Anti-Islam group postpones rally at Nathan Phillips Square

'Will haunt us in the future': Scarborough and North York courthouses face closure by province next year

Interviewed later, Nigel Barriffe, president of Toronto’s Urban Alliance on Race Relations, said removing local access to justice for both victims and people facing charges is an attack on the poor and working class in a city already divided economically.

Barriffe, who spoke at the rally, said Black and other racialized people could pay high costs as a result.

“We all feel really strongly that the government is making a bad decision on this,” he said.

“Why are we again reducing services in the community?”

Canada’s armed forces are struggling to keep white supremacists out, advisory panel finds

The release of their report was condemned Monday as “political theatre” by Nigel Barriffe, president of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations, who said Ottawa has failed to provide a plan, deadline and funding to root out white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

“It doesn’t seem like the government is interested in really dealing with getting Nazis and white supremacists out of the Canadian Armed Forces,” Barriffe said. “If they were, today they would have come up with an actual action plan, not a plan to come up with a plan.”

Amalgamated courthouse in Toronto 'significant barrier' to justice, critics say

Nigel Bariffe, president of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations, said people using local courthouses live far from the downtown core and will have to take a whole day off work to make court appearances.

"Many cannot afford the day of lost wages, caregiver costs, and transit fees, so consolidation will end up increasing justice system costs because of delayed cases, increased arrest warrants, and thrown-out cases," he said.