TORONTO \u2014 Multiple people have been arrested at a pro- and anti-immigration demonstration in Toronto as the opposing groups faced off at a park.<\/p>\n
Toronto police said a man was arrested for assault at the protest at around 12:40 p.m. in the area of Christie Pits Park.<\/p>\n
In an update half an hour later, police said six people total had been arrested, not providing information about the reason of the arrests.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of pro-immigration ralliers gathered at Toronto\u2019s Christie Pits Park in the early afternoon in response to a demonstration encouraging mass deportations and nationalism called \u201cCanada First.\u201d<\/p>\n
Organizers of the Canada First rally took to social media last month to promote their event, with a poster advertising the event planned for 1 p.m. reading, \u201cStop mass immigration. Start mass deportations. Remigration is necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Numerous pro-immigration counter rallies had planned their own community rallies at the park with a start time of noon.<\/p>\n
\u201cBring friends, water, snacks, art supplies and noisemakers and anything else you\u2019ll need to spend an afternoon in the park,\u201d one post promoting the counter-rally read.<\/p>\n
City councillor Dianne Saxe posted a statement on social media ahead of the protest in the planning stages last month, calling it a \u201chate demonstration.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis rally does not represent what we stand for as a city or as Canadians,\u201d Saxe said in her statement, adding that she was \u201cappalled\u201d at the choice to hold the rally at Christie Pits Park with its storied history.<\/p>\n
In 1933, thousands of people converged at the park for one of Canada\u2019s most notable antisemitic riots and counter-protests that broke after a Nazi-inspired flag with a Swastika was pulled out during a baseball game.<\/p>\n
In advance of the demonstration, police posted a social media statement saying they were aware of the rally and counter-rallies and had planned to be at the park.<\/p>\n
At the planned start time of the rally, demonstrators carrying Canadian flags marched from Christie Pits onto Bloor St. West, beginning their march across the city.<\/p>\n
Dozens of officers lined Bloor St. West to block off portions of the road as the anti-immigration demonstrators marched from the city\u2019s west end to its downtown core.<\/p>\n
The counter-ralliers remained at Christie Pits Park, playing drums, saying chants, offering face painting and handing out snacks and drinks. <\/p>\n
There were a few intense moments when protesters from either side clashed. <\/p>\n
Later on, a standoff ensued between the two groups, when a few dozen anti-immigration demonstrators made their way into the park, standing opposite to a more sizable group of counter-ralliers.<\/p>\n
Around half a dozen mounted police units rode between the opposing groups in the park, positioning themselves at times to keep the crowds apart.<\/p>\n
The demonstration follows on the tail of a march in London, U.K., organized by far-right activist Tommy Robinson that drew more than 110,000 people Saturday.<\/p>\n
Police say they intend to provide more information on the arrests later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Multiple people have been arrested at a pro- and anti-immigration demonstration in Toronto as the opposing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":224779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2147,50,39343],"class_list":{"0":"post-224778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-ontario-quebec"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115199642537272658","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}