WARMINGTON: Smoking out Jews with smoke bombs in Big Smoke unacceptable

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In Toronto, Jews and Jewish-owned businesses are being systematically smoked out – but this time something has been done about it.

After a pregnant woman was forced from an outdoor patio because of red smoke billowing in from a protest, Toronto Police indicated enough is enough.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire – and, in this case at Cafe Landwer, a woman with child certainly should never have been put at risk. And now, the person who allegedly ignited the smoke canister toward families enjoying a meal on the patio faces criminal charges.

“Demonstrators stopped their march in front of a business where customers were seated on the patio,” police spokesperson Stephanie Sayer said Friday. “A man involved in the demonstration ignited a flare, producing thick smoke that prompted patio customers to leave the area.”

“The man was identified by officers who were present at the scene,” she added.

Shahrez Hydri, 38, of Beeton, was arrested and charged with mischief – obstruct, interrupts or interferes with the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property.

He is expected to appear in court June 26.

As we have seen before, just because someone who crosses the line during a pro-Hamas or pro-Palestine demonstration doesn’t get arrested immediately, doesn’t mean they won’t be.

“Our city is being overrun by a caustic minority who are being emboldened to act with impunity,” B’nai Brith Canada’s Director of Research and Advocacy Richard Robertson said, who maintains it’s important that bylaws are enforced.

“It is illegal to ignite a smoke flare in a public place,” he said. “Their use during a demonstration is not a protected right. Municipal law enforcement must be empowered to act.”

You know Toronto is not a safe place for Jews when the streets are akin to Kristallnacht pogroms of 1938 Germany and Austria. When pro-Palestine protesters burn coloured smoke grenades that emit noxious substances, you have a city in which Hamas is in charge.

This is the reality of the Big Smoke in 2025.

What happened Thursday at Cafe Landwer on University Ave. – near Adelaide St. W. – was ridiculous, dangerous and not a one-off. If not for police intervening at the urging of a female customer there, who knows how much smoke the people on that patio would have had to endure.

Landwer has been violated numerous times since the Oct. 7 slaughter by Hamas in Israel. Whether it’s Indigo Books, Aroma Cafe, Goldstruck Coffee, or many others, it’s all obscene. It’s been more than 18 months of targeting Jewish enterprises to a point where the people doing it feel they are above the law.

But these charges, which have not yet been tested in court, show the police take such incidents seriously.

Toronto Bylaws state, “ARTICLE V Discharge of Fireworks – General § 466-6. General prohibitions related to the discharge of fireworks. A. (1) No person shall permit a person to discharge fireworks of any kind on property to which they are in lawful care and control unless the person discharging the fireworks has the applicable fireworks discharge permit to do so.”

It’s against the law to burn those flares in public.

“There should be zero-tolerance and no need to check with the (police) chief or mayor (of Toronto),” said Meir Weinstein, of Israel Now. “A swift arrest on the spot, would be appropriate. These flares present a risk to the public and police officers and we have told them we don’t want to see any at next Sunday’s Walk for Israel.”

The end doesn’t justify the means.

“Many Canadians are understandably angry and deeply distressed witnessing Israel intentionally starving the civilian population of Gaza as a weapon of war – an action our Foreign (Affairs) Minister has rightly condemned,” Mohamad Fakih, the owner of Paramount Fine Foods, said in response to watching the video. “We fully expect Canadians to fill the streets in protest, and we must never silence those who courageously speak out for human rights, demand justice, and call for an immediate end to this genocide. At the same time, it remains essential that as we stand in solidarity, we ensure our demonstrations respect and protect the safety and well-being of all people here at home.”

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It’s the same narrative about Israel being pushed by new Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand this week when she told reporters, “We cannot allow the continued use of food as a political tool. Over 50,000 people have died as a result of the aggression caused against the Palestinians and the Gazan people in Palestine. Using food as a political tool is simply unacceptable.”

It’s propaganda spin. Israel is Canada’s ally. Banned terror group Hamas is not. The language Anand used is the stuff that fuels the protests and offers a nudge, nudge, wink, wink, for demonstrators to go ahead and do whatever they want.

Fakih and Anand left out the fact that it was Hamas who caused the war with their gutless mass slayings of more than 1,200 Jews and it’s Hamas who is clinging to power on the backs of innocent Gazans who they prevent from getting needed humanitarian aid.

Every problem in Gaza is because of Hamas and Hamas alone. They caused the war and every death there. If Hamas surrenders, stops firing rockets into Israel, and releases the remaining hostages the war would be over – and the people of Gaza would benefit.

It was Israel that was attacked and it was Jews who were raped, kidnapped and murdered. No matter how loud their haters scream or how many smoke canisters are set off, Israel’s response has been a country defending itself from terror and carnage.

Some truths can’t be rewritten.

Police Chief Myron Demkiw, Mayor Olivia Chow, Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Mark Carney shouldn’t be intimidated by the forces that spin reality. Canadians are tired of seeing Canadian Jews and Jewish businesses targeted – and they want those responsible to be prosecuted.

“This is not a case of having insufficient resources or inadequate legislation to prevent those who choose to abuse their charter rights to act in a nefarious manner from intimidating and obstructing the rights of others,” said Robertson. “There is simply a lack of will to enforce the law and hold those responsible accountable. Order must be restored on our streets.”

It’s long overdue.

These smoke canisters should be banned at protests as a fire and health and safety hazard. And the courts should take seriously anybody who vandalizes, burns or violates Jewish businesses or forces a pregnant woman from her lunch.

jwarmington@postmedia.com