Councillor pleads for OPP help as protest shuts down Hwy. 401 overpass

Article content

A pro-Palestine protest and a pro-Israel counterprotest shut down a Hwy. 401 overpass on Sunday with a Toronto city councillor urging the OPP to work with Toronto Police to deter such disruptions.

Article content

The competing rallies, which included protesters waving flags and setting off flares, led to the closure of a section of Avenue Rd. and the nearby Hwy. 401 on- and off-ramps.

Article content

Article content

Article content

At 5:40 p.m., Toronto Police said that the demonstrators had been dispersed and all roads had been reopened.

Article content

The protest was the latest disruption in public spaces, on roadways and in shopping centres across the GTA, prompting Councillor James Pasternak to “strongly” urge the OPP to help Toronto Police “keep the public safe and prevent any situation that could result in catastrophic accidents on Canada’s busiest highway.

Article content

“To distract drivers on a major highway poses risks for everyone using the highway,” Pasternak said in a statement posted on his social media accounts. “We are a city founded on respect, tolerance and the rule of law. People come here to escape hate and violence from world conflict zones. The vast majority of residents of Toronto do not want them recreated here.

“We urge the organizers to cancel their protests so that everyone remains safe.”

Pasternak said the protests — one of which at Eaton Centre last week saw a protester in front of police tell another person that he would put them “six feet deep”  — have made people feel unsafe and stretched police resources to the “limit,” Pasternak said.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

Article content