The proposed laws, popping up across Canada, are part of an escalating crack down on expressions of Palestinian solidarity
In the winter of 2024, dozens of demonstrators gathered outside a synagogue in Thornhill, where a travelling Israeli real estate exhibition was showcasing stolen land in the occupied West Bank for purchase.
Their signs read “No stolen land sales on our watch” and “Palestine is not for sale.”
Across the street, counter-demonstrators waved Israeli flags and demanded the return of hostages taken captive by Hamas during its attacks on October 7, 2023.
Despite a heavy police presence separating the groups, a man later drove his car up to the Palestine solidarity contingent and witnesses say fired a nail gun near them (he was later arrested and charged).
Despite the clear threat to those protesting the real estate exhibition, whom police described as peaceful, pro-Israel advocates soon shifted the public narrative to a frightening spectre of threats against Jewish people at their places of worship.
And under a new law now being debated in Toronto, such a protest could be deemed unlawful.
So-called “bubble zone” laws limiting demonstrations near certain public spaces are an escalating response to public expressions of solidarity with Palestinian people.
And they’re popping up all across Canada. (more...)
Bubble zone protest-bans threaten Palestine solidarity—and public dissent
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