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Like so many others, I spent my Thanksgiving weekend in deep shock as the severity of what transpired in Israel became clear.The shock was instinctual: I still can't get the image of that poor four-year-old child, the same age as my youngest niece, being jabbed with a stick and tormented with the Hebrew term for "mommy" out of my head.It was ancestral: watching images of babies in cages and corpse bags made me wish there had been full-color iPhones available in 1944, when my paternal grandmother's entire family was driven from their town in Hungary and slaughtered at Auschwitz.It was familial: I heard from relatives all around Israel who were terrified in bomb shelters, and I prayed for my cousin, a Tel Aviv cardiologist and newlywed, who has been called up for reserve duty as an army doctor.And it was intelligent. As I watched colleagues on Twitter, including Canadian law professors, attempt to portray the biggest killing of innocent Jews since the Holocaust as "legitimate resistance," I considered how I could use my legal skills to fight back.But I couldn't accomplish anything this weekend. By Monday at 5 p.m., I was fatigued, upset, and overstimulated, so I turned off my laptop, lay down on my couch, and closed my eyes. A few moments later, I heard chants outside my window on Bloor Street in Toronto, first incoherent, then clear: "Occupation is a crime!" "Free, free Palestine!"I climbed up to discover, in horror, that a few hundred of my fellow Torontonians had assembled on my doorstep to support this horrible massacre. Those who argue that this was simply a march in support of Palestinian citizens should shake their heads. An Instagram post promoting the earlier-day gathering at Nathan Phillips Square referred to the terrorists as "heroic" and praised the "over 30 Zionist hostages captured."

I'm still deeply disturbed by the chants. 

of "Allahu Akbar" that rang out in nearby Mississauga on Saturday night, as well as the countless individuals on social media who have demonstrated such a lack of basic moral architecture that they are celebrating one of the most blatant acts of human cruelty in history.Nonetheless, I refused to give in to the multiple appeals throughout the weekend to crush these demonstrations. For example, Toronto City Councillors Brad Bradford and James Pasternak wrote to Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, urging her to "do what is necessary to prevent an unlawful pro-Hamas rally" at Nathan Phillips Square, including refusing granting a permit for public space. Bradford and Pasternak cited a city-produced event guidebook that states that permits would not be provided for activities that support beliefs that are "likely to promote discrimination, contempt, or hatred."While it is understandable that these councillors want to shut down this terrible protest, they do not appear to comprehend that freedom of peaceful assembly is a constitutional right that everyone has, including the vilest among us. As the Toronto Police have properly stated, the Constitution, including Section 2(c) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, is the highest law of Canada and transcends any municipal ordinance requiring a permit to gather.

Several legal intellectuals have. 

speculated that such demonstrations could approach the unusual threshold of "counselling terrorist acts," a crime under section 83(01) of the Criminal Code, and thus should be prohibited. I am suspicious of this allegation. It is true that "counselling terrorist acts" refers to crimes committed in Canada or overseas. However, there is limited case law on what "counselling" entails. While images of crowds celebrating Hamas in London, Sydney, Toronto, and New York are undoubtedly valuable to the terror group's aims, just attending a protest and screaming "Free, free Palestine" is far removed from genuine terrorism.While supporting a movement that commits atrocities is ethically wrong or naive, it's unlikely that all demonstrators were terrorists. According to TV coverage, there appeared to be a mix of those praising Palestinian struggle and statehood, others opposing Zionist tyranny, and even more disgusting elements chanting "Death to Jews". It is impossible to distinguish between the just morally broken and deceived and the deadly terrorists in any public protest, and criminal law, which imposes the state's most draconian restriction on liberty—incarceration—requires clarity and accuracy.

This is not to say that there should be no arrests.

Although peaceful protest is a protected activity under the Charter's freedoms of expression and assembly, criminal activities may be done while exercising these rights. Police have the authority to arrest persons for breaching the peace (s. 31(1) of the Criminal Code), mischief (s. 430), and participating in a riot (section 65). A man who confronted a small pro-Hamas protest in Calgary this weekend, for example, was charged under the broad police power to prevent breach of the peace.

Finally, hate speech—speech that encourages "intense detestation, vilification, and calumny" against a specific group—is criminalized in Canada (unlike the United States) under section 319 of the Criminal Code. Given the infamous subjectivity involved in determining when the threshold of hate speech has been exceeded, most municipal police forces in Canadian cities have dedicated hate crime teams on hand at protests to make or acquire evidence that could lead to charges later on. It would not surprise me if arrests were made in connection with pro-Hamas gatherings in the coming days after Arabic-speaking officers saw some of the tape.