When voters cast their ballots in the Toronto riding of York Centre, most are in the unusual position of picking a candidate they have already seen on the political stage: either Ya’ara Saks, the Liberal incumbent or Roman Baber, the Conservative who represented the riding for the Ontario PCs from 2018 to 2022.
York Centre contains the fourth-largest Jewish population among ridings in Canada: 14 percent according to the 2021 census. Saks has represented the diverse district—which also has a significant Filipino and Russian population—since 2020, first handily winning the seat in a byelection after Michael Levitt stepped down to fill a sudden job vacancy at the helm the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, and then in 2021, when she defeated Conservative candidate Joel Yakov Etienne by 3,400 votes.
New Democrats, who have ranked a distant third in the riding, are represented this time by Yusuf Ulukanligil.
It’s been a gloves-off campaign, with both sides accusing the other of resorting to underhand tactics. Saks points to billboards in the riding that display a year-old photo of her with PA leader Mahmoud Abbas. Baber’s campaign complains about attack election literature that had a swastika near a photo of him.
York Centre has been a safe Liberal seat, except for one term from 2011 to 2015, when Mark Adler was elected as part of the Conservative majority government, led by Stephen Harper. This election, however, could change that, as some Jewish voters, who have often supported the Liberals, indicate they are considering voting Conservative this time. In addition to the issues on most Canadians’ minds—economic uncertainty and the threat posed by U.S. President Donald Trump—antisemitism is a chief concern.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, the riding has been the epicentre for the most egregious antisemitic attacks and anti-Israel protests. The city’s community Jewish high school, which counts one of Saks’ two children among its current students, was the subject of two bomb scares and evacuated during class hours. Bais Chaya Mushka School, also in the riding, was shot at it on three different occasions. Area synagogues have seen outdoor signs torched.
Moreover, a highway overpass at the entrance to a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood was the site of regular vociferous and aggressive protests until then-prime minister Justin Trudeau called Toronto’s police chief and the area was declared off-limits.
The riding’s rally and protest scene
Most infuriatingly for Jewish voters is a weekly pro-Israel gathering, that started shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, stationed at the corner of Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue. While it attracts dozen—and sometimes hundreds—of Israel supporters, it has also become a regular spot for counter-protesters, who are almost always masked and wave Palestinian flags from across the street, the two sides separated by a line of police.
Hamas activists have brought a chair & Yahya Sinwar cosplayer to further incite & disturb the peace at the Jewish neighborhood in Toronto at Bathurst & Sheppard.
— Leviathan (@l3v1at4an) November 24, 2024
Multiple people have told police the reference & they refuse to do anything about it.@PasternakTO @ezralevant pic.twitter.com/eUK4QmoxRr
When Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by the IDF in November, 2024, the counter-protesters re-enacted his last stand, complete with a reclining chair. They brought stuffed animals on the day the murder of the two Bibas children, who were hostages in Gaza, was confirmed. Police have frequently arrested protesters on both sides for assault and mischief.
The corner has become a regular stop for visiting activists and politicians from all levels of government, although notably not Toronto mayor Olivia Chow. Solicitor-General Michael Kerzner, who represents the riding provincially, is a regular visitor and is quick to blame the federal government for not giving the province the legislative tools to crack down on the counter-protest.
Officers Honored to host Solicitor General Michael Kerzner at our 32 Division command post stationed at Bathurst & Sheppard! 🚔 The community's direct access to our officers is a testament to our commitment to public safety. Grateful for the support! pic.twitter.com/KRZZ3X1MAv
— 32 Division – Toronto Police Service (@TPS32Div) January 5, 2024
It is not surprising then that Saks says antisemitism is one of the chief concerns she is hearing as she campaigns.
“What’s happening at Bathurst and Sheppard with the counter-protests is not freedom of expression, it is pure and simple, intimidation in the heart of the Jewish community. This is why I’ve been really clear about shutting down where we can this type of rhetoric wherever we can in Canada,” Saks said in an interview with The CJN, about 10 days before the election.
Saks points to her involvement in listing Samidoun as a terrorist organization, which she says is behind some of the protests.
But the responsibility also lies with the city, she says, which should ensure that the protesters have permits to demonstrate and that police are enforcing the appropriate bylaws.
Hand-in-hand with worries about antisemitism, are questions about the government’s policy on Israel. In March 2024, when a non-binding motion passed that placed an embargo on arms shipments to Israel, Liberal MPs Anthony Housefather, Marco Mendicino and Ben Carr, were the only three government members to vote against the resolution. Saks, the first Israeli-Canadian in cabinet, at the time she was the associate minister of health, with responsibility for mental health and addiction, supported the motion.
