Political leaders are condemning what they described as “hateful speech” by 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 organizations.
In videos shared online, the unidentified masked woman led a crowd of hundreds at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Monday night in chants of “death to Canada, death to the United States and death to Israel,” while others in the group burned Canadian flags.
The demonstration was organized by the pro-Palestinian group Samidoun and was held on the anniversary of Oct. 7, 2023, a Hamas attack in Israel that killed around 1,200 people as it sparked a war that left nearly 41,000 people dead in Gaza.
On social media X, British Columbia NDP Leader David Eby responded to the text describing the speech, saying “this type of hate speech is wrong and has no place in our province.”
BC Conservatives leader John Rustad said in a statement that this action was “absolutely unacceptable,” while Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre vowed to put Samidoun on the terrorist list if his party forms Canada’s next government.
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“We have seen what happens when these groups are not taken seriously,” said Poilievre’s statement.
Rustad, whose provincial Conservatives are in competition with Eby’s NDP in the upcoming BC election on October 19, says in a video statement that his party will “end this kind of hate” if elected.
Eby says on his social media that the people of this province “stand together to fight violence — and its glorification.” And we fight for peace.”
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