patient with them.

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Even with Chief Myron Demkiw’s respectful directive that the overpass was now no longer a tolerated zone for protests, these disrespectful jerks defied the law and went out there anyway.

One of the protesters seen in a video posted on X by Caryma Sa’d appears to be Skigh Johnson, a 25-year-old woman who was arrested by the Hate Crimes Unit in November 2023 and charged with “mischief interfere with the enjoyment of property” for allegedly vandalizing a Starbucks in Forest Hill.

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And police were still gentle with them compared to other incidents we have seen in the past. The officers who braved the cold on the bridge Saturday afternoon, trying valiantly to reason with demonstrators, each deserves a commendation. They did everything possible to de-escalate the situation. They were doing their job.

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Cops politely stood their ground against this defiant group of protesters, calmly warning them over and over to get off of the overpass — repeatedly explaining that they didn’t want to have to arrest anyone.

But the protesters refused to move and three of them were ultimately arrested. Cyrus Reynolds, 33, of Newmarket was charged with mischief, and the other two, Hesham Aly, 36, of Toronto and Ali Nasser, 26, of Mississauga were charged with obstructing police.

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If this defiance keeps up, maybe Trudeau will have to do what he did to deal with the Freedom Convoy truckers and invoke the Emergencies Act?

That would give police the power to arrest anybody who goes on the overpass — no questions asked.

If the current laws are not working nor being respected, more weight may be needed to get this crisis under control.

And if pro-Hamas supporters return to the bridge on Sunday, then opposition politicians must call out the Liberal government’s hypocrisy on how they went full tilt on non-violent truckers but soft on people who are supporting the slaughter of 1,200 Jews by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023.

This can’t be allowed to continue as is. The city cannot be run by terrorist supporters.

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Police need backup and they need the tools to deal with an insurrectionist force that doesn’t respect law and order.

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The last thing police want is to see a riot on or near the bridge, but they also cannot let people get the better of Chief Demkiw.

Strong and swift action is going to have to come. A message has been sent, and no one on that side is listening. They don’t seem to care. They want a showdown.

They want trouble and they are playing a game out there – talking back to police, challenging authority, even pretending to fall down.

It’s all theatre.

As Warren Kinsella has reported, many are nothing put paid operatives.

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They all should end up in court.

For now, they are trying to establish that they control the city, and they can do anything they want, anywhere they want.

Police brought out the horses to remove a guy from his own restaurant during the pandemic, so they should certainly be able to bring the Mounted Unit out to remove illegal protesters from a major bridge.

The overpass is a no-go zone for protesting and anybody who defies that is nothing but a law-breaker.

If politically correct Canada allows these disrupters to win, then Toronto – and Canada – will be lost.

The time to end the nonsense has long passed. Now is the time to show the pro-Hamas supporters who is in control of the city.

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