A group marked by pro-Israel bias within the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General pushed for more severe charges against Palestinian solidarity protests
by
Martin Lukacs
A secretive committee within the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General has given “politically-motivated” backing to the Toronto police’s targeting of pro-Palestine activism, a Breach investigation can reveal.
The committee has attempted to impose more severe criminal charges against individuals involved in peaceful protests since Oct. 7, or thwart the dropping of charges, multiple lawyers told The Breach.
Known as the Hate Crime Working Group and formed in 2019, it is composed of nearly two dozen Crown prosecutors, some of whose public comments show pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian bias.
The committee’s chair has said she is “committed” to the state of Israel, while another member described a pro-Palestinian activist as a “terrorist” and collaborated with a group of lawyers that aggressively defend Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has killed 38,000 Palestinians.
In one case from 2021, involving a protest in front of the Israeli consulate of Toronto, the Hate Crime Working Group’s prosecutors had greater access to the consulate’s staff than the police.
Officially, the committee merely advises police about what criminal charges can be applied in “hate-related” investigations, as well as providing education and training to police across the province.
But The Breach investigation reveals it is playing an influential role behind the scenes.
It has intervened in cases of pro-Palestinian protest activity that aren’t related to hate and “interfered” with their outcomes, one lawyer told The Breach.
The cases in question were moving toward a withdrawal of charges before the committee intervened, pushing instead for a trial, more severe charges, or more restrictive protest conditions.
Last week, The Breach reported on a Toronto police operation called Project Resolute, which experts say has misapplied “hate crime” charges against Palestinian solidarity activists.
The Hate Crime Working Group is working closely with Project Resolute, providing legal backing to their dramatic targetting of the Palestinian solidarity movement, which has included nighttime raids of activists’ homes.
The police have pursued “hate crime”-related charges against a man who flew a Palestinian socialist party’s flag, and against several activists for postering an Indigo bookstore to protest its CEO Heather Reisman, whose foundation has provided millions of dollars to support soldiers in the Israeli army.
Joshua Sealy-Harrington, an assistant professor of law at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), said the revelations are “alarming.”
“Police have long searched for alibis to expand their authority to criminalize Palestinian solidarity and decolonial activism,” Sealy-Harrington said.
“This Hate Crime Working Group appears to be doing them a favour by helping them label political opponents of the Israeli state as ‘hateful.’ The term is intentionally amorphous to permit the arbitrary exercise of state and police power.”
All the lawyers The Breach spoke to asked to remain anonymous because of concerns that their speaking out may adversely impact other cases they are working on.
Committee chair’s ‘commitment to the state of Israel’
The Hate Crime Working Group is shrouded in secrecy.
In the Crown Prosecution Manual published by the Attorney General’s office to explain the criminal process, there is no mention of its existence.
Since April, The Breach has posed basic questions to the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General about the committee’s mandate and composition.
A spokesperson initially replied saying they would “look into this,” but then did not provide answers or respond to multiple follow up emails and phone calls over three months.
“The secrecy surrounding the group is galling,” Sealy-Harrington said. “If this group really were about principled enforcement of the Criminal Code, it would embrace transparency to reassure the public that it is credible. Its secrecy, instead, makes clear that it is politicizing prosecutions and evading accountability.”
A memo written recently by Assistant Deputy Attorney General Randy Schwartz to police chiefs in Ontario, and posted seemingly accidentally on the website of the Windsor Police Services Board, includes a list of the current members of the Hate Crime Working Group.
Its co-chair, Crown prosecutor Karen Shai, has spoken of her connection to the Israeli state in an interview about her time attending Hebrew University.
“My love for, and commitment to, the state of Israel was further deepened by my time there,” said Shai.
Another member, Rochelle Direnfeld, signed a petition organized by the lobby group Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which demanded the government add a Palestinian prisoners solidarity organization, Samidoun, to Canada’s list of terrorist entities.
In early June, she described a pro-Palestinian activist named Naveed Awan Bahadur as a “terrorist.”
“The terrorist is well known to TPS [Toronto Police Services],” Direnfeld wrote on a LinkedIn post about the “Walk for Israel” march held in June in Toronto. Bahadur has made antisemitic statements and been denounced by several Palestinian organizations, but has never been charged with any terrorism offenses.
Last week, Direnfeld gave a presentation on “leveraging Criminal Law for Critical Action” to a pro-Israeli group called Lawyers Combating Antisemitism.
The committee “might be more politically motivated than legally motivated,” one lawyer said.
Neither Shai nor Direnfield responded to questions from The Breach by time of publication.
The memo from the Assistant Deputy Attorney General provided other clues about the organization’s official mandate.
The committee, Schwartz wrote, is “available to provide pre-charge advice to police in all hate-related investigations.”
“There is often no bright line as to lawful expression and what is or is not ‘hate,’ with that determination instead depending on a contextual analysis of the facts of the case,” he wrote. “[Ministry of Attorney General’s] Hate Crime Working Group is available to assist police in making these determinations.”
But the committee has gotten involved not just at the pre-charge stage, but well after charges have been laid.
According to the lawyers the Breach spoke to, their involvement has undermined the discretion of Crown prosecutors to deal with cases how they consider appropriate, including the dropping of charges.
Experts criticized the screening policy for punishing students who supported Palestinians.
Even before the recent uptick of public mobilization opposing Israel’s treatment of Palestinian, the Hate Crime Working Group has intervened in cases of solidarity activism.
In 2021, David Mivasair, a rabbi and member of Independent Jewish Voices, was charged with mischief for pouring red paint on the steps of the Israeli consulate in Toronto.
The paint, which was washed away within half-an-hour of the protest, was meant to symbolize a “river of blood,” Mivasair said. A week earlier, the Israeli military had bombed Gaza, killing 260 people and destroying residential buildings.
It was a minor charge, the sort usually resolved with community service or a charitable donation. According to his lawyer at the time, the action was protected by the Charter’s guarantee of freedom of expression, and the charge should never have been laid.
But its treatment by the Crown was highly unusual.
Two high ranking prosecutors—Rochelle Direnfield and Kim Motyl, another member at the time of the Hate Crime Working Group—were assigned to the case and it was dragged out for many months.
As part of the proceedings, the Crown prosecutors said that Mivasair’s action had made the Israeli consulate staff fear for their safety. This was also unusual.
Police themselves had been trying to get in touch with the consulate to solicit these views, without any success. But it turned out that the prosecutors—the members of the Hate Crime Working Group—had a direct line.
Ultimately, Mivasair’s charges were dropped, part of a wave of withdrawals of minor charges during the pandemic to ensure the legal system did not get clogged.
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