The Quebec City Police Department refused to open an investigation after the flag of a terrorist organization was brandished during a pro-Palestine demonstration last week.
According to the photos we were able to consult, the flag of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was waved by a masked demonstrator on at least three occasions during demonstrations in Old Quebec in recent months, including the March 24.
The flag of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, during a demonstration in Quebec on March 24.
Courtesy photo
This organization, to which several attacks and hijackings have been attributed since the 1970s, is listed by Canada as a terrorist entity (see down there).
Man charged in Ontario
On March 28, a resident of Old Quebec who saw the flag on different occasions filed a complaint with the Quebec City Police Service (SPVQ), inspired by a similar case that occurred on January 7 in Ontario.
A 41-year-old man, Maged Sameh Hilal Al Khalaf, was arrested by Toronto police and charged with publicly inciting hatred against the Jewish community for waving a PFLP flag.
“Hate and intimidation have no place in our city and we are unwavering in our commitment to restoring a sense of public safety and not tolerating behavior that crosses the line into criminal activity,” said on this subject the Toronto police chief, Myron Demkiw.
The resident who filed a complaint with the SPVQ is in the same direction. “I am not denouncing the fact that pro-Palestine activists are demonstrating in the streets. There is a place for expressing discontent in a democratic society like ours. It is the promotion of an organization recognized as terrorist (…) which is unacceptable and that is where we must draw the line,” the man whose identity we confirmed, but who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
No investigation in Quebec
For its part, the SPVQ decided not to open an investigation and instead to transfer the information received to criminal intelligence.
A decision which greatly disappoints the complainant. “If the Toronto police considered the matter serious enough, there was reason for the police officers of our National Capital to do the same,” he said.
Asked to comment, a spokesperson for Palestine Quebec, who did not want to be identified, indicated that her organization did not have “control over who brings what” in their demonstrations and that its leaders had never noticed the presence of the PFLP flag to this day.
“As an organization, no one would do that. That would be shooting ourselves in the foot,” she said, recalling that “the end of the Palestinian occupation” was Palestine Quebec’s only objective.
Invitation to the March 24 demonstration organized by Palestine Quebec in Old Quebec
Image taken from the Palestine Quebec Instagram account
A very active organization
Hamas ally, the PFLP was accused by Israel of holding hostages from the October 7 attack, an accusation which could not be independently corroborated.
According to political scientist specializing in the Middle East and professor emeritus at the University of Sherbrooke Sami Aoun, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is an organization that is still very active today, even if its creation dates back to the end of the 1960s.
“It is a present organization, but a minority. Its Marxist-Leninist ideology no longer has the same momentum and strength among the Palestinian population,” he said.
“In the Canadian approach, it is a terrorist group not only because of its past, but also because of its alliances with a country considered a pariah state, Iran, and with Hamas, a group also considered terrorist », continues Mr. Aoun.
Canada, which had included the PFLP on its list of terrorist entities in 2003, revised its decision in 2021 and decided to keep the organization on this list.
– With the collaboration of Ian Gemme
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
- Arab nationalist and Marxist-Leninist organization which emerged in 1967.
- Is considered a terrorist organization by several countries, including the United States and the European Union.
- Hijacked three airliners and stormed the headquarters of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna in the 1970s.
- Resorted to “suicide bombers, guerrilla warfare, car bombs and mortar attacks” in the 2000s.
- Claimed responsibility for the assassination of an Israeli tourism minister in 2001 and an attack that killed six people in a Jewish synagogue in Jerusalem in 2014.
- According to Public Safety Canada, the two objectives of the PFLP are the “destruction of Israel” and the establishment of a communist government in Palestine.
Source: Public Safety Canada