Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland initially refused Monday to condemn slogans celebrating the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel as hate speech until she saw a video of the vile chant. Was.
Freeland, a member of the Liberal Party of Canada, attended an anti-Israel demonstration during a weekend demonstration in Ottawa after a reporter told him chants such as “Long live October 7th” and “October 7th proves we are almost free.” When asked if someone had shouted at him, he excused himself and said he did not know. – amounts to hate speech.
“I wasn’t in Ottawa over the weekend,” Freeland said at a news conference in Montreal. “And I don’t know about those specific reports.”
“So it would be wrong for me to comment on something that I am not specifically aware of.”
video footage Hundreds of demonstrators were seen waving Palestinian flags near Parliament House in Ottawa’s Center Block during Saturday’s demonstration.
In addition to the pro-Hamas mantras Freeland was asked about, a person believed to be a protest leader chanted several anti-Semitic slogans into a bullhorn, including “From the River to the Sea” and “Long Live the Intifada.” I heard them chanting.
But Freeland, who is also Canada’s finance minister, changed his mind after seeing footage of the demonstrations.
“After watching this weekend’s videos, I can only express shock and disgust at the glorification of anti-Semitism and terrorism that occurred on Parliament Hill,” she wrote to X early Monday evening.
“This hate speech has no place in Canada. None.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday condemned the protests as “hateful intimidation.”
“There is a difference between peaceful protest and hateful threats,” Trudeau wrote about X.
He added: “It is unconscionable to glorify the anti-Semitic violence and murder committed by Hamas on October 7th.” “This rhetoric doesn’t work in Canada. None.”
number of Canadians They were among the 1,200 people killed by Hamas terrorists in the October 7 attack on the Jewish state.
