Organizers protesting an anti-Islam demonstration in Toronto say five of their delegates were arrested during the rally Saturday on University Ave.

The event, hosted by PEGIDA, an organization for “Patriots of Canada Against the Islamization of the West” — according to their Facebook page —said that the purpose of the rally was to “warn against encroaching Islam.”

Simon Rivers, a delegate with the General Defence Committee of the Industrial Workers of the World, who was at the event said that five counterprotesters were arrested. He said members of other far-right groups, including the Proud Boys, Northern Guard and Sons of Odin were in attendance.

“When things do get physical their response is to shut things down and almost every time arrest people on our side and not of the site of PEGIDA and groups that instigate those things,” Rivers said of the police.

He said police later told two people were released without any charges laid.

PEGIDA Canada director Jenny Hill told the Star in an email that none of its members were arrested.

Toronto police confirmed that arrests were made at the event, but would not say how many or from which groups.

Rivers said PEGIDA members were separated from the counter protestors by police in barricaded zones.

The demonstrations escalated when some Proud Boys’ members tried to leave the barricaded area, Rivers said.

“Police cut off most of our people from coming to the area which meant that none of our people could really get involved in the situation, and arrested the people that were essentially closest to where the Proud Boys got into the fence,” he said.

The Proud Boys are a far-right men’s organization that refers to themselves as “Western chauvinists” and were founded by right-wing pundit Gavin McInnes, a Canadian who helped establish Vice Media. The received national attention after disrupting a sacred Indigenous ceremony in Halifax on Canada day in 2017.

“I do not have any information on Toronto Police advising this or any other group to not express their civil right to conduct a rally,” said Const. Allyson Douglas-Cook, a spokesperson with Toronto police.

Rivers said at the peak of the protest at 2 p.m., about 100 counterprotestors were in attendance, with approximately 60 PEGIDA members present in the enclosure. Toronto Police could not confirm the number of people who attended.

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With files from The Canadian Press