This is Mississauga. Not Gaza.
Seems some are having a difficult time understanding that.
In a mysterious video posted to social media, the supposed organizer of an upcoming martyr “vigil” for Hamas’s deceased leader — killed by Israel last month — promises it will happen at Celebration Square in Mississauga as if it was in Gaza.
While Hamas is listed by the federal government as a terrorist entity, its supporters are planning this event at Mississauga City Hall on Nov. 26 as the mayor continues to insist she has no legal authority to stop it.
“I don’t know if the vigil will take place,” Mayor Carolyn Parrish said Tuesday. “The city will not condone it.”
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However, she said she does not have the power to prevent such a gathering on public grounds.
Her position drew praise from Firas Al Najim, who went to social media with a video shot on Remembrance Day in front of the Streetsville Royal Canadian Legion Branch 139. He said they are moving ahead with the vigil and compared the late Hamas boss Yahya Sinwar to Nelson Mandela, who was once considered by some as a terrorist in South Africa, but is now a beloved figure.
He also defended using poppies, which he said are a flower native to Gaza.
“There will be a day for Sinwar called Sinwar day and this is our (right under the) Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada to express our gratitude and his sacrifices,” said Al Najim, who also appeared on Iranian TV to say complaints about this are from conservatives and pro-Israel media.
While Parrish promised that she will “once again consult with the city’s lawyers,” critics said this is far from enough. The mayor is drawing major criticism for her soft stance on advertisements organizing the vigil to honour the death of this killer.
Parrish wrote on X that she “consulted a network of Muslim organizations … to track down the anonymous notice for a vigil at City Hall. No organization exists. No vigil is planned.”
Now no one knows for sure what will happen.
Michelle Stock, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs’ Ontario vice-president, wrote to Parrish, saying it is “wholly inappropriate that city property would be used, and resources sanctioned, for a vigil to celebrate the mastermind behind the Oct. 7 attacks (in Israel), where more than 1,200 women, children and men were brutally murdered and 254 people were kidnapped, of whom many are still held hostage.
“We strongly urge that you use every tool available to ensure this event does not proceed on city property,” Stock wrote. “Permitting this vigil to occur as planned, honouring a genocidal maniac with the blood of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians alike on his hands, would be an affront to the values of freedom, peace and justice that Mississaugans and all Ontarians hold dear.”
Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy for B’nai Brith Canada, said those organizing this “should be ashamed of their attempt to glorify Sinwar as a martyr and to stoop so low as to disturb the sanctity of the memory of Canada’s war dead by conflating Remembrance Day with the memorializing of heinous terrorists.
“Yahya Sinwar was an evil man and diabolical terrorist,” Robertson added.
This could be quite a challenge for Peel Regional Police since many outraged about this vigil have indicated they will protest. Many are wondering how it could be that people supporting a group that the federal government has deemed a terrorist entity can utilize charter rights to hold a memorial for this man.
The federal government’s website, under designated terror groups, says Hamas is a “radical Islamist-nationalist terrorist organization that emerged from the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood … (and) uses political and violent means to pursue its goal of establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in Israel. It also says Hamas has been responsible for “terrorist attacks against both civilian and military targets … (including) operations aimed at Israelis.”
But for some reason Mississauga can’t find a reason to cancel this celebration of a terrorist’s death at city hall.
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However, she said she does not have the power to prevent such a gathering on public grounds.
Her position drew praise from Firas Al Najim, who went to social media with a video shot on Remembrance Day in front of the Streetsville Royal Canadian Legion Branch 139. He said they are moving ahead with the vigil and compared the late Hamas boss Yahya Sinwar to Nelson Mandela, who was once considered by some as a terrorist in South Africa, but is now a beloved figure.
He also defended using poppies, which he said are a flower native to Gaza.
“There will be a day for Sinwar called Sinwar day and this is our (right under the) Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada to express our gratitude and his sacrifices,” said Al Najim, who also appeared on Iranian TV to say complaints about this are from conservatives and pro-Israel media.
While Parrish promised that she will “once again consult with the city’s lawyers,” critics said this is far from enough. The mayor is drawing major criticism for her soft stance on advertisements organizing the vigil to honour the death of this killer.
Parrish wrote on X that she “consulted a network of Muslim organizations … to track down the anonymous notice for a vigil at City Hall. No organization exists. No vigil is planned.”
Now no one knows for sure what will happen.
Michelle Stock, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs’ Ontario vice-president, wrote to Parrish, saying it is “wholly inappropriate that city property would be used, and resources sanctioned, for a vigil to celebrate the mastermind behind the Oct. 7 attacks (in Israel), where more than 1,200 women, children and men were brutally murdered and 254 people were kidnapped, of whom many are still held hostage.
“We strongly urge that you use every tool available to ensure this event does not proceed on city property,” Stock wrote. “Permitting this vigil to occur as planned, honouring a genocidal maniac with the blood of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians alike on his hands, would be an affront to the values of freedom, peace and justice that Mississaugans and all Ontarians hold dear.”
Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy for B’nai Brith Canada, said those organizing this “should be ashamed of their attempt to glorify Sinwar as a martyr and to stoop so low as to disturb the sanctity of the memory of Canada’s war dead by conflating Remembrance Day with the memorializing of heinous terrorists.
“Yahya Sinwar was an evil man and diabolical terrorist,” Robertson added.
This could be quite a challenge for Peel Regional Police since many outraged about this vigil have indicated they will protest. Many are wondering how it could be that people supporting a group that the federal government has deemed a terrorist entity can utilize charter rights to hold a memorial for this man.
The federal government’s website, under designated terror groups, says Hamas is a “radical Islamist-nationalist terrorist organization that emerged from the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood … (and) uses political and violent means to pursue its goal of establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in Israel. It also says Hamas has been responsible for “terrorist attacks against both civilian and military targets … (including) operations aimed at Israelis.”
But for some reason Mississauga can’t find a reason to cancel this celebration of a terrorist’s death at city hall.
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Michelle Stock, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs’ Ontario vice-president, wrote to Parrish, saying it is “wholly inappropriate that city property would be used, and resources sanctioned, for a vigil to celebrate the mastermind behind the Oct. 7 attacks (in Israel), where more than 1,200 women, children and men were brutally murdered and 254 people were kidnapped, of whom many are still held hostage.
“We strongly urge that you use every tool available to ensure this event does not proceed on city property,” Stock wrote. “Permitting this vigil to occur as planned, honouring a genocidal maniac with the blood of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians alike on his hands, would be an affront to the values of freedom, peace and justice that Mississaugans and all Ontarians hold dear.”
Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy for B’nai Brith Canada, said those organizing this “should be ashamed of their attempt to glorify Sinwar as a martyr and to stoop so low as to disturb the sanctity of the memory of Canada’s war dead by conflating Remembrance Day with the memorializing of heinous terrorists.
“Yahya Sinwar was an evil man and diabolical terrorist,” Robertson added.
This could be quite a challenge for Peel Regional Police since many outraged about this vigil have indicated they will protest. Many are wondering how it could be that people supporting a group that the federal government has deemed a terrorist entity can utilize charter rights to hold a memorial for this man.
The federal government’s website, under designated terror groups, says Hamas is a “radical Islamist-nationalist terrorist organization that emerged from the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood … (and) uses political and violent means to pursue its goal of establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in Israel. It also says Hamas has been responsible for “terrorist attacks against both civilian and military targets … (including) operations aimed at Israelis.”
But for some reason Mississauga can’t find a reason to cancel this celebration of a terrorist’s death at city hall.
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