Critics also point to Global Affairs Canada’s announcement in March of $100-million of aid to Gaza and the West Bank. While the government reiterates the traditional Canadian position of support for a two-state solution, condemning Hamas and calling for the release of the hostages, critics, including Baber, argue that the funds will be diverted to support terrorism. Canada’s decision to suspend and then resume funding to UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for Palestinians, has also been scrutinized. UNRWA employees were reported to have been involved in the Oct. 7 attacks and hostages have said that staff who worked for UNRWA helped hold them captive.
Saks insists that Liberal Leader Mark Carney understands the community’s concerns. He has publicly supported federal bubble legislation, that would provide a protest-free zone for schools and houses of worship. During the leaders’ debate, he reiterated his support for a safe and secure Israel, she points out.
The infamous photo with Abbas
Locally, the issue that repeatedly dogs Saks is a photo of her with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. The photo was taken in March 2024, as part of a trip she and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly took to the region, where they also met with Israeli politicians and the mother of Canadian-Israeli citizen Netta Epstein who was killed in his kibbutz home on Oct.7. Other Canadian politicians, including Harper, have met with representatives of the Palestinian Authority in the past, she says.
A billboard in the riding features that photo of Saks and Abbas, alongside a picture of Baber and the Conservative leader which reads, ‘Roman Baber and Pierre Poilievre stand with the Jewish community.’ ForCanada, the third-party advocacy group overseen by Ezra Levant of Rebel News, also has a mobile billboard spotlighting the image.
WATCH: Rebel's billboard truck featuring a @For_Canada ad exposing Toronto Liberal Ya'ara Saks and her support for Hamas is on the road.
— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) April 22, 2025
Stay tuned for more, as @TheMenzoid hears from residents on the ground in Saks' riding. pic.twitter.com/u4orTbNZ3X
Saks says “as a Jewish and Zionist minister, and Canadian,” she would have rather been in the room herself negotiating for Israeli and Canadian security than delegate the job to someone else.
In an online riding debate hosted by B’nai Brith Canada, when asked what her biggest regret was, Saks replied that she didn’t properly prepare her Jewish constituents for the impact of seeing that photo.
Baber argued the photo is a symbol of other issues. “Ya’ara Saks has done everything possible to undermine our community and the State of Israel at every turn, never mind the picture. … The fact that she voted to sanction Israel at war can never be forgiven. Never mind the UNRWA funding, never mind the pictures,” he said during the debate.
“Ms. Saks justifies meeting with someone who paid for countless Jewish lives, He would pay for families of suicide bombers,” Baber said as part of a response to a question about Canada’s response to the International Court of Justice’s rulings on Israel.
In the days following the debate, Baber’s campaign complained about a piece of political attack literature featuring a Nazi swastika flag near his picture.
The Nazis executed my great grandparents in 1941. So much family lost on all sides.
— Roman Baber (@Roman_Baber) April 17, 2025
But the @YaaraSaks Campaign put a swastika near my picture in an attack piece. Ya'ara is disgusting and desperate. pic.twitter.com/woz9BaA5kQ
“The Nazis executed my great-grandparents in 1941. So much family lost on all sides,” he wrote on social media. “Ya’ara is disgusting and desperate.”
Baber declined to be interviewed by The CJN. His campaign manager said in an email that they were “focused on door knocking and preparing for election day.”
For her part, Saks points to Baber’s appearances at the trucker convoys in Ottawa which opposed COVID restrictions in early 2022.
“He knowingly went there, knowing there were members of the extreme right and neo-Nazis who were part of the convoy and he stood with them proudly in Ottawa. I was the sitting MP at that time and saw swastikas and other hate symbols displayed flagrantly every single day,” Saks told The CJN. “He knew they were there and he chose to be there.”
Conservative with past political drama
Roman Baber is familiar to York Centre voters. He immigrated to Canada from the former Soviet Union (via Israel), with his family when he was 15, and attended high school and university in the riding before earning a law degree at Western University.
He was elected as the Conservative MPP in 2018, but in January 2021 was removed from Doug Ford’s caucus when he disagreed over lockdown restrictions. He didn’t run again in 2022, but made an unsuccessful bid for the Conservative party leadership that year.
At an advance poll in the riding, 10 days before the election, many voters seemed to have been convinced by Baber’s, and Poilievre’s message of being tough on crime, and their promises to curb the worst excesses of the anti-Israel protests.
“I think he’s better for the Jewish community,” said an 18-year-old voter, casting her ballot for the first time. Both she and her mother said they intended to vote for the Conservatives.
“He’s going to properly put the right protections in place and he’s going to enforce those laws where they’ll hold and secure in the jails and he’s going to protect us,” said the first-time voter.
Aaron Blumenfeld, who leaving the polling site, agreed. “It’s pretty clear in this riding, Ya’ara Saks and the Liberals have been awful on Israel. And then which side are they on? A $100 million to Hamas or to Gaza… plus holding hands with a guy who is in charge of pay for slay—Mahmoud Abbas. I mean it’s pretty clear.”
