Toronto police launch high-visibility counter-terrorism unit amid ‘heightened tensions’

Police in Toronto are responding to the current political climate with a new high-visibility counter-terrorism unit.

A release today from the Toronto Police Service (TPS) unveiled the new detachment as the Counter-Terrorism Security Unit (CTSU), designed to respond to what TPS describes as “terrorism and violent extremism.”

The release indicated that this new unit was not launched in response to any immediate danger but instead, a new landscape deemed changed by “global conflicts, online radicalization, and extremism, along with a significant increase in hate crimes.”

“At a time of heightened tensions, and in light of the firearm discharges targeting synagogues and the U.S. Consulate in Toronto and other violent, hate-motivated incidents around the world, the Toronto Police Service continues to take proactive action,” Assistant Commissioner Matt Peggs, Regional Commander with Federal Policing Central Region, said in a statement tied to the release.

Peggs continued to note that the CTSU will work closely with federal, provincial, and municipal police services across Canada.

The launch of the CTSU is also tied to a secondary incentive, as offices attached to the unit are engaged in what TPS representatives have deemed “Task Force Guardian.”

The task force — according to the release — has been designed to increase police visibility in locations like high-traffic public spaces, tourist attractions, and places of worship, and will involve the presence of “uniformed officers equipped with patrol rifles and other long guns,” as part of an ongoing deterrence strategy.

Beyond regional law enforcement units, the CTSU is also slated to work closely with the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams (INSET).

Peggs concluded that this partnership will solidify the new unit as a key force for public safety, stating, “We look forward to the ongoing collaboration with INSET, and within the new unit to ensure that we remain able to respond to threats to public safety in Canada’s largest city.”