Toronto Mayoral Candidates' Responses to Community Questions: Brad Bradford

CIJA

To assist members of our community in understanding Toronto mayoral candidates’ priorities, CIJA asked them to outline specific actions they will take as Mayor of Toronto to restore safety, order, and dignity for our Jewish community and every resident of our city. Below is Brad Bradford's response.

What specific steps would you take as Mayor to strengthen Toronto's prevention, reporting, investigation, and response to hate-motivated crime, including antisemitism?

Tackling the crisis of hate requires moving from a reactive posture to a proactive, preventative framework backed by real enforcement. As Mayor, I will implement the following:

Resource and Expand the TPS Hate Crime Unit (HCU): I will support directing dedicated, multi-year funding to expand investigators, intelligence officers, and civilian research analysts within the Hate Crime Unit. The HCU must have the investigative capacity to monitor extremist networks, triage online threats before they escalate into violence, and rapidly lay charges under Criminal Code provisions (including sections 318 and 319).
Hire 1,000 New Police Officers: Understaffing across our divisions has severely compromised response times and proactive patrols. I have put forward a clear platform commitment to recruit, train, and deploy 1,000 new Toronto Police officers. Increasing front-line headcount ensures officers are not merely running call-to-call, but are visibly present in vulnerable neighbourhoods—such as along the Bathurst–Lawrence, Bathurst–Sheppard, and Bayview corridors—acting as an immediate deterrent to intimidation.
Tri-Level Law Enforcement Taskforce: Under my leadership, Toronto will work with the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), the RCMP, and the Ministry of the Attorney General to establish an integrated enforcement protocol. Too often, charges laid by TPS officers are stayed or dismissed by Crown prosecutors. I will advocate strongly for specialized hate-crime prosecution teams within the Crown Attorney’s office to ensure charges carry meaningful judicial consequences.

How would you use your role with the Toronto Police Service Board to ensure that combating hate and protecting vulnerable communities remain clear policing priorities, including through appropriate resources, training, and public reporting?

Accountability starts at the top. The current Mayor’s refusal to sit on the Toronto Police Service Board (TPSB) represents a failure of leadership. In July 2026, I co-sponsored Motion MM43.50 (The Mayor's Seat: Restoring Direct Mayoral Accountability on the Toronto Police Service Board) alongside Councillor James Pasternak to mandate direct mayoral accountability over policing.

As Mayor:

I Will Personally Sit on the Police Board: On day one, I will take my rightful seat on the Toronto Police Service Board. You cannot oversee a $1.2-billion-plus police budget or ensure community protection if you refuse to attend the board where policies are established, resources are allocated, and leadership is held accountable. The Chief and executive leadership report to the Board; I will ensure the board demands results.
Institute Mandatory Anti-Hate & Antisemitism Training: Working through the Board, I will advocate for comprehensive, recurrent in-service training for all TPS recruits and frontline officers at the Toronto Police College. This training will be developed in direct consultation with the Jewish Stakeholder Committee that was established by TPS, to equip frontline constables with the legal confidence and knowledge required to intervene during unlawful protests and hate-motivated intimidation.
Mandate Granular, Transparent Public Reporting: I will call for quarterly, division-by-division public updates on hate crime occurrences, charge rates, and prosecutorial outcomes, ensuring complete transparency for the public and city council. We will work with the province, including the Solicitor General and Attorney General, to establish reasonable reporting that will need to work in collaboration at all levels of government.

How would you ensure terrorist glorification, intimidation, and targeted harassment are addressed quickly and consistently?

Toronto has seen public squares and residential streets turned into venues for hate marches, where flags of listed terrorist entities have been waved, and open calls for violence have echoed outside civic institutions. The permissive attitude taken by City leadership over the past three years has emboldened extremists.

I will restore order and draw a firm line:

Enforcing Injunctions and Criminal Prohibitions: No one has an open-ended Charter right to harass communities, glorify terrorism, or intimidate residents. As Mayor, I will use every municipal and legal tool at our disposal to block gatherings designed to promote violence or terrorist glorification.
Enforcing the "Bubble Zone" Safety Bylaw: I introduced the original City Council motion in 2023 to establish protective perimeter zones around places of worship, faith-based schools, daycares, and cultural facilities. As Mayor, I will work with city staff and community leaders to ensure this bylaw provides the protection that communities need.
Banning Masking to Conceal Identity During Hate Offences: Intimidators frequently hide behind masks. I will partner with our provincial and federal counterparts to prohibit the use of face coverings during unlawful assemblies and public disturbances designed to obstruct justice and evade identification.
Zero Tolerance for Residential and Commercial Harassment: Protests targeting private residences, Jewish-owned small businesses, or healthcare facilities (such as the targeted harassment seen at Mount Sinai Hospital and restaurants like Limon) cross the boundary of peaceful demonstration into potentially criminal harassment. I will direct City bylaw officers and TPS to strictly enforce existing noise, assembly, and anti-harassment laws against those targeting civilians where they live and work. This includes enforcing existing Bubble Zone by-laws. In addition, I will ensure that Toronto Police are adequately resourced and coordinated to enforce consistently and without delay.

What municipal investments would you prioritize to strengthen security infrastructure?

