WINNIPEG – Following the blitz of mutilation and death unleashed on Israel by Hamas terrorists and their allies in Gaza in 2023, and the subsequent missile attacks from there and other terror states, so-called “pro-Palestinian” protests from Halifax to Vancouver upended civil society in Canada. At the same time, Policy Options reported that “Iranian officials are entering Canada with alarming ease,” an estimated 700.
“Our swamped immigration system has allowed the toxic influence of a murderous regime to grow on Canadian soil.”
The funding and propaganda for the protests have largely been directed by Iran, but with the Shia regime now beset by a populist uprising, governments have a chance to turn the tide.
In the past, anti-Israel hate marches in Canada were mostly confined to Al-Quds Day, an invention of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 overthrow of the Shah of Iran.
As the Tehran Times explained, the last Friday of Ramadan was set for the commemoration, and Khomeini declared that the Iranian revolution would not be complete until the Palestinians achieved their freedom. Designed to whip up mobs of jihadists, it was ostensibly about Israel retaking Jerusalem during the Six-Day War.
“We are on the side of the oppressed wherever they may be. The Palestinians are oppressed by the Israelis, therefore, we are with them.”
In Canada — particularly in Toronto — localized versions of Al-Quds Day went largely unnoticed by the media and unaddressed by authorities. Small in size and big on incitement, the protests grew, especially in Toronto, and so did the hate and vitriol directed at Jews, western values, and Canada itself. Calls to “eradicate” Israel, comparisons of Zionism to Nazi Germany, and chants of “Jews are our dogs” were bellowed.
These marches became training grounds for Islamists and their far-left allies in Canada to organize intrusions into public spaces, promote an “intifada,” claim jihad and banned terror groups were merely engaged in “resistance,” and test how far communities — and police — could be pushed by framing it all as “free speech.”
By 2014, an Al-Quds Day protest outside Calgary City Hall showed whose free speech mattered to them. A Jewish family held an Israeli flag across the street from the event.
“They were beaten and hospitalized by a mob who were attending what suddenly became a riot, where incidentally our police were noticeably absent,” a witness told me. “The only difference between then and now is that it’s become a heavily policed cauldron of Jew hatred.”
In the years since, more excuses for similar disruptive protests such as “Days of Rage” and “Nakba Day” — a psyop asserting Israel’s creation was a violent, planned displacement of 800,000 Arabs — were added. To be clear, the original meaning of describing Israel’s independence as a “nakba” related to the defeat of the combined military forces of the Arab world in 1948. Islamists consider that admission an affront to their honour.
A week before Nakba Day in May 2021, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, issued a tweet to inflame his supporters:
“Palestine is described in the Quran as the Holy Land. For years, this pure land has been occupied by the evilest ppl, racists who for +70 years have been harassing the land’s owners by slaying, looting, imprisoning and torturing them.”
At the Nakba Day event in 2021 — during pandemic restrictions — Khamenei’s words inspired the worst attack on Jews in Winnipeg history.
Slated for May 15, the online poster headlined “Palestine protest” stated: “everyone stay in their car, it will be a car protest and will be driving from the legislative building, down Leila and back…”
That Saturday, two other public gatherings took place at the Legislature. On the grounds outside the House, people opposed to government COVID restrictions peacefully advocated for freedom. Across the street, at Memorial Park, about 30 supporters of Israel — including teenagers and women — celebrated Israeli Independence Day, Yom Ha’atzmaut.
The only group that was not peaceful were the hundreds involved in the “Nakba 73” car rally. Cultural music was played extolling harm against Jews, and signs promoted the Ayatollah’s distorted outbursts. Participants exited their vehicles, making vile threats to “rape your daughters” and “stab the Jews in Tuxedo.”
The “pro-Palestinian” mob hurled frozen water bottles, rocks, and smoke bombs, charged past startled police, and attacked Jews and other Zionists in attendance. An Israeli flag was stolen and set on fire. One Jewish man driving on Broadway with a friend said: “I was called a pig, a terrorist — they were yelling they will kill and rape me once the police leave…”
While obnoxious demonstrations have since occurred in River Heights near the Chabad Centre, most have been focused at high-volume intersections. Nothing on that scale has happened again, but it is important to note that the antisemitic riot of 2021 is dwarfed by the mayhem, violence, and criminal acts against the Jewish community and civil society since Oct. 7 in the name of “Palestine.”
Since 2023, Toronto police have dealt with 800 such demonstrations, “resulting in nearly 500 arrests and more than 1,000 criminal charges related to protests and hate crimes.”
A York Centre resident described what they have experienced as “non-stop disruption, threatening, invading, prowling, harassing, intimidating and disrupting of a predominantly Jewish community.”
Last week, their MP, Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner, sent a letter to Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw and the chair of the police board. He cited regular marches outside constituents’ homes in York Centre and the unruly anti-Israel Boxing Day protest at the Eaton Centre.
“These incidents have left many residents living in a state of heightened fear and anxiety, concerned about a lack of visible police response and feeling unable to move freely and safely in public spaces or within their own neighbourhoods,” Kerzner wrote. “When such incidents occur repeatedly and without visible consequences, it substantially undermines public confidence in the rule of law and in the institutions responsible for upholding it.”
Kerzner detailed how the Ontario government has provided Toronto police with “tools, equipment, and authorities needed to respond effectively” to hate-motivated intimidation.
Manitoba Attorney General Matt Wiebe should offer the same support and encouragement to police in Winnipeg. Iran’s regime is under pressure from within, and funding endless wars against Israel and other infidels will become increasingly constrained by the devaluation of the rial.
Wiebe has an opportunity to send a message to those parroting the deranged seventh-century tribalism of Iran and its proxy, Hamas, that intimidation tactics in this city and province will not be tolerated.
Will Premier Wab Kinew let him?
— Marty Gold is a Winnipeg journalist and a guest writer for the Winnipeg Sun. You can find more of his work at The Great Canadian Talk Show
This article was first published by The Winnipeg Sun.
Correlation is not causation!