More than a dozen Jewish institutions have been granted anti-protest protections by the city, according to its new public registry.
After more than a year of debate at city hall, council passed a controversial bylaw last month allowing schools and places of worship to apply for a 50-metre “bubble zone” around them, wherein demonstrations would be restricted during service hours under penalty of a fine of as much as $5,000.ÌýThe bylaw came into force last week.
Local Jewish groups asserted a need for this amid a spate of antisemitic vandalism and threats of violence arising in conjunction with the war in Gaza, including arson, shootingsÌý²¹²Ô»å bomb threats targeting Jewish schools in É«É«À².Ìý
Some councillors are concerned about how “bubble zones” around schools, daycares and places of worship will be enforced.Ìý
Some councillors are concerned about how “bubble zones” around schools, daycares and places of worship will be enforced.Ìý
Critics of bubble zone legislation argued it does nothing to prevent more of these incidents from occurring. Vandalism is already illegal, for instance. Civil liberties associations have argued the bylaw violates the Charter-enshrined right to peaceful protest.
Of the 19 buildings granted a bubble zone by the city thus far, all but one of them house Jewish organizations. This includes several synagogues and Jewish educational institutions from preschool to high school.
One of them is Beth Tikvah Synagogue in North York, which executive director Rivka Campbell said has been repeatedly vandalized in recent years with graffiti and fire. She said she is “cautiously optimistic” being in the zone may curb these incidents.
“It does give a bit of security knowing that we are in that ‘bubble’ and that the people are aware that we have that ‘protection,’” she said. “The key will be the enforcement piece. If that does not have teeth, then it will be for naught.”
Campbell said she just wanted something to give people pause “before desecrating a place of sanctuary.”
Vaughan faces bubble zone challenge
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association vowed to mount a constitutional challenge against the bylaw. Earlier this week, the group took the City of Vaughan to court, seeking to have its bubble zone legislation stricken, .Ìý
Vaughan’s bubble zone bylaw was passed in the wake of a large protest held in opposition to an event at Thornhill’s Beth Avraham Yoseph of É«É«À² (BAYT) synagogue. It was billed as offering legal and financial advice regarding moving to Israel — or to West Bank settlements, which Canada and many international bodies consider a violation of international law.
In December, Vaughan’s bylaw was tested for the first time. A rally was held outside BAYT as another Israeli real estate expo took place inside — for this one, the topic of buying land in the West Bank was deliberately kept off the itinerary, in an effort to avoid another protest, senior rabbi Daniel Korobkin told the Star at the time.
Korobkin said demonstrators pierced the bubble zone, which in Vaughan is 100 metres.ÌýProtest organizer Sumaiya Ahmed disputed this. Both agreed there was no effort by police or bylaw officers to move protesters away.Ìý
A spokesperson for the City of Vaughan told the Star Friday that the municipality has not issued a single ticket for bubble zone infractions yet. The bylaw has been on the books for a little over a year.
Louise Smith, a spokesperson for pro-Palestinian group Jews Say No to Genocide, which has organized protests at GTA synagogues, said if bubble zone applicants don’t want to be picketed, they should “avoid hosting events that make them complicit in injustices” perpetrated by Israel.
É«É«À² eyes ‘graduated enforcement’ of bubble zones
Rabbi Shmuel Neft of the Jewish Russian Community Centre, another bubble zone recipient, said he doesn’t expect É«É«À² will be able to effectively enforce the zones, based on both “a pattern of negligence by the City of É«É«À² towards the Jewish community in the last two years” and on how poorly he perceived Vaughan to have fared.Ìý
“I’m skeptical,” he said. “The similar rule in Vaughan was broken after implementation with little consequences. I have little confidence É«É«À² will be any better.”
É«É«À² has said it intends to use “graduated enforcement actions,” for the bubble zones.
That means the city plans to use education, a verbal notice or warning, written notice or warning and trespass notices before charging people with a bylaw infraction and issuing a court summons under the Provincial Offences Act.
