Canadian Media Decries Lax Treatment of Pro-Hamas Rioters Compared to Freedom Convoy Crackdown

Writing at Canada’s National Post on Tuesday, columnist Rex Murphy noted that disruptive and violent pro-Hamas, anti-Israel protesters are treated with far more indulgence by Canadian officials than the Freedom Convoy protesters who peacefully stood against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pandemic policies in 2022.

The Freedom Convoy was cracked down upon with such force that a First Nations elder went down under the hooves of a police horse, which is far more aggressive policing than the ugly pro-Hamas demonstrations have been given so far:

Murphy zeroed in on Tamara Lich, the Freedom Convoy organizer who was arrested, slapped with heavy charges, and denied bail in October 2022. Lich was accused of offenses such as “counseling to commit mischief” for organizing truckers to blockade roads.

Lich wound up spending 18 days in jail in Ottawa before bail was finally granted, on conditions such as refraining from social media, expressing public support for the Freedom Convoy protests, or communicating with other protesters. She was arrested again for violating one of her bail conditions by appearing at an awards dinner with another Freedom Convoy organizer, but those charges were dropped.

Coincidentally, Lich finally returned to social media two days after Murphy published his column, with a saucy salutation to the new owner of the platform formerly known as Twitter:

Murphy contrasted the rough treatment given to Lich, and the utter contempt displayed for the Freedom Convoy protesters by Trudeau and his officials, with the kid gloves worn for pro-terrorist demonstrators who threaten violence and commit vandalism while expressing their support for rape, murder, and genocide:

I’m not aware that Tamara Lich at any point during the trucker’s sojourn in Ottawa, in full voice, and in direct proximity to police officers, gave vent to “I’ll kill you … I’ll put you six feet deep” to either a policeman or to a passerby. During the weeks of the Freedom Convoy protest, as far as I know, and equally as far as the authorities are aware, at no point did she express murderous intent, make explicit death threats, or act with grand insouciance while doing so in the presence of numerous police.

Yet Lich has been arrested, jailed, hounded and is still undergoing criminal proceedings, while a very fresh instance of “I’ll kill you … I’ll put you six feet under,” has — as I write on Monday evening — very little or none of the consequences Lich has been burdened with.

Murphy was referring to a pro-Palestinian rally outside a Zara clothing store at Eaton Center on Sunday, during which a masked terrorism supporter did indeed offer to plant a police officer on the wrong side of the grass.

“If you’re a man, come touch me,” the demonstrator yelled at the Toronto cop. Hamas supporters also threatened to kill shoppers outside the store.

“How is it possible that you can say to a Toronto police officer’s face “I’ll put you six feet deep” and not be arrested? This makes us all unsafe,” marveled former senator Linda Frum.

Also feeling unsafe were children at the Bayshore Mall in Ottawa, who could be heard screaming in terror when pro-Hamas activists mobbed the department store Santa and shouted one of their most aggressively stupid slogans, “Jesus Was a Palestinian”:

As Murphy pointed out, the Freedom Convoys could be “very annoying,” and even “more than an inconvenience,” to Canadians who disagreed with them – they shut down some important roads with their blockades – but they did not project the “atmosphere of menace” surrounding the pro-Hamas demonstrators.

“Nor did it go about the City of Ottawa targeting stores with a specific ethnicity and religion and protesting those stores for ‘supporting genocide.’ Not a coffee shop. Not a bookstore. Not a clothing outlet,” he added.

Murphy noted the pro-Hamas protesters are deliberately menacing and hateful, which is not surprising for groups that excuse, or even condone, the horrifying acts perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists against Israeli civilians on October 7. 

“The current rampage of obviously orchestrated and scary (ask any Jewish Canadian) manifestations has so far received not a fraction of the invective Justin Trudeau loosed upon the truckers,” he noted.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather at Yonge-Dundas Square during a rally marking the ‘International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People’ in Toronto, Ontario on November 29, 2023. (Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Murphy called the Trudeau administration out for “dereliction of the highest kind” for its reluctance to vigorously condemn a movement that seeks to instill pure terror in Canadian Jews and seems determined to assert some sort of cultural and political supremacy over Christians as well by disrupting Christmas celebrations.

“Apart from the menace, there’s a lot of arrogance and insult wrapped up in these gatherings. They are more than a protest: they are a challenge to the leaders of the country, which so far most of those leaders have been too careful or too timid in response,” he charged.

Senior Hamas terrorist leader Ghazi Hamad thanked the Canadian government for its support on Wednesday, praising Trudeau’s government for backing ceasefire demands that would protect Hamas from further retaliation for the October 7 atrocities.

Demonstrators in support of Palestinians hold a rally at Dorchester Square in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on November 18, 2023. (ALEXIS AUBIN/AFP via Getty Images)

“We welcome these developments and consider them in the right direction toward isolating the fascist Israeli government globally and ending the longest ever occupation in our modern time,” Hamad said, rubbing in Trudeau’s humiliation by accusing Israel of attempting “genocide” against the Palestinians. 

The National Post noted that Hamad is the same Hamas leader who said the October 7 atrocities should be repeated until Israel is completely destroyed.

“We must remove that country, because it constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation and must be finished,” he said, displaying a high comfort level with “genocide” as long as he gets to be the one doing it.

Israel’s consul general in Toronto, Idit Shamir, called it “troubling” that a group on Canada’s official list of terrorist organizations would thank the Trudeau government so effusively for its support.

“If it doesn’t mean support for Hamas, then why is an official Hamas spokesman thanking  the Canadian government?” she asked.

The National Post also reported that Trudeau’s government is coming under fire for making humanitarian donations to Gaza that ended up in the hands of designated terrorist organizations.

In one of Trudeau’s most infamous 2022 outbursts, he dismissed the Freedom Convoy as “a few people shouting and waving swastikas.” Less than a year later, the pro-Hamas movement coddled by Trudeau’s government was throwing “Sieg Heil” salutes in Vancouver.