Ontario solicitor general Michael Kerzner has thrown cold water on the idea of the Ford government bringing in so-called ‘bubble legislation’ to help keep violent protesters a safer distance away from synagogues and other religious buildings.
The issue came during a virtual debate for the York Centre riding, hosted by B’nai Brith Canada on Feb. 12, with two participating candidates: Michael Kerzner, the Progressive Conservative incumbent, and Sam Nestico, a retired Justice of the Peace running for the Liberals.
Both were asked what each would do, should they be elected on Feb. 27, to protect the “sanctity of vulnerable infrastructure” including places of worship and other religious and cultural institutions.
Bringing in bubble legislation at the provincial level, supported by similar bylaws at the municipal level, was at the top of Nestico’s nine-point safety plan to protect the Jewish community and others from hate.
“I would introduce legislation that limits proximity of protest to places of worship, faith-based community centres, schools, and residences. This will be known as the bubble legislation, and this legislation will be supported by them at the municipal level,” Nestico told the debate moderator Richard Robertson of B’nai Brith Canada.
The City of Vaughan was actually the first municipality off the mark to do the same with the Protecting Vulnerable Social Infrastructure bylaw passed unanimously in June 2024. Lawmakers acted in response to raucous anti-Israel protests outside two Thornhill synagogues.
Brampton’s city council passed its own updated version of a bubble zone bylaw in November 2024, to ban “nuisance demonstrations” outside places of worship. The move came after several clashes last fall between Hindus and Sikh Canadians outside their temples and gurdwaras in the area. The maximum fine for anyone convicted would have been $100,000.
Today, Mayor Del Duca held a press conference following Council ratification of his Member’s Resolution to protect Vaughan’s places of worship, schools, childcare facilities & its hospital from protests that incite hatred, intolerance & violence. Details:https://t.co/uu2n9jyH6i pic.twitter.com/Ks3gb7NQaa
— City of Vaughan (@City_of_Vaughan) May 8, 2024
Municipal politicians in Mississauga, Hamilton, Ottawa and Toronto are also considering similar bylaws.
Kerzner, however, suggested such bubble legislation was ineffective, and also likely unconstitutional.
“I want to say that my Trudeau Liberal opponent knows that when there was a protest at the synagogue in York Region, that their bubble bylaw did not work, that the York Regional Police would not enforce it,” Kerzner said, referring to an hours-long protest by pro-Palestinians outside the Beth Avraham Yoseph Synagogue on Dec. 9, 2024.
Vaughan’s bylaw aimed to ban violent protests within 100 metres of places of worship. But on that night, protesters who opposed the Israeli real estate fair going on inside the synagogue, stood well inside the bubble zone’s prohibited area, yelled antisemitic slogans, made loud chants using public address systems, and also ran through the adjoining neighbourhood. York Regional police officers made three arrests, but didn’t stop the protest.
Anti-Israel protesters demonstrated outside a Thornhill synagogue, despite a bylaw protecting houses of worshiphttps://t.co/pYoeORjXfm
— The Canadian Jewish News (@TheCJN) December 12, 2024
Mayor Steven Del Duca later admitted the bubble bylaw was a disappointment and needed work, with further training to be given to the community on what the bylaw covered—but also to law enforcement officers to understand what the bylaw prohibits.
Kerzner also suggested these provincial or municipal bubble bylaws might find themselves the target of constitutional challenges, as some critics, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, feel they are denying Canadians the right to protest and freedom of assembly.
“And it [the bubble law] would unlikely stand up in the court of law,” Kerzner said.
Instead, the solicitor general defended his government’s “different” strategy to tackling security problems for the Jewish community. He noted the Ontario government has given millions in infrastructure money to synagogues and churches, to fortify their premises.
“Our approach is coming forward with the $45 million anti-hate and prevention grant, monies that are tangible, monies that have flown, have gone to the synagogues,” he said. “That’s something that’s tangible.”
He pointed out the province also passed a new law to give police better tools to fight hate. The government donated $500,000 to the new Toronto Holocaust Museum, which opened in June 2023. Ontario also introduced mandatory Holocaust education, which starts in Grade 6.
However, the real culprit in the continued proliferation of hostile protests, Kerzner says, is the Liberal government in Ottawa, who should be changing the Criminal Code to help police, prosecutors and the courts crack down on displaying of terror symbols, and on those who stage protests outside schools, synagogues and other religious-based buildings.
“The Justin Trudeau Liberal team in Ottawa have refused to do that, even though they know that the police have arrested many people, but I don’t believe there’s been one successful prosecution because of the very weak Criminal Code,” Kerzner said.
“Judges have to follow the federal law, and that’s why there’s been no prosecution, notwithstanding the fact that the Ontario legislature led by our government introduced a motion calling on the federal government to make changes on bail reform and the Criminal Code, and it never happened.”
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), has long lobbied for bubble legislation both at the federal level, either through changing the Criminal Code or bringing in stand-alone laws. CIJA is seeking similar protection adopted by provincial and by municipal governments.
Ontario did table a new bill asking Ottawa to do more about bail reform in October 2024, related to keeping repeat offenders in jail who had already been convicted of carjacking, violent domestic abuse, or armed robberies. The government also brought in a new bill to hire more police and give them extra powers, and appointed more judges last spring.
Kerzner, who was first elected for the Ontario PCs in the Toronto-area riding in 2022, reminded the debate audience that he has been a visible and vocal supporter of Jewish Ontarians and Israel, particularly after Oct. 7. He claimed that he, too, has been a target of anti-Jewish hate.
