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Journalist thrown in jail after reporting on pro-Hamas rally in Canada: 'Because I'm a Jew'
Canadian police arrested a Jewish journalist Sunday after pro-Hamas radicals made clear that his presence would not be tolerated in a public space.
Ezra Levant, the conservative publisher of Rebel News — one of the few media outfits in Canada that
does not receive funding from the Trudeau government — was reporting on a pro-Hamas demonstration near Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue, a historically Jewish neighborhood in Toronto. Levant was keen to capture some of the radicals' comments and costumes on film, including one demonstrator who dressed up as Yahya Al-Sinwar, the terrorist leader of Hamas whom Israeli forces killed in October.
Pro-Hamas radicals at the rally also
held signs featuring the inverted red triangle, a symbol used by Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades to identify Israeli military targets.
In
footage from the pro-Hamas rally, which took place opposite a pro-Israel counter-demonstration, radicals can be heard condemning Israel as well as celebrating Hezbollah, even though, like Hamas, the group is currently listed by the Canadian government as a terrorist entity.
Although Levant was lawfully exercising his rights in a public space, police swooped in to remove him when it became clear he had prickled the mob with his efforts to peacefully chronicle the event.
"Police arrested me for 'causing a disturbance' when I was silently filming a pro-Hamas protest in a Jewish neighborhood in Toronto," Levant told Blaze News. "The cops said that my mere presence was causing a disturbance because the pro-Hamas people didn't want me there."
'I am the law.'
Officers swarmed Levant then forcefully carted him away while pro-Hamas radicals yelled, "Get him out! Get him out!" and "Go home!"
"Since when do foreign provocateurs, promoting a banned terrorist organization, get to veto who can and can't walk on a sidewalk?" Levant told Blaze News. "Outrageous."
Blaze News reached out to the Toronto Police Services for comment but did not receive a response by deadline. When asked for comment, the City of Toronto referred Blaze News to the TPS.
In the lead-up to his arrest, Levant
can be seen in one video discussing the absurdity of his removal with an officer who told him, "Look around you. They're not happy that you're here."
"You know you're a disgrace," Levant told the officer. "You're a coward also. You'll do what they say because it's the path of least resistance."
When instructed to leave the area, Levant, a former lawyer, told the officer, "You're violating my Charter rights."
The officer responded by insinuating Levant was inciting the mob, then informed the journalist, "I am the law."
Another officer chimed in, asking Levant, "So you're refusing to leave? ... Why?"
"Because I'm a Jew, I'm a citizen, and I'm your boss," said the journalist.
"You know what?" responded the officer. "In the interest of keeping peace here, public safety, you're under arrest for breach of the peace."
Pro-Hamas demonstrators cheered while police handcuffed Levant and carted him away.
Levant, appearing somewhat shaken by the turn of events, told his cameraman, "I'm being arrested because I'm standing on a sidewalk in my city. I'm a Jew who lives in this neighborhood, and I'm being arrested because the police say that that's the path of least resistance."
Levant told Blaze News, "Police handcuffed, searched and jailed me for a few hours, but in the end they declined to press charges. It was obviously 'the path of least resistance.' They knew I’d be compliant, whereas the pro-Hamas thugs have been on a rioting rampage in Canada recently (e.g. in Montreal)."
Pro-Hamas and anti-NATO radicals backed by over 25 leftist groups took to the streets of Montreal Friday, launching incendiary devices, torching vehicles, attacking first responders, and vandalizing storefronts while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — whose electoral district, or riding, is in the city — was busy dancing at the Taylor Swift concert in Toronto.
David Menzies, a reporter at Levant's Rebel News, was similarly arrested earlier this year on multiple occasions for daring to cover pro-Hamas rallies, including one at Toronto City Hall.
'It's a public place!'
Thousands of people, including Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, gathered for an event on April 7 focused on demands for the release of the remaining Israeli captives taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. Anti-Israel demonstrators tried to crash the event.
"Incredibly, there was a protest of a few dozen people — the pro-Hamas types — which was particularly gross because to me this was like crashing a funeral," Menzies
told Blaze News following his release. "They're spouting their rhetoric, which by the way includes calls for genocide like, 'from the river to the sea,' and 'intifada.'"
Menzies attempted to interview elements of the mob outside of city hall but was allegedly assaulted. Police intervened — not to help but to arrest the reporter.
"It's a public place!" Menzies
told one of the arresting officers in an apparent state of disbelief. "This is literally the public square."
Menzies later told Blaze News he was charged for alleged breach of the peace and trespassing.
Menzies, like Levant, is accustomed to abuse by the state. After all, he was
allegedly assaulted by Trudeau's bodyguards in 2021; roughed up by an RCMP officer, then carted away by York Regional Police after asking Trudeau's deputy minister questions in January; and arrested both on Nov. 11 and in March for asking pro-Hamas protesters questions.
Canada is hardly the only Western nation where the sensitivities of pro-Hamas activists and other radicals are given priority over other citizens' rights.
Blaze News
reported earlier this year that London's Metropolitan Police threatened to arrest Gideon Falter, the head of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, if he remained in an area of the city where pro-Hamas demonstrators were marching.
'Sir, you are quite openly Jewish.'
Footage of the confrontation showed Falter, wearing a kippah, ask a police sergeant, "So basically, because I'm Jewish, I can't cross the road today?"
"Because of the march," said the sergeant.
Falter pressed the issue, saying, "Yes, because I am Jewish?"
"That is part of — unfortunately part of the fact," said the sergeant.
The sergeant, who ultimately threatened to arrest Falter for breach of the peace, made a point of noting, "At the moment, sir, you are quite openly Jewish."
Last week, Barbara Slowik, Berlin's chief of police, admitted to the German newspaper Berline Zeitung that "there are areas — and we have to be honest here — where I would advise people who wear a kippah or are openly gay or lesbian to be more alert."
Slowik said she wouldn't "defame any groups of people here" but acknowledged that "there are certain neighborhoods where the majority of people liv[ing there] are of Arab descent, who also have sympathies for terrorist groups."
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