Jake McBride

Anti-Israel activist David Frank Shultz tells the Toronto Police Service Board he was detained for holding a "Hamas flag" while holding a Palestinian flag, arrested for stepping on an Israeli flag that an officer's notes called a "Jew flag," and calls Project Resolute "racialized policing": "Four experiences I want to share. So I was holding a Palestinian flag and I was detained by two officers for holding a Hamas flag. My bag was searched while one of the officers searched on their phone for Hamas flag, that's item one. Item two, I was arrested at a demonstration in support of Lebanese people. My wrists bled from the handcuffs which were left on for several hours. The charges were dropped but there was nerve damage to both wrists. Item number three. I was arrested for stepping on a flag of Israel. One officer described the flag in their notes as a Jew flag. The charges were dropped after 18 months on the first scheduled day of trial. Number four. I was arrested at a Nakba memorial event. 56 officers were deployed for the arrest. I was acquitted of all charges and a senior officer with Project Resolute was asked on the stand what Nakba means and he said I believe it refers to some event that happened in the Middle East. Okay so those are the four events that's just one person but there's been hundreds of arrests of Palestine supporters and according to Movement Media Hub data they analyze suggests." The chair then stops him and tells him to speak to the strategic plan, not police operations. Shultz continues: "Sure, yeah. I guess I'm building towards a picture of how people are attempting to engage with these issues, things that people might not be aware of, which would, I suppose, enlighten the board in how they want to proceed forward with a strategic plan." After being told he has a minute left, he says: "So the Movement Media Hub has found that the conviction rate for these hundreds of arrests is less than 1%. The implication is that the police are arresting almost exclusively peaceful, law-abiding people as part of Project Resolute. These people who are arrested are also automatically and prejudicially deferred to the hate crimes department. And this racialized policing is a tremendous waste of resources that seems to be primarily suppressing charter protected rights of Torontonians who want to support Palestinian human rights."