Regina police address safety concerns following tense protests

A rally for Palestine in Regina on Sunday saw a large turnout, which led to some tense moments with Israeli protestors. Some of the protesters are questioning if police should have done more to intervene.

A group of Israeli protesters settled in across the street, and supporters of the Palestinian rally became increasingly concerned as interactions between the two became more and more heated.

“We saw the situation and they keep coming closer and we decided that we should walk away to city hall and they followed us there as well,” explained Asmaa Olwan, who attended the event.

Although it was originally not part of the plan, the Palestine group marched from the legislative building to Victoria Park to avoid the conflict.

“Aggressively provoking a peaceful rally, we were not prepared for that and we did phone the police again multiple times throughout the rally and the march asking for their presence so that people could feel safe and protected and there wasn’t a single officer who left their vehicle,” said Valerie Zink, one of the event organizers.

Those taking part in the Israeli gathering told CTV News that their presence was focused on highlighting the human cost of the conflict and to show support for Israel.

“We’re trying just to show awareness being here in Regina – we’re here to show the support, the love and that we love life,” one demonstrator who wished to remain anonymous explained.

“But we can’t sit home and be silent after what happened.”

A member of the Jewish community at the Beth Jacob Synagogue, who asked to remain anonymous, attended the protest and said two of their members also called police after the protests got tense.

He said he and his fellow protestors did not feel safe from the very beginning.

“We were expecting to come to what was called a peaceful protest and we felt nothing but anger and hate and incitement being directed towards us,” he said.

The Regina Police Service (RPS) did have units monitoring the event. However, both the organizing team and police admit that the turnout was significantly higher than expected, and the Israeli protesters came as a surprise.

“They did request additional units to respond during the walk, there was a realization that there was sort of two sides in terms of possible tensions and so we did respond to that as well,” said Lorilee Davies, Deputy Chief of RPS.

The conflict in the Middle East has had countless civilian casualties on each side. With no end to the conflict in sight, RPS explained this event was a learning experience in how to better prepare for future demonstrations.

“We understand that there is a lot of emotion attached to this, depending on which side people may be on, and it’s tragic whenever there is loss of life,” Davies said. “We appreciate that people may be emotional but there are limits in terms of what people can do in terms of being able to express their opinions in a safe way.”

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The Palestinian group said their organizing team had the proper permit in order, and requested police presence from the RPS on the Friday prior to the event.

The member of Jewish community said while he understands the hurt that both the Palestine protestors and Israeli protestors have, he hopes future protests can happen in a more civilized way.

“We know that they're hurting as much as we and they're entitled to their place to share with the field, the same as we,” he said. “I just hope that moving forward, the understanding could be that we all have our place to hurt but still, we hope that it can happen in a civilized way, rather than the unfortunate turn of events that happened at the park.”

This is just the first of what will likely be many demonstrations regarding the Israel-Gaza war.

Police are optimistic that after Sunday, they now have a better understanding of how strong the impact is in Regina.

- With files from Caitlin Brezinski