October 2, 2024
MONTREAL – B’nai Brith Canada warned university administrators and political leaders in Montreal that it will hold them accountable if insufficient steps are taken to prevent the escalation of antisemitic extremism during rallies planned to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ brutal terrorist attacks on Israel last Oct. 7.
“B’nai Brith will not tolerate radicals promoting hate and endangering the wellbeing of our community,” said Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s Director of Research and Advocacy. “Montreal, its universities, and its police forces have been put on notice.”
Major demonstrations and student walkouts next week have already been announced on social media. One of the groups involved is the self-styled “Solidarity for Palestinian Honour and Resistance” (SPHR) movement, which has chapters at McGill University and Concordia. A statement posted Sept. 28 to the organization’s Instagram urged students to “commemorate the historic breach of the colonial border wall and a year of Palestine’s heroic resistance.” Images associated with the post, which SPHR later removed, depicted Hamas terrorists destroying Israeli tanks and breaking through the Gaza security barrier on Oct. 7, 2023.
SPHR’s accreditation was recently revoked by the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) after years of B’nai Brith’s advocacy.
“These planned demonstrations are clearly intended to be celebrations of the repugnant actions of Hamas – a Canadian-designated terrorist organization,” B’nai Brith contends in its letter, addressed to the mayors of Montreal and Westmount, McGill and Concordia’s presidents, the chief of the Montreal Police and Francois Bonnadel, Quebec’s Minister of Public Security. “On a day when Jewish people around the world, and in Montreal, will be mourning those lost and still being held hostage as a result of Hamas’ atrocities, it is reprehensible that people in Montreal are planning to be overtly, loudly and publically celebrating them.
“This unequivocally crosses the line of acceptable behaviour in Canada and is contrary to both Quebec and Canadian values.”
B’nai Brith’s formal notice comes only two days after anti-Israel demonstrators rioted at Concordia’s downtown campus, reportedly tossing Molotov cocktails at police and vandalizing parts of the Hall Building. Police made several arrests in connection with the incident.
“It is unfathomable that after a year of anarchy on Montreal streets, we still cannot trust our leaders to reign in the open celebration of acts of terrorism,” said Henry Topas, B’nai Brith Canada’s Quebec Regional Director. “We urge the authorities to ensure that the Jewish community is protected and to arrest individuals who violate our laws by inciting violence and spreading hatred.”
