“We stand with the Palestinian resistance and their heroic and brave action on October 7. Long live October 7.”
It doesn’t get much clearer than that.
It was yet another harangue from Charlotte Kates, international co-ordinator for the Samidoun Prisoners Solidarity Network, one of the main groups behind the dozens of “pro-Palestine” rallies and demonstrations across Canada since the Hamas atrocities of October 7 last year. The savageries of that day led to the war in Gaza that has so far cost the lives of perhaps 30,000 Palestinians.
This time it was last Friday, at a
rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery. “Long live October 7” was also the
slogan chanted in Ottawa on April 21, eliciting denunciations from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. At the Vancouver rally, Kates added some colour to the slogan by referring to October 7 as an instance of the “beautiful, brave and heroic resistance of the Palestinian people.”
Kates also made it plain that she was unconcerned about whether her remarks should be understood as condoning or celebrating terrorism. “It is long past time to delist Palestinian and Lebanese resistance organizations from Canada’s so-called list of terrorist entities,” she said. “Hamas is not a terrorist organization. Islamic Jihad is not a terrorist organization. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is not a terrorist organization. Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization.”
But…but not all Palestinians are Hamas, but all Hamas are terrorists, or Palestinians, or something like that, right?
All these entities are listed as terrorist organizations in Canada.
“These are resistance fighters,” Kates fairly shouted into her megaphone. “These are our heroes. These are those who are sacrificing so that we can live and speak and struggle and fight. These are the people whose blood is being shed to defend humanity and to defend the world.”
Samidoun is one of the main groups behind the anti-Israel rallies across the country
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After the “Long live October 7” slogan was chanted in Ottawa, Poilievre responded this way: “I condemn these pro-genocide, antisemitic chants.” Under Section 318(1) of the Criminal Code, anyone who advocates or promotes genocide is liable to imprisonment for five years.
Trudeau responded this way: “It is unconscionable to glorify the antisemitic violence and murder perpetrated by Hamas on October 7th. This rhetoric has no place in Canada. None.”
While glorifying terrorism isn’t against the law in Canada, it is against the law, under Section 83.05(1)b of the Criminal Code, to knowingly act on behalf of, at the direction of or in association with a listed terrorist group.
I’m curious how Amira Elghawaby would justify this, and how commenting on this would be anti-Muslim or Islamophobic, etc…?
Brock University has launched a review after a professor praised Hamas’s October 7 atrocities against Israeli civilians, compared the Jewish state to Nazi Germany, and cited antisemitic conspiracy theories in a series of blog posts.
Tamari Kitossa, a
decolonization and anti-racism scholar at Brock University, where he heads the critical sociology department, wrote a four-part series written following the Hamas atrocities, which Kitossa describes as “
miraculous.” He argues that Zionism and Nazism are one and the same, etc…
Tamari Kitossa, a decolonization and anti-racism scholar at Brock University, wrote a series of controversial blog posts after October 7
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In an email, Maryanne St. Denis, manager of content and communications at Brock University, said the school was unaware of Kitossa’s blog posts until National Post brought them to the school’s attention. “We are currently reviewing this matter,” the school said.
St. Denis added that Brock has a “range of policies in place to ensure a safe and welcoming campus environment. There is absolutely no place on our campus for hate of any kind.” Etc…(standard institutional disclaimer)
