Members of Parliament React to Officer’s Inquiry about Protester’s Position on Palestine Statehood for Entry onto Parliament Hill

October 8, 2024 TruthUSA

Several Members of Parliament are demanding explanations following a video circulating on social media that appears to show a Parliamentary Protective Services (PPS) officer preventing a protester from accessing Parliament Hill after the protester refused to acknowledge Palestinian statehood.

The video shared on social media on Oct. 5 shows the PPS officer blocking an individual from entering the area. In the video, the officer states that he will not allow the man into that area because the man had previously stated that he did not recognize Palestine as a state.

The officer instructed the man to go to the other side of Parliament Hill, as the area he was attempting to enter was designated for Palestinian supporters only.

In the video, the man mentions a previous conversation with the officer that occurred off camera.

“I mentioned that I never saw Palestine as a state, but that doesn’t mean I am anti-Palestinian people,” he explained to the officer.

The officer informed the man that he would not be permitted entry to “where the pro-Palestine event is taking place.”

“If you wish to be on Parliament Hill and express your message, you must go to the other side,” the officer remarked.

Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman shared the video on social media on Oct. 5, condemning it as “absolutely outrageous and incorrect.”

“Who authorized this officer to require Canadians to declare a foreign policy stance before entering Parliament Hill,” she questioned in her post on X.

“Parliament Hill should be a space for all Canadians, not a place where individuals are subjected to a political purity test to appease anti-Israel demonstrators.”

Lantsman stated that the Conservatives would bring up the matter in the House of Commons “at the first opportunity.”

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner also shared the video on Oct. 6 in a post on the X platform, expressing, “It’s one thing to direct someone to a separate area on the Hill designated for a counter-protest,” as she stated in the post. “It’s quite another for a uniformed officer of Parliament to seemingly demand alignment with a certain political viewpoint to gain access to the grounds.”

The Epoch Times contacted PPS for comment but had not received a response as of publication time.

Flag Burning

Lantsman shared another video on social media of an anti-Israel protest in Vancouver on Oct. 7— the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel—where protesters can be heard calling for Israel to burn.

The video shows protesters burning Canadian flags while chanting “Israel burn, burn. Palestinians will return. Israel is a terrorist state.”

“The pro-terror mob is now burning a Canadian flag in the streets of Vancouver after a year of lawlessness and escalation every day with no consequences,” Lantsman remarked in the post on X.

Other videos from the same protest circulating on social media feature a woman addressing the crowd, stating, “Death to Canada. Death to the United States. And death to Israel,” as well as, “We are Hezbollah, and we are Hamas.”

In response to the incident, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre called on the federal government on Oct. 8 to classify the pro-Palestine group Samidoun as a terrorist organization and prohibit it from operating in Canada. Samidoun, which operates under the full name of Samidoun Palestinian Solidarity Network, has branches in Toronto and Vancouver. The group is alleged to have connections to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organization listed by Canada since 2003.

Conservative Party of B.C. leader John Rustad criticized the Vancouver protest on his social media, stating that his government would take action against such demonstrators if elected in the upcoming provincial election.

“If you call for ‘death’ and burn the Canadian flag—BC’s Conservatives will fight for your arrest or deportation,” Rustad declared in an Oct. 8 post on X.

B.C. NDP Leader David Eby also responded to the incident on social media on Oct. 8, stating, “This kind of hateful rhetoric is wrong and has no place in our province. We stand together against violence – and the glorification of it. And we strive for peace.”

Additional pro-Palestine protests took place in Canada on Oct. 7 that turned violent.

In Montreal, police utilized chemical irritants to disperse a group of protesters who were using metal bars to break the doors and windows of a row house under construction owned by McGill University.

A masked individual with a megaphone urged the protesters to “take out your rage on the building,” stating that it was intended to become part of a sports science institute named after Israeli-Canadian billionaire Sylvan Adams.

Liberal MP Anthony Housefather reacted to the incident on social media, urging police “to arrest and prosecute everyone who breaks the law.”

“The destruction of buildings, trespassing on McGill property & using Oct 7, the date of the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust to extol what occurred last year is sickening,” he commented on platform X on Oct. 7.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.

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