Weekly protest along Kingston Road calls for end to ‘genocide’ in Gaza

By ALAN SHACKLETON

For months, a number of East Toronto residents have been gathering on Thursday mornings along Kingston Road by Victoria Park Avenue to protest the actions of Israel’s government in Gaza.

Organizer of the weekly protest is longtime area resident Ted Schmidt, who taught religion at Neil McNeil Catholic High School for decades and is also an author, journalist and former editor of the Catholic New Times.

“We are doing this quietly but this is something people of conscience should be doing,” said Schmidt, 85, during an interview with Beach Metro Community News on Kingston Road last month.

He said the protest is to stand against the genocide taking place in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli government.

“People see what’s going on and say ‘I’ve got to do something.’ People show up. People with a conscience,” said Schmidt.

The protest, that goes from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., sees the participants on the north side of Kingston Road west of Victoria Park Avenue holding up signs against Israel’s actions. On average there are about 30 to 40 people taking part, and Schmidt said the protest has grown considerably in numbers since it first began.

“We just started with some of my former students and guys I have coffee with,” he said of the grassroots protest.

“People started hearing about it and Charlie Angus really boosted it up,” said Schmidt.

A former NDP MP representing Timmins-James Bay for more than 20 years, Angus grew up mostly in Scarborough and formed a band in the 1980s with former Neil McNeil Catholic High School student Andrew Cash who also had Schmidt as a teacher.

In his Charlie Angus/The Resistance Substack post from April of this year, Angus let people know about the Kingston Road protest and the role Schmidt played in organizing it.

“Ted has never stopped being a truth-teller, which is why he stands against the horrific genocide in Palestine,” wrote Angus of Schmidt. “He has been part of this struggle for decades.

“Ted grew up in Toronto’s old Jewish downtown and built deep friendships with his Jewish schoolmates. He learned from them the tradition of the prophets and the Biblical tradition of social justice. This has led him to be an active voice for peace in the Middle East, even when it made him seem like an isolated voice in the wilderness.”

Schmidt said that under no circumstances should the Kingston Road protest be seen as antisemitic or against the Jewish religion.

“They can’t lump me in as an antisemite. I have trees planted in my name in Israel because of my work on the Holocaust,” he said.

“You don’t do this to people. Judaism to me, as a Catholic who grew out of Judaism, it is the greatest gift to humanity. Humans are made in the image of God and you don’t do this to human beings.”

However, Schmidt said some of his Jewish friends are critical of the protest and his role in it.

“The values of Judaism are forever. Of the dignity of the human person, you know. It’s sad to me, but I don’t scapegoat. I have many Jewish friends and some don’t talk to me now. But that’s inevitable. They don’t get it.”

The protest is against the actions being taken by Israel’s government and the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Schmidt.

He said Netanyahu’s government is “terrible” and has to change what it is doing in Gaza. Israel’s response is to the threats and actions from terrorist group Hamas including the Oct. 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel which killed approximately 1,200 people and saw another 251 other people taken hostage.

In June, while tensions between Israel and Iran (and the United States as well) increased over concerns regarding nuclear weapons and both countries were being bombed, Schmidt said talk of what was taking place in Gaza seemed to disappear. He said that was part of a strategy by Netanyahu to divert attention from Gaza at the time.

“This is Netanyahu. He’s clever. He speaks American English… But people don’t understand. He’s a liar. They never tell the truth and they never have,” said Schmidt.

Among the many who have taken part in the Kingston Road protest is former Ontario NDP leader and Canadian United Nations Ambassador Stephen Lewis, who was also the MPP for Scarborough West in the 1960s and 1970s.

“Stephen was wonderful. He came on his walker. His daughter took a photo and then Avi got going,” said Schmidt.

Avi is Stephen’s son and he wrote a social media post saying how proud he was of his father, who is 87 years old, for taking part in the protest on Kingston Road.

In his post about that morning, Avi Lewis wrote:

“When he was Canada’s ambassador to the to the UN from 1984-88, Dad was truly shocked by the regularity of open, vitriolic antisemitism in the cocktail parties and ambassador receptions that surround that crucial but flawed institution. For this reason (among others) he’s always been the one in our family with the deepest atavistic fear of antisemitism. He was sympathetic to the idea of Israel as a refuge longer than the rest of us. This is no longer the case. Like so many Jews who for decades adopted the dominant narratives of Zionism, he can no longer defend the current actions of Israel…

“He spent an hour standing at the side of the road in his old riding of Scarborough West. Standing up as a Jew against genocide. Standing up for justice for Palestine. Standing on the right side of history, where the vast majority of humanity stands.

In his post, Avi Lewis also wrote that the Canadian government must oppose Israel’s present actions in Gaza with “every tool and tactic in Canada’s diplomatic arsenal.”

In his interview with Beach Metro Community News, Schmidt said the Canadian government has to do “a lot more” to stop what is happening in Gaza.

“Call for an end of this genocide and speak out,” said Schmidt of what he wants to hear from Canada’s government.

However, he’s not convinced that will happen since he said the Canadian government is “terrified” of getting on the “wrong side” of this issue when it comes to how the United States is supporting Israel’s actions.

“Canadian people, you can’t think this is OK to normalize. This is in prime time. We see what’s going on. Stop the killing of these people. Just stop it,” said Schmidt.

Publisher’s Note: This story reflects the voices of local residents protesting the war in Gaza. Sharing their perspective isn’t about taking sides — it’s part of our responsibility to cover what’s happening in the community. Our original version, published online Friday, did not specifically include the context that Israel’s war in Gaza began after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. We’re committed to thoughtful, fair coverage and welcome respectful letters from all viewpoints.