(Ottawa) Protests in support of the Palestinians that include hateful or harassing behavior cross a line, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday.
Trudeau told a news conference in Toronto that he has heard too many members of the Canadian Jewish community say they no longer feel safe after seeing protests outside synagogues and community centers .
No one can remain indifferent to the suffering in the Gaza Strip amid the war between Israel and Hamas, and Canadians have the right to protest and express their anger, he said.
“This loss of civilian life and the repercussions on Canadian families and people’s concerns for their loved ones are completely understandable,” said the Prime Minister.
But Mr. Trudeau said he expects Canadians, including police, to act within the law and ensure everyone can feel safe.
“There are horrible things we see, but it is unlike us to attack our fellow Canadians,” he said. Hateful or harassing behavior, particularly towards neighbors, is not what we practice here in Canada. »
On Tuesday, the Superior Court of Quebec granted an injunction to a Montreal synagogue and a Jewish organization prohibiting pro-Palestine groups from taking part in demonstrations within 50 meters of six establishments of the Jewish community, for a period of 10 days.
A representative of the Advisory Center for Jewish and Israeli Relations said the community requested the injunction after protesters surrounded a Jewish community center Monday in Montreal, blocking people inside and chanting anti-Semitic slogans.
Sarah Boivin, a member of Independent Jewish Ways Canada, argued that people were protesting passionately – but not violently – against specific events.
She was referring to an event featuring members of the Israeli armed forces and another that she described as a “real estate tour selling properties in illegal settlements in the West Bank.”
A threat to public safety?
Montreal Liberal MP Anthony Housefather said in an interview a day before Mr. Trudeau’s comments that it was “totally unacceptable” for protests to target places of worship, community centers or Jewish businesses.
These institutions have no control over what happens in Israel. To protest against them is to claim that Canadian Jews are responsible for what Israel does. What is happening now is intimidation. Demonstrating in front of synagogues is simply not acceptable.
Montreal Liberal MP Anthony Housefather
He also asserted that the right to exercise free speech does not extend to preventing others from exercising their own rights, including the freedom to leave a building.
Winnipeg Liberal MP Ben Carr said he is concerned about peaceful demonstrations turning into protests targeting religious institutions or buildings.
“Protests become a problem when the target and location are intentionally chosen to coincide with a religious affiliation,” he said in an interview before Mr. Trudeau’s comments on Tuesday.
Housefather said he wants to hear more from political leaders at all levels about police acting like police and intervening when protests cross the line.
He referred to comments made by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London last week.
On February 29, Mr Sunak said Britain was descending into “mob rule” due to pressures created by protests against the war between Israel and Hamas.
He said there was a “pattern of increasingly violent and intimidating behavior” aimed at “denouncing free debate and preventing elected officials from doing their jobs.”
In Toronto, a weekend reception at the Art Gallery of Ontario, featuring Mr. Trudeau and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, was canceled after protesters blocked the entrances.
Protest organizers said they had been unfairly vilified, while Canada’s special representative for combating Islamophobia denounced a “constant rush” to portray demonstrations in support of the Palestinians as a threat to public security.
The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, when Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel and took around 250 others hostage.
Authorities in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip say more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed so far in the Israeli military response.
With information from the Associated Press