Political leaders are condemning what they call “hate speech” from a speaker at a pro-Palestinian rally in Vancouver, who told the crowd: “We are Hezbollah and we are Hamas.”
Both groups are listed by Public Safety Canada as terrorist entities.
In videos circulating online, the unidentified masked woman led a crowd of hundreds at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Monday night chanting “Death to Canada, Death to the United States and Death to Israel,” while some in the group burned Canadian flags.
The protest was organized by the pro-Palestinian Samidoun group, and was held on the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people while sparking a war that left about 41,000 dead in Gaza.
On the social media platform
British Columbia Conservative Leader Jon Rustad said in a statement that this behavior is “completely unacceptable,” while federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre vowed to list Samidoun as a terrorist entity if his party forms the next Canadian government.
Get daily national news
Get the day’s top political, economic and current affairs news, headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
“We have seen what happens when these groups are not taken seriously,” Poilievre’s statement said.
Rustad, whose provincial Conservative Party is competing with Eby’s NDP in British Columbia’s upcoming election on Oct. 19, says in a video statement that his party “will crack down on this kind of hate” if elected.
In his social media post, Ibe says the people of the province “stand together against violence and its glorification. We strive for peace.”
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
