Organizers, some of whom have ties to Gazan terrorist groups, have never even attempted to conceal their support of the Oct. 7 massacres
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Earlier this week, it emerged that one of the most well-known hostages of the Oct. 7 attacks — a 10-month-old baby named Kfir Bibas – could not be included in a recent hostage release because Hamas could no longer find him.
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They have now been reported dead. But before then, initial reports said Bibas and his family had been “transferred … to other terrorist organizations,” said an Israeli Defence Forces spokesman. And according to a security analyst quoted by The Telegraph, that “other terrorist organization” was most likely the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The group is just one of several terrorist entities in Gaza with a lengthy history of kidnapping and murdering Israeli civilians. But this one has a special connection to Canada in that its affiliates are directly responsible for many of the “ceasefire” and “stop the genocide” mass-rallies now taking place in Canadian downtowns every weekend.
That affiliate is the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, a Vancouver-headquartered group founded by Khaled Barakat, a man acknowledged by both Israeli and Palestinian sources as being among the leadership of the PFLP.
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In 2019, an Israeli government report detailed Barakat’s position as “PFLP Central Committee member” — and even noted that the Samidoun website was nearly “identical” to those maintained by the PFLP. Indeed, the Samidoun website is known to feature verbatim PFLP press releases or videos.
While leftist Canadian media will often euphemistically refer to Barakat as an “author” or “voice and truth-teller of Palestine,” foreign outlets don’t bother with the distinction. As noted in a 2022 investigation by National Post columnist Terry Glavin, a quick Google search reveals Arab-language Palestinian websites referring to Barakat either as a “leader of the PFLP” or a member of the PFLP’s governing central committee.
It’s for this reason that Samidoun was listed as a terrorist entity by Israel in 2021. Germany would follow suit last month, amid a nationwide crackdown on “pro-Hamas” organizations. According to a Nov. 2 statement by German Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser, Samidoun has an “antisemitic, inhuman world view” that was “particularly repugnant.”
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But no such sanction has been handed out by the country that hosts Samidoun and its founders. Quite the opposite; Samidoun has federal non-profit status. According to Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs, it is “likely” that some of Samidoun’s tax-deductible donations are finding their way to the PFLP.
Samidoun has never been shy about calling for violence to bring about the total destruction of Israel. As recently as May, the group marked the 75th anniversary of Israel’s founding with an Arabic-language post carrying images of protesters in Vancouver, whom they said were there to “affirm” the right of Palestinians to “carry out popular and armed struggle to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea.”
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Local media, meanwhile, have consistently missed the extremism of these rallies — with one such march in 2021 described merely as a “pro-Palestine” demonstration.
After Oct. 7, Samidoun has openly offered vocal support of Hamas and the Oct. 7 massacres — and it has been a key organizer of Canadian anti-Israeli rallies since the first hours after the attacks.
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When former B.C. Civil Liberties Association head Harsha Walia openly praised the “Palestinians on hang-gliders” responsible for the massacre of more than 200 young people at an Israeli music festival, she was speaking at an Oct. 9 Samidoun-organized rally on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Samidoun is just one of several Canadian groups that have been organizing waves of “ceasefire” and “stop the genocide” mass-rallies to have occurred since the Oct. 7 massacres. Like Samidoun, social media channels for some of the others are also replete with open praise for terrorism in the months leading up to Oct. 7 — and ecstatic celebration when the first details of the massacres became public.
Toronto4Palestine, a perennial organizer in the Greater Toronto Area, reacted to news of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on its Instagram page by calling them an act of “heroic resistance” that “has shaped a new precedent for our national liberation struggle.”
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It was a Nov. 12 Toronto4Palestine rally at which NDP MP Matthew Green was a guest speaker — and ended up sharing a dais with a Toronto4Palestine coordinator whose own speech echoed the Hamas demand that Israeli hostages should only be released in exchange for “political prisoners” — a term referring to Palestinians held in Israel on terror charges.
The group has also engaged in Holocaust denial. In an Instagram post issued soon after Oct. 7, Toronto4Palestine said Jews were “lying” about the attacks, adding “is it possible that if they are lying about these events and creating a false genocide, it is likely they may have lied about certain details of a previous big genocide that may have occurred?”
But the most prolific organizer has been the Palestinian Youth Movement, a group active in both the U.S. and Canada. It was the PYM that marshalled the first wave of celebratory “All Out for Gaza” marches that appeared in all of Canada’s major cities in the immediate hours after the Oct. 7 massacres.
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And in the dozens of events held since, the protests have included everything from displays of the swastika to children leading open calls for “intifada” as the “only solution.”
Most recently, they were the primary organizer of a major Saturday rally on Parliament Hill they dubbed as “Canada’s biggest pro-Palestine demonstration.”
While PYM events have often been publicized as “ceasefire” or “peace” rallies, the group has been very open about their support for Palestinian terrorism, and their ultimate goal to see Israel violently destroyed.
“In the last several days, we have witnessed the active decolonization of Palestinian land led by the Palestinian resistance,” read the group’s official statement issued in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacres. “May the memory of our martyrs continue to guide us on the steadfast path to liberation.”
IN OTHER NEWS
It was only a few weeks ago that the Liberals implemented a surprise carbon tax carve-out on home heating oil that would mostly benefit Liberal ridings in Atlantic Canada. Ever since, they’ve been spending a lot of their time in Parliament ensuring that no other carveouts are allowed to see the light of day. A Conservative and NDP joint effort to exempt all forms of heating was crushed by nay votes from the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois. And then there’s Bill C-234, a bill to exempt any fuels used in agricultural heating from the carbon tax. It passed the House of Commons months ago, but this week was subjected to delaying tactics and gutting attempts by Liberal-appointed Senators. Of course, the Liberals always assert that their “independent” Senators are free to do what they want – even when those Senators keep doing and saying things exactly along Liberal Party lines.
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