Former top Toronto cop says antisemitic senior officers managed anti-Israel protests

Former Toronto homicide inspector Hank Idsinga tells CBC News, Canada’s public broadcaster, that antisemitism is rife in police ranks.

The network describes Idsinga, a 34-year police veteran, as “once the most well-known cop in Canada’s biggest city,” citing his leading role in prominent murder cases.

Idsinga says a senior officer labeled a kosher barbecue as a “Jew-cue,” and said of a Jewish cop, “The only reason he gets away with this is because he’s a fucking Jew.”

The same officer later said, “I can’t believe we have to pander to this fucking Jew,” ahead of a meeting with a Jewish lawyer, Idsinga says.

Idsinga says his grandfather was a Holocaust victim, but that he kept his identity quiet, so other officers were comfortable speaking candidly around him.

Idsinga also reports anti-black racism and general “dysfunction in the senior ranks,” adding that there are many more examples of racism and antisemitism, including surrounding anti-Israel protests.

“If you look at those senior officers who are still in control when we have our post-October 7th protests going on, and everyone’s scratching their head and saying, ‘Why aren’t the police doing anything here? Why are we not seeing a response when it’s this particular community that’s being victimized?’ and that very well might explain some of it,” he says.

Asked if antisemitic senior officers were “in charge of decisions around deployment around those protests,” Idsinga says, “Absolutely.”

“If you call to make a complaint about antisemitic behavior,” he says, “you need to be aware that the person you’re making that complaint to very well might be an antisemite themselves.”

“That’s why you have to constantly stay on top of that complaint,” he says.