Newly formed safety patrol teams joined Jewish students on University of Toronto’s downtown campus, during a student-led pro-Palestine march on Sept. 6.
As more than a hundred pro-Palestine protesters marched through the St. George campus, a team of volunteers called Magen Herut Canada stood by.
“We’re just here to maintain as much order as we can and make sure the Jewish community is safe,” said Aaron Hadida, the founder of Magen Herut Canada.
Wearing a black shirt that read “Surveillance team” on the back, Hadida and several other volunteers stood outside the Toronto campus, among a team of Toronto police officers.
About 150 pro-Palestine protesters faced a police blockade around 1 p.m., chanting and shouting, while about 20 pro-Israel counter-protesters stood behind a metal barricade, raising images of hostages and waving Israeli flags.
Hadida, who said he is trained in Krav Maga, boxing and mixed martial arts, began recruiting members for his safety patrol team after the Oct.7 Hamas attacks on Israel triggered a war in Gaza and a rise in antisemitic incidents in Toronto.
“We started letting the Jewish community know that we’re up and running,” Hadida said, mentioning that his team started arriving at community events throughout Toronto in the months following Oct. 7.
Hadida said he now gets calls from parents of university students.
“They’re constantly worried about their kids on campus,” he said. “We decided that we’re going to be a visible presence on university campuses this year, that Jewish students who (go) to class (are) going to know that, no matter what, somebody (is) outside keeping an eye on them.”
Tochi Osuji, a volunteer with Magen Herut Canada, believes the police can only do so much when protecting students on campus.
“It doesn’t require you to be Jewish to see what’s going on,” he said. “It’s shocking to see that the administrations have been really slow to respond and a lot of times complicit.”
Osuji, who is not Jewish, said he decided to get involved with the safety patrol team after seeing an elderly Jewish man assaulted a month ago during a pro-Israel rally.
“We’re not here to fight people,” Osuji clarified, (although he said he is trained in martial arts). “We’re here to protect. If we see kids attacked, that might play out a little different. But I feel like it’s just our physical presence that changes the dynamic.”
On social media, a journalist named Samira Mohyeddin commented on X and called the Magen Herut team a group of “vigilantes.”
“@UofT. Did this vigilante pro-Israeli group get permission from you to be on campus? This is highly intimidating to your students and faculty,” she wrote.
Hadida said that his team is only there to keep an eye on students as anti-Israel hostility intensifies.
Another safety organization that was present was a team called JForce Security Inc., a registered security agency.
The team provides event security, safety assessment, neighbourhood patrols and private investigations, according to its website.
“I think the police are doing the best they can,” said a member of the JForce team, who chose to keep his name anonymous.
Around 2 p.m., as the crowd of protesters thinned out, JForce members were approached by two older women who asked them to walk them to the nearest subway station.
“They said they felt unsafe and they just wanted an escort to get to where they’re going,” the member of JForce said, after four members escorted the two civilians to Queen Street Station.