WARMINGTON: Oversight needed after ambulance with child inside diverted by rally

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The emergency for Toronto may not just be that an ambulance with a child on board was blocked from getting to a hospital by a pro-Gaza protest, but that the demonstration is considered by the city to be a higher priority.

An ambulance responding Saturday to a child in medical distress needed to use a detour to get around a pro-Palestinian protest at Yonge and Bloor Sts. and was forced to find another route to a hospital upon loading the stretcher-bound child.

“It was shocking,” said journalist and lawyer Caryma Sa’d, who said paramedic sources expressed their anger that there was difficultly responding to a call for a child facing a medical issue because of a blocked intersection. “I fully expected the ambulance would be able to get through the intersection, as I have seen happen at other demonstrations.”

Certainly from a parent’s point of view, calling an ambulance for your child is traumatic enough, let alone said ambulance not being able to have a clear route to the hospital.

Toronto Paramedic Services and Mayor Olivia Chow’s office have not yet responded to questions about this. But Toronto Police responded, saying they did not believe the incident had risen to the level of an emergency. If they did, police said they don’t need an Emergencies Act declaration from Ottawa to clear the route, as some protesters believe.

“Police have emergency powers and if officers determine that demonstrators need to be moved to facilitate emergency access, they will act accordingly,” said Toronto Police spokesperson Stephanie Sayer.

Sa’d and her videographer captured the child being put into the ambulance, which was forced to make a U-turn on Bloor. Another videographer, who goes by Documenting Reality on social media, also captured the ambulance having difficulty getting to the call.

Both of these videos should be reviewed by authorities.

“In this case, the ambulance did not activate its lights or sirens – a clear indication of an emergency – and officers were not advised of any urgent need to clear a path,” said Sayer. “If someone required an emergency run to the hospital, they would have taken immediate action.”

With none of that happening, this large crowd, which routinely blocks the intersection and other roadways since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel, was given courtesy over an ambulance transporting a child.

“It’s complicated because it’s not clear if the people protesting were aware of the ambulance call,” said Sa’d, adding she has previously seen demonstrators clear a path for emergency vehicles.

It’s still unclear how the child is now. There have been inquiries, but so far no one has been able to indicate what happened after the incident.

“The individual being transported to hospital was not involved in the demonstration,” said Sayer, adding as a result they “do not have information on them or their health status.”

What I think should happen here is a full investigation into every part of this situation. The condition of the child is most important, but there is also a need for a better understanding of the urgency of the call, the decision to not turn on the lights and sirens and why a path through the crowd wasn’t cleared.

Was there a concern of a trampling or pushback or is it another case where protesters could escalate matters should police try to intervene?

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Whatever it is, there is something very wrong in Toronto. It’s mind-boggling that anti-Israel protesters continue to control Toronto’s streets. They are given too much leeway. They go where they want, intimidate who they want and sometimes use troubling language to rally their supporters.

Whether it be sparking a smoke grenade on the street or calling for escalation in support of Hamas’s war with Israel or now diverting the route of an ambulance trying to transport a child to a hospital, the police and city have lost control of the streets. No matter the excuse, police would not tolerate this from anybody else.

It it were a Christian pro-life protest or a trucker rally, none of the things the pro-Palestinian demonstrators do weekly would be tolerated.

In every case, these protests do not have permits to clog roadways and are not asked to cover the cost of the policing like the Jewish community is asked to do for the Walk With Israel, which is also required to have provisions in place for emergency calls.

What should happen is all future protests should be confined to public squares at Queen’s Park or Nathan Phillips Square and not on a roadway unless the necessary permits and emergency plans are in place.

With so many hospitals downtown, it has never made sense that protesters take precedence over patients in ambulances.

It needs to stop and that should happen now.