Activists occupy 17 MPs’ offices, read names of dead Palestinian children

Activists plastered the names of dead Palestinian children on the walls of politicians’ offices across Canada on Monday. 

Seventeen offices of MPs were occupied by constituents from Burnaby to Scarborough to Montreal. At least six activists were arrested at the Toronto office of Liberal MP Arif Virani, a video posted to X showed.

The Canadian government has refused to call for a ceasefire while its ally Israel kills thousands of people—including more than 3,400 children at the latest count—in Gaza. Palestinians are in “grave danger of a mass ethnic cleansing,” UN human rights experts have warned.

“None of our leaders within the Canadian government have condemned Israel and demanded a ceasefire. It’s wildly unacceptable,” activist Iman Korenic told The Breach in Montreal, at one of the occupations that The Breach visited.

“We’re demanding the Canadian government stop supporting this settler colonial apartheid regime. Canada calls itself a beacon of democracy, a human rights defender that’s proud of upholding international law,” Korenic said. “But we don’t see any of this when it comes to Israel’s oppression of Palestinian people.”

Thirty MPs, including 23 Liberals, did call for a ceasefire on Oct. 20, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused to join them. On Monday, the activists targeted mostly Liberal government MPs who have failed to support the call.

In addition to a ceasefire, the activists demanded an end to Israel’s blockade of Gaza, which has prevented more than 2 million people from accessing food, water, fuel and medicine for weeks. Their other demands were for an end to Canadian arms sales to Israel, an end to Canada’s “economic complicity in the current genocide and in Israel’s ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine,” and for an end to Israel’s racist apartheid system. 

“Our elected officials cannot keep treating us like we are a fringe minority,”  Sarah Shamy, an organizer with Palestinian Youth Movement, told The Breach in Montreal. “We are not a minority. Canadian people do not stand for this genocide. They do not want to be complicit in this genocide. They don’t want their tax dollars to be funding this genocide.”

Shamy said that because of Canada’s economic ties to Israel and arms sales to its military, Canadians are complicit “whether they like it or not.”

“This is the time where we need to be fearless and courageous. This is the time for us to take a firm and unequivocal stance,” she said.

Both Shamy and Korenic took part in a sit-in outside the office of Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly. 

Other key ministers, including Defence Minister Bill Blair and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, saw their offices occupied by protesters, too. 

At the Toronto office of Parkdale—High Park MP Virani, activists read out the names and ages of Palestinian children killed by Israel’s bombing campaign. It would have taken 11 hours for them to get through all the names, The Breach has estimated, but six activists were arrested after just a few hours.

Virani’s staff told the activists that the MP was in Ottawa and was unable to meet with them, so one activist challenged his staff member instead.

“It’s not a radical stance to call for an end to war crimes that are happening immediately,” the activist said. “You’re telling me we’re on the same side and we share the same views. Then I’m asking you: have you asked your MP, the person you work for, why he has not signed the letter calling for a ceasefire?”

The staff member walked away.