A vote to ask the federal government to cover the nearly $20 million of costs incurred in 2024 policing protests related to events in the Middle East was part of April’s monthly meeting of the Toronto Police Services Board.
Deputy mayor Amber Morley, a member of the board, introduced the motion that began with a statement: “Toronto has unique policing needs as a diverse global city with obligations to protect a broad range of public, community and diplomatic infrastructure.”
A report presented to the board revealed that the costs for Project Resolute had totalled $19.5 million—which included $8 million in premium pay, or overtime.
Toronto police responded to more than 2,000 “unplanned events” over the course of 2024. More than half of those were associated with Project Resolute, the force’s name for “proactive engagement with Jewish and Muslim communities, as well as the management of public order for related demonstrations.”
While the force dedicated “substantial on-duty resources” to Resolute, it also created staffing shortages and necessitated overtime pay in other units, the report stated.
“We know as a city our ability to pay is limited, we have a structural deficit and it’s really important that our partners and other orders of government, especially those with bigger banks than us… are able to join us at the table and partner with us on the important work that we do and make sure that we can afford it,” Morley said at the board meeting.
Matthew Taub, who addressed the board as a deputant, argued that the anti-Israel protests “destroy the moral fabric of the city.”
“I’ve seen Jewish children harassed, store windows targeted and flags desecrated, and all this happens while the police escort. Meanwhile the Jewish community, every time we organize an event, a peaceful family-oriented, permitted event, just a week ago, a movie screening, we …require paid service uniformed officers, paid duty, barriers and surveillance at our cost… Why? To protect us from the very people being escorted around the city at a cost of $20 million.
“We ask you to stop these hate parades We beg you to protect us from this hate and we come here again and again. We just want it to stop.”
Numerous synagogues have been vandalized, as have Jewish-owned businesses since Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the ongoing war. One particular Jewish girls’ school has been shot at three times in the past year.
Protests have also become “increasingly confrontational”, with assaults on officers, including weapons and physical attacks, police chief Myron Demkiw said at a press conference on Oct. 2, 2024, in advance of the first anniversary of the attack on Israel. (At the time, the Jewish community also had security concerns related to the impending High Holidays.)
Demkiw began the monthly board meeting by once again acknowledging the controversy generated by a Toronto police podcast created to build relationships with the Muslim community, especially youth, under the banner of Project Olive Branch.
The episode from mid-March featured two officers in uniform at a police station, discussing the events of Oct. 7.
I have no issue with anyone of faith wanting others to join their faith.
— Brian Lilley (@brianlilley) March 12, 2025
What’s disgusting here is that two Toronto cops, in uniform, in an official TPS podcast, were praising the claim that so many people wanted to learn about Islam after Oct 7.
pic.twitter.com/NpMsJW63kV
In a clip from the recording—which has since been deleted from its originating platforms—the officers say that after Oct. 7, people started learning about Islam, asking questions about the religion and converting. “The amount of people that are reverting to Islam is unbelievable,” said one officer.
Demkiw apologized to the Jewish community at the time: “I have personally heard from the community about the impact of this podcast and I am truly sorry,” he said on social media on March 11.
The chief told the board that he heard from “many communities” about the podcast being posted as well as its removal.
Since then, the Toronto force has suspended all Toronto Police Services podcast productions pending a review of the force’s use of social media, and asked York Regional Police to conduct an investigation.
The review will also recommend if changes are needed to “governance, training and supervision of social media usage.”
