New Delhi, June 7 -- The arrests came before the march had fully gotten underway. Two people were taken into custody Sunday morning as tens of thousands of participants gathered in North York for the United Jewish Appeal's annual Walk with Israel, a police presence so dense the neighbourhood resembled something between a public rally and a security operation.

including undercover officers and road closures across the Bathurst Street and Wilson Avenue corridor - in a deliberate effort to prevent the kind of confrontations that have defined the event in recent years.

Deputy Chief Frank Barredo had made the stakes explicit at a press conference two days earlier. The department would not allow attendees to be subjected to what some describe...