Canada, in tandem with the United States, has finally followed the lead of Germany, Holland and Israel and designated Samidoun, known as the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code.
The federal Liberal government made its belated announcement yesterday, shortly after the Conservative Party’s foreign affairs critic, Michael Chong, raised the issue in the House of Commons. As he said, “Samidoun is knowingly acting on behalf of, at the direction of or in association with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist group under the Criminal Code. This qualifies Samidoun for a terrorist listing. Why hasn’t this happened?”
The Conservative party leader, Pierre Poilievre, had urged Canada to ban Samidoun altogether, a call seconded by John Rustad, the Conservative leader in British Columbia.
And for the past four years, several Jewish organizations, ranging from B’nai Brith Canada to the Centre of Israel and Jewish Affairs, had called on Canada to crack down on Samidoun, which, as German Interior Minister Nancy Falser, pointed out recently, supported “Hamas’ barbaric terror against Israel.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may have been swayed by these voices. Alternatively, he may have been influenced by a highly provocative and deeply offensive street demonstration organized by Samidoun in Vancouver, its home base, last week.
The protest, which took place in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, marked the first anniversary of Hamas’ terrorist rampage in southern Israel on October 7, during which roughly 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed and 251 were taken to the Gaza Strip as hostages.
During the protest, which was recorded and circulated online, an unidentified masked woman shouted, “We are Hezbollah and we are Hamas.” She then encouraged hundreds of demonstrators to chant, “Death to Canada, death to the United States and death to Israel.” In the meantime, some protesters burned Canadian flags.
In the wake of this spectacle, the Canadian government indicated that “all options” were open to deal with Samidoun, which, for all intents and purposes, is an unofficial arm of Hamas’ propaganda machinery.
Six months ago, police arrested Samidoun’s international coordinator, Charlotte Kates, apparently a Canadian citizen and a resident of Vancouver, after she praised the October 7 massacre. She called it “heroic and brave” and referred to the attackers as “resistance fighters who are sacrificing so that we can live and speak and struggle and fight.”
In another comment, in which she downplayed the enormity of Hamas’ crime, she said, “These are the people whose blood is being shed to defend humanity and to defend the world.”
This past August, Kates flew to Iran, the power behind Hamas and Hezbollah, to receive a “human rights” award and to appear on state television. In an interview, she praised the “brave, heroic October 7 operation.”
Around the same time, Samidoun posted a statement that hailed the onslaught as “a legitimate military operation.”
From October 7 onward, Samidoun was in the forefront of organizing pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas street protests in Canada and illegal encampments on Canadian and U.S. university campuses in support of the Palestinians.
Samidoun was founded in 2011 by Kates’ Palestinian husband, Khaled Barakat, a member of the central committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which has compiled a lengthy record of carrying out airplane hijackings and which has been listed as a terrorist entity by Canada, the U.S. and the European Union.