“In the absence of a strong Criminal Code… my opponent is likely unwilling to accept that that is a root cause of the lack of prosecution,” Kerzer said. “We can’t get there.”
Ontario already has certain bubble zones
At least six provinces have long had laws protecting the space around abortion clinics. Ontario passed its own abortion clinic bubble zone law in 2017, to prevent harassment outside abortion clinics, hospitals, doctors’ homes and offices. Protesters are banned from standing within 50 metres from the clinics while distributing pro-life pamphlets, harassing patients, or carrying graphic posters.
But the abortion safe-zone law passed under Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne covers only eight private clinics. After being elected in 2018, the Ford government has never approved any expansion of the law to accept applications from hospitals where abortion services are performed. After Ottawa police charged one elderly Jesuit priest outside a downtown branch of the Morgentaler Clinic in 2020, the province eventually dropped the charges.
British Columbia’s had a similar law in place for 30 years. That province’s court of appeal found the bubble law was constitutional.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association had cautioned these abortion clinic zones violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to peaceful protest and freedom of expression.
During the pandemic, many of these same provinces expanded their no-protest zones to include hospitals and even schools to prevent anti-vaccine protesters from harassing health care workers. Ontario’s bubble zone law for COVID clinics was passed in 2021. Canada brought in a similar law, federally, to make it illegal to protest outside hospitals and to harass health care workers.
Ontario Liberal policy explained
Ontario Liberals support bubble legislation as an election platform, according to a spokesperson for leader Bonnie Crombie.
“Ontario’s Liberals will ban organizing or participating in hate-motivated activities or protests that incite violence or intimidation within 100 metres of the property line of any place of worship, school, childcare centre, or hospital, anywhere in the province, and impose a maximum fine of $100,000 for each violation, ensuring clear consequences for those who seek to spread hatred in our society or create division or violence amongst us,” spokesperson Bahoz Dara Aziz told The CJN in an emailed statement Feb. 20.
Kerzner told the B’nai Brith debate that despite his position in the Ford cabinet as solicitor general, he cannot personally tell the police forces whom he oversees what to do. That role, he maintained, is the job of municipal mayors and their police services boards.
Those arguments don’t sit well with Nestico, who spent 12 years working as a justice of the peace in the Ontario Court of Justice. He was appointed in 2007 by the Wynne government.
“Michael Kerzner could have created provincial policies on policing hate-filled protests without directing day-to-day operations. Why didn’t he?” Nestico said. “Michael Kerzner could have ensured police forces received additional resources to fight hate. Why didn’t he? I’ll tell you why, because it’s about vote counting, not doing the right thing.”
The CJN asked Kerzner for further comments on why he appears to think bubble legislation is not the answer to frequent protests outside Jewish institutions, but his campaign didn’t reply to our specific question.
Instead, a spokesperson pointed to the over $86 million in provincial funding for anti-hate and security measures which the Ford government has issued, since 2021.
“Antisemitism has no place in Ontario, and that includes targeting our Jewish places of worship,” Kerzner’s spokesman Aaron Posner said in a text message. “We know that eradicating hate requires a collective, sustained effort. That’s why we will continue working side by side with Jewish organizations to address the specific needs of the Jewish community to tackle antisemitism head-on and ensure they can thrive in Ontario without fear of harassment or violence.”
Liberal candidate shocked by response
After Kerzner’s statements came to light, an Ontario Liberal candidate from north of Toronto went the attack through social media. Jason Cherniak, a lawyer who initially built his public profile as a partisan pundit, is campaigning against Ontario PC incumbent Michael Parsa in the riding of Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill.
Cherniak sent out a news release expressing his “shock”, as a member of the Jewish community in Ontario.
According to the Queen’s Park Observer, at the B’nai Brith debate for York Centre, PC Solicitor General Michael Kerzner “suggested [bubble-zone] legislation is unenforceable and unconstitutional, and that real change needs to come from Ottawa and the Criminal Code”. As a lawyer,…
— Jason Cherniak (@Cherniak) February 13, 2025
“I am shocked that Doug Ford and Kerzner would not at least try to pass enforceable bubble-zone legislation, prohibiting protests surrounding places of worships (sic),” the release said, adding that it wasn’t only Jews who are concerned about protests near their places of worship.
“There is no reason why anybody should be protesting outside a synagogue, mosque, temple, gurdwara, church or other religious institution. With so much strife and disagreement in the world, how can Doug Ford and his government oppose something so many different communities agree on?”
In an interview with The CJN, Cherniak blamed the Tories for ignoring calls from municipalities and community groups for bubble legislation, which he said could have been introduced long before now.
“I just think it’s shirking responsibility for the province to say that it’s not their role to take action,” Cherniak said Feb. 18. “It’s something that could have been done during the election, if it hadn’t been called in the middle of February.”
According to Cherniak, Kerzner’s dim view of the legality of bubble legislation for protests at places of worship doesn’t make sense, since the province already has two other bubble laws on the books now for health care facilities, and abortion providers.
“So it can be done. And I think it’s wrong to suggest that there’s no role for the province here,” Cherniak said.
The CJN reached out to the Ontario PC party for clarification whether Kerzner’s position is supported by the party, but did not hear back.
Kerzner reminded the debate that his government not only passed a motion after Oct. 7, 2023 condemning the Hamas attack on Israel, but also passed a second motion censuring former NDP MPP Sarah Jama’s pro-Palestinian remarks on social media after the Hamas attack on Israel. Jama was ousted from the NDP caucus as well, and not permitted to speak in the Ontario legislature unless she retracted her remarks. The censure vote was 63-23 in favour, with the NDP voting against. The entire Liberal caucus abstained.
