Canada has listed Samidoun, a pro-Palestinian group behind a rally where people chanted “death to Canada” and burned the Canadian flag in Vancouver earlier this month, as a terrorist entity.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc made the announcement Tuesday, noting that the listing was made in conjunction with the U.S. Treasury Department’s own decision to list the group as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Entity.
“Violent extremism, acts of terrorism or the financing of terrorism have no place in Canadian society or abroad,” LeBlanc said in a statement.
“The inclusion of Samidoun as a terrorist entity according to the Penal Code “It sends a strong message that Canada will not tolerate this type of activity and will do everything in its power to counter the current threat to Canada’s national security and all people in Canada.”
Samidoun has previously been listed as a terrorist entity by Germany and the Netherlands, and in a statement, Public Safety Canada said the group has “close ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and promotes its interests.”
That group is also listed as a terrorist entity in Canada, the United States and the European Union.
Being a classified terrorist entity entails severe consequences. It is illegal to contribute to any activity of a listed group and your assets may be seized and confiscated.
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The inclusion comes just over a week after House of Commons MPs condemned the group after its supporters chanted “death to Canada, death to the United States and death to Israel” and burned the Canadian flag in a demonstration in Vancouver.
The masked speaker at that rally who delivered the chant into a microphone also told the crowd “we are Hezbollah and we are Hamas.”
Both Hamas and Hezbollah are listed as terrorist entities.
During question time last Tuesday, the Conservatives called on the federal government to include Samidoun on the list of terrorist organizations.
“Samidoun has been fomenting these violent and horrible protests and mob actions; this organization is a front for an already banned terrorist group,” conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said last week.
Vancouver police say they are also conducting an investigation into the pro-Palestinian rally where chanting and flag burning took place, where law enforcement says speakers expressed “solidarity with terrorist groups.”
Police had already investigated Samidoun and arrested its director Charlotte Kates last year in a hate crime investigation. She was released under commitment, but the hearing she was supposed to attend was canceled and with it the conditions imposed by the court.
BC Premier David Eby, who previously condemned the chants uttered at the pro-Palestinian rally, said in a statement Tuesday that he agreed with the designation because it gives authorities more tools to take action against the group.
He went on to say that there has been a “disturbing increase” in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people.
“There is no place in British Columbia for groups that incite and glorify violence,” Eby said.
—W.With a file from Sean Boynton, Simon Little and Rumina Daya of Global News and The Canadian Press
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