Content warning: This article contains mentions of violence, racism, and war.

On November 5 at 1:00 pm, TMU and U of T student protesters disrupted a TMU branch of Students Supporting Israel’s (SSI) event, “Triggered: From Combat to Campus Tour,” which featured two former Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers. The disruption led to multiple hospitalizations and arrests.

Videos circulating show a glass door shattering after two protesters were shut inside the event’s room, an IDF soldier forcibly removing protesters, the same soldier barricading the event entrance with furniture, and police arresting protesters in the subway afterward. 

This was the second time this year that the SSI speakers’ tour stopped at TMU and was met with protests by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). According to SSI’s website, the tour’s title refers to campus outrage “ ‘triggered,’ by Israel’s defense, not Hamas’ terror—and the literal triggers IDF soldiers defend Israel with from neighboring terrorist entities.” 

TMU told TorontoToday that it denied SSI’s request to host the event on campus due to a lack of transparency about the topic and guest speakers, as well as insufficient time to implement safety measures. Instead, the event was held on Bay Street and Elm Street in a rentable room at the Morpheus Clinic for Hypnosis for $170. Clinic founder Luke Chao told the Toronto Star he was completely unaware of the group, their politics, or the guest speakers.

Hours before the event, a group Instagram post by TMU Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), UofT Occupy for Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement Toronto, Toronto 4 Palestine, and York University Palestine Solidarity Collective. The groups called for an “ALL OUT” emergency rally, and stated: “WAR CRIMINALS WILL NEVER BE WELCOME IN OUR COMMUNITIES. SHOW UP NOW.”

The shattered door

The event was scheduled to begin at 1:30 pm, but two protesters entered through the open doors around 1:00 pm as SSI was setting up. 

An SSI video begins with guest speaker and former IDF Air Force soldier Jonathan Karten holding the event door room shut while the two protesters remained inside. Three more protesters stood in the clinic’s main room, looking in through the glass door and window. 

Moments later, the glass door shattered inward. Someone standing nearby exited through the broken panel, followed by Karten. It is unclear in the video who broke the glass, though SSI and Karten allege that a protester caused the damage. A drill bit was later found on the ground near the doorway. 

As the glass door shattered, Chao emerged from his office and said, “Get out.” He later told the Toronto Star he had just started a session with a new client.

Amid the shouting — calls for protesters to leave, demands to call 911, and pro-Palestine chants — one protester yelled, “war criminal.” Karten responded, “You are all being brainwashed. I was there.”

In an SSI video, Karten can be heard telling students, “These people caused the damage over here. They assaulted me, and they broke our own property. So now I’m going to physically remove them from the premises.”

Karten then grabbed the two protesters and moved them out of the event room through the shattered doorway, knocking over a chair in the process. The SSI video’s filmer can be heard saying, “No, Jonathan, don’t!” In the SJP video, the protester filming yelled, “You’re not allowed to touch them!”

From the clinic’s main room, Karten pushed all of the protesters into the building lobby and closed the clinic’s front door behind him. 

The barricade 

In a video of the event posted on X by Betar Worldwide, Chao said, “[they] just called the cops, the cops are on their way.” Karten responds, “Good, I’m going to blockade.”

Another Betar Worldwide video shows furniture stacked in front of the clinic’s entrance, and protesters outside banged on the glass. With a bloody arm cut sustained from broken glass, Karten added another chair to the barricade. The man filming said, “Jonathan, relax, it’s not going to do anything.” 

In the next Betar Worldwide clip, Chao told Karten, “You don’t have to barricade the door, I’m just going to lock the door,” and reached between the chairs to turn the door lock. In an SSI video, Chao is seen trying to speak to protesters through the barricade and glass entrance, saying, “Please leave, I have nothing to do with this. You’re hurting innocent people.”

At 1:13 pm, police responded to a call reporting “Unknown Trouble” and arrived to remove individuals from the premises. An SSI video shows officers blocking the building entrance as protesters attempted to reenter, with Karten standing behind them, asking if they needed help. 

In another SSI video, Karten told officers, “Call more dispatch, because they are inside. Call dispatch, I need — we need more men.”

As police presence increased outside, protesters dispersed. Officers followed and arrested five people at the College subway station. At 1:58 pm, the TTC announced that trains were not stopping at College Station “due to a security incident.”

Photos from SJP depict protesters being pinned to the ground while being arrested. TPS alleged that people attempted to obstruct officers during the arrest process, and while attempting to prevent an arrest, an individual assaulted an officer. Service resumed at College Station at 2:02 pm. 

Since the arrests

Multiple people were hospitalized after the disruption, including Karten, eight protesters, and an attendee who arrived after the disruption and had a seizure from stress.

On Thursday, TPS announced that a 22-year-old and a 25-year-old were charged with forcible entry, unlawful assembly, and obstruction of a peace officer, while a 23-year-old was charged with forcible entry and unlawful assembly. A 29-year-old was arrested for obstruction and assault of a peace officer, and a 21-year-old was charged with obstruction of a peace officer.

On November 5, SSI wrote in an Instagram caption, “Our peaceful event was violently attacked… We were targeted simply for being Jewish and tried to have an open conversation.” 

Karten wrote on his Instagram the same day, “Masked terrorists broke through the glass door and charged at us one [sic] came at me with a drill bit. I fought them off, barricaded the door, and waited for the police to arrive.”

At a November 7 SJP press conference, Zoe Newman from Jews Say No To Genocide said, “One of those soldiers physically attacked students protesting their presence, and yet it was the protesters who were arrested. This is institutional racism in uniform.” 

At the press conference, TMU student organizer Julia Bennett said, “A private event promoting an army responsible for mass killing and displacement cannot be called peaceful or apolitical.”

TMU said in a public statement, “[The university] is deeply concerned by an incident that happened off-campus… TMU condemns any acts of aggression, intimidation, or violence… our thoughts are with any students who may have been injured during the incident.”

TMU will be “undertaking a review of policies to see what, if any further action, can be taken.”

Thoughts from arrested student 

The Varsity interviewed one of the students charged by TPS, who is now concussed following the arrest. They could not speak directly about the timeline of events due to potential legal consequences.  

They said, “I spent several hours in the back of a TPS cruiser with a head and knee injury while handcuffed, and these handcuffs were getting progressively tighter. After which, I spent several hours in a cold jail cell.”

“I’m a student. I have the same obligations as many of my peers. I have essays to write, professors to speak to, peers to meet with, meetings to attend, extracurricular commitments. This was a disruption to my day-to-day functioning as a student, but it’s not even really about me. Whatever I faced is such a small fraction of what Palestinians face at the hands of Israel and the IOF.”

When asked if they were concerned about their academic or professional future being impacted by the arrest, they responded, “More than anything, I’m worried about my future and the future of other marginalized people in a world where a genocide like the one in Palestine is allowed to occur.”

Karten and TMU SSI did not respond for comment in time for publication.