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Mayor Olivia Chow says she won’t condemn six councillors who criticized the Toronto Police Service’s handling of a recent pro-Hamas rally. Neither will the six councillors who signed the letter answer questions put to them by The Toronto Sun, detailing the links between the groups organizing the protests and support for terrorism.
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For months, we’ve been seeing these marches and rallies take off across the city; mostly they have been described in the media as “pro-Palestinian,” but as my colleagues and I at the Sun have been noting, there is something more sinister at play here.
In politics, as in life, you are judged by the company you keep and every councillor that signed that letter should be judged for the company they are keeping. Freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression are protected by the Charter, and rightly so, but that doesn’t stop us from being able to judge who is assembling and who is cheering them on.
On Monday, I wrote to Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik, and Councillors Gord Perks, Aljandro Bravo, Paula Fletcher, Amber Morley and Lily Cheng, and presented them with information about Samidoun and the Palestinian Youth Movement, two of the main organizers of the rallies. In addition to presenting the six councillors with details of the ties between these groups and banned terrorist groups in Canada, I asked them for comment – none of them replied.
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Samidoun is a group which shows up at protests across Toronto with a large banner reading “Long Live the Resistance.” The banner features an image of an AK-47 rifle firing bullets, with the butt of the rifle painted as the Palestinian flag.
That’s hardly a call for peace.
The group’s Canadian-based international coordinator, Charlotte Kates, states explicitly that she supports Palestinian armed resistance in all forms and encourages everyone else to do the same. Samidoun has direct ties, visible on their website, to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group listed as a terrorist entity by the Government of Canada since 2003.
Earlier this year, Samidoun hosted an event with Hamas official Dr. Basam Naim, someone who has spread incredible amounts of disinformation in the West about Hamas activities, according to the Washington Post.
I emailed all six councillors who wrote the letter criticizing Toronto police for their handling of protests.
In the email I presented evidence of links between organizers and banned terrorist groups.
Let's see if any of them will answer the questions put to them today. #topoli pic.twitter.com/cs0ZANmIid
The Palestinian Youth Movement has spent years promoting members of Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and other terrorist groups as heroes. Immediately after the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas, the PYM began organizing rallies in support of “the resistance,” including here in Toronto.
Shatha Mahmoud, an organizer with PYM Toronto, gave an interview saying resistance is justified days after the brutal attack Hamas launched on Israel.
After presenting the information to the councillors, I asked them if they supported Samidoun or the Palestinian Youth Movement, or if allowing groups that endorse banned terrorist groups to march through our streets is a good idea. I asked the councillors if they would denounce the groups for their support of terrorist organizations.
Nothing.
No response.
Crickets.
None of them have the courage of their cowardly convictions when presented with the facts.
On Monday, Chow was asked to comment on the letter sent by the six councillors after Jon Reid, head of the Toronto Police Association, blasted it.
“Whether they are councillors, a deputy mayor or ordinary citizens, they have the right, under the Charter of Freedoms, to assemble, to have their voice heard,” Chow said. “I’m not into condemning anyone.”
We should be into condemning and distancing ourselves from groups that support, embrace and rejoice in terrorist attacks like Samidoun and the Palestinian Youth Movement have done. These are not groups that councillors or any elected official should be supporting in any way or be seen next to.
Nor should these groups be given free rein on our streets.
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