Earlier this week, Rebel News parked a video billboard truck at a parking lot near Bathurst and Sheppard in Toronto. The truck was playing a series of ads paid for by a third party called "Canadians Opposed to the Occupation of our Streets and Campuses” that display violent actions of pro-Hamas rioters in Toronto and call out the lack of police intervention.

After going viral the past week, the truck faced a lot of backlash primarily from politicians, mainstream media outlets and anti-Israel activists who have criticized the messaging on the truck as ‘Islamophobic,’ ‘racist,’ and ‘hateful’. This led to the Toronto Police Service announcing that their hate crime unit was investigating the truck.

We recognize the community's concern about a truck displaying Islamophobic messaging in Toronto.

The TPS Hate Crime Unit is investigating.
(GO# 2024-1324632) pic.twitter.com/aDN9FH2XJa

— Toronto Police (@TorontoPolice) June 19, 2024

If the truck’s official owner, Rebel News publisher Ezra Levant, were to be convicted of hate speech, he could face up to two years in jail.

Not surprisingly, a similar video billboard truck seen driving around Toronto displaying various pro-Hamas messages has yet to be investigated by Toronto police.

The Toronto Police are investigating a truck in Toronto that explained the issue of radical Islam, for Hate Crimes but ignore a truck in Toronto that promotes hatred against Jews. Why?https://t.co/J5OtVuRp1u pic.twitter.com/CMDDyU2bzh

— [email protected] (@neveragainlive1) June 19, 2024

We took to a busy street corner in Toronto to find out what Canadians think about the double standard by Toronto police when it comes to branding political messaging as “criminal” and “hateful”. Even if they disagree with the truck’s message, do Torontonians think that political speech should be criminalized?