The Jewish community cannot be left to shoulder the soaring costs of defending its own schools, community centres, and synagogues against violent attack. No community should be asked to do that. My administration will prioritize practical, high-impact security investments:

Expanding and Expediting Physical Security Grants: In December 2024, City Council allocated an initial $2.5 million for physical security infrastructure grants (including protective bollards to prevent hostile vehicular attacks). However, the rollout has been sluggish and hindered by municipal red tape. As Mayor, I will expand this grant envelope and establish a fast-tracked application process so faith-based and vulnerable institutions can immediately have access to capital they need.
Enhanced Streetscape Hardening and Lighting: The City will prioritize municipal right-of-way improvements directly adjacent to high-risk facilities. This includes installing high-output street lighting, removing visual sightline obstructions, and installing permanent street furniture engineered to prevent vehicle ingress.

How would you ensure that the City effectively addresses antisemitism internally so that city services are delivered without discrimination or bias against the Jewish community?

Combating antisemitism externally is impossible if City Hall tolerates it within its own administration, agencies, and public services. A safe and inclusive city requires that Jewish employees, service recipients, and community partners are treated with absolute equity and respect.

Mandatory antisemitism training for City Staff and Agencies: I will direct the City Manager and the People & Equity Division to address antisemitism in City diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training modules. Every City manager, recreation coordinator, library administrator, and frontline worker will receive clear education on how antisemitism manifests in civic life today.
Protection and Psychological Safety for Jewish Municipal Employees: We have heard troubling accounts of Jewish City employees and union members facing workplace hostility, isolation, and double standards since October 2023. I will institute an independent, third-party reporting mechanism within the City’s Human Rights and Anti-Harassment/Discrimination Unit to handle internal antisemitic complaints impartially, ensuring rapid investigations and appropriate disciplinary action.

What steps would you take to ensure that City-owned and publicly funded spaces, including libraries, recreation centres, and other municipal facilities, are not used for programming or events that promote hatred, glorify violence, or violate the Ontario Human Rights Code?

Civic assets belong to the people of Toronto. They must never become staging grounds for hate propaganda, extremism, or violent incitement.

Strict Reform and Enforcement of the City’s Hate Activity Policy: The City’s existing Hate Activity Policy explicitly prohibits individuals or groups that promote discrimination, contempt, or hatred from accessing City properties. However, compliance has historically relied on a toothless self-certification declaration form. Under my administration, additional vetting will be required for groups seeking permits for City squares (including Nathan Phillips Square), public libraries, community centres, or park spaces.
Immediate Permit Cancellation and Financial Penalties: If any permitted gathering, rally, or event breaches City policy, glorifies designated terrorist organizations, or violates the Ontario Human Rights Code, City staff and bylaw officers will be authorized and instructed to revoke the permit immediately. Furthermore, the organizing entity will face cost-recovery penalties for policing and municipal cleanup and will be placed on a barred list for future facility bookings.
Oversight of Arm's-Length Agencies (Toronto Public Library & Civic Theatres): While respecting operational independence, public institutions funded by Toronto taxpayers cannot act with impunity when it comes to hate speech. I will engage directly with the Toronto Public Library Board and the Board of Civic Theatres Toronto to align their room booking and event sponsorship guidelines with strict anti-hate standards, ensuring public spaces do not provide platforms to speakers who incite hatred against any community in the city.

What would you do as Mayor to provide clear and consistent public leadership against antisemitism and extremism, and to ensure that City institutions respond transparently and consistently when hate incidents occur?

The defining requirement of mayoral leadership is moral clarity. Over the past three years, Toronto’s Jewish community has been met with equivocation, hesitation, and absence when it needed a champion.

When the Jewish Lawyers of Canada held a mayoral forum in September 2026 to discuss rising antisemitism and public safety, I showed up. I participated because leadership requires facing tough issues directly. The Mayor’s job is to be the mayor for everybody, and that means you have to show up to have these tough conversations and hold yourself accountable.

As Mayor, I will lead by example:

Uncompromising Moral Clarity: When gunfire hits a girls’ school or flags are set on fire outside a place of worship, it is not a political demonstration. It is targeted intimidation and terror. I will call hate by its name, swiftly, publicly, and unequivocally.
Standing Shoulder-to-Shoulder with the Community: I will be physically present, visiting targeted institutions, walking with community members, and meeting with parents, educators, and faith leaders. A mayor sets the cultural and civic tone for the entire city. When the public see the Mayor standing arm-in-arm with targeted communities, it sends an unmistakable message: an attack on one community is an attack on all of Toronto.
Rapid-Response Mayoral Incident Protocol: When a major hate crime or violent incident occurs, I will immediately convene an emergency crisis response briefing involving the Police Chief, the City Manager, and community leadership to establish immediate on-the-ground safety measures, followed by a public briefing within 12 hours.
Transparent Multi-Agency Accountability: Under my administration, the City will not hide behind bureaucratic investigations or deferred staff reports. We will issue transparent public disclosures regarding hate occurrences, enforcement actions taken, and the deployment of municipal resources.

About CIJA

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs is the advocacy agent of Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA, representing Jewish Federations across Canada.

Thank you!