Canada's Limp Recognition of Terrorist Groups

"By 2011, she [Charlotte Kates] helped to found Samidoun, which boasts chapters around the world and has the stated purpose of seeking “to achieve justice for Palestinian prisoners,” in Israeli detention through demonstrations and other public events. Earlier this year she travelled to Iran to accept a human rights award, where it also has a chapter."

"Many of the prisoners she advocates to be freed have links to “terrorism, assassinations and countless attacks against Israel,” according to Public Safety Canada."

"By listing a group as a terrorist entity, it becomes a crime to provide them with material support. Leading up to its listing, Kates’ organization had long sparked concern from political leaders and companies. One point, she told supporters they could only take paper cheques, in light of the restrictions placed on them."

Stephanie Taylor, National Post 

Almost a year-and-a-half after Samidoun was listed as a designated terrorist group in Canada, no move has yet been made by any government authority to disband their Canadian operations. For that period as well Samidoun retained charitable status with Revenue Canada, continuing to raise funds in Canada to be sent abroad to Hamas and to the PFLP where Samidoun's founder Charlotte Kate's husband, Palestinian Khaled Barakat is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Both husband and wife, incidentally, have Canadian citizenship. 

 

Anti-Israel protesters at a Samidoun-organized rally burn a Canadian flag outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on October 7, 2024. Photo by Jarryd Jaeger/X

 

"[It is completely unacceptable [that Samidoun remained a federally registered not-for-profit]."

"I have therefore directed government officials to urgently look at any and all options to formally dissolve Samidoun as well as any and all listed terrorist entities in Canada."

Melanie Joly, Industry Minister, September 2025  

Oops, big splash, but never carried through. Samidoun remains headquartered in Vancouver. Finally, Corporations Canada pulled Samidoun registration on March 27, stating that Samidoun, accused not only of advocating for violent terrorism, but of helping to fundraise for active Gazan terror groups, took action -- actually no, they did not. A statement on that very same day by the U.S. Department of the Treasury elaborated more fully, accusing Samidoun of exploiting the charitable sector to bankroll extremist violence. A "sham fundraiser whose efforts have supported terrorism".

 

Samidoun, advocating for Palestinian prisoners...Photo: Fatin al-Tamimi

 

Samidoun remained an active listing on Corporations Canada's official database, including a business number and names and addresses of three Samidoun directors. The listing eventually had a note appended to warn observers Corporations Canada was in the process of reviewing details of a terrorist organization, that any contact with the group might risk criminal prosecution. "It is a criminal offence for anyone in Canada ... to directly or indirectly provide property knowing that it will be used by or benefit a terrorist group", they alerted.

 

The registration remained active and only after a technical violation of the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act was resolved would their registration be wiped out. That violation seems to have been that Samidoun ceased submitting annual filings, following its terror designation; an oversight that was ultimately responsible for its being "dissolved for non-compliance". Really.

 

Since Samidoun's official federal terrorist designation none of its organizers have faced any charges. Co-founder Charlotte Kates remains free to enter and exit the country as she wishes. Despite the terror designation the Samidoun website and social media accounts remain active. On the website a statement appears that Samidoun intends to ignore the error designation, where Canada is referred to as a "settler-colonial state built on genocide". 

 

A screenshot of the Samidoun-led anti-Israel protest outside the Vancouver Art Gallery where Charlotte Kates was arrested, April 26, 2024. Photo by freepalestinetricitiesbc/Instagram

 

 

 

A Terrorist Group in Canada, Raising Funds for Islamist Jihad

A Palestinian girl stands near a poster of Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, a commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, one of the main terrorist groups present in the West Bank operating under the ruling Fatah party, who was killed by Israeli troops in August 2022. The poster bears the Samidoun logo. (Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images) 

 

"Whereas the RCMP announced they had arrested two suspects in Toronto as they were allegedly about to commit a terrorist attack for ISIS."

"Whereas Trudeau’s government gave citizenship to an alleged terrorist with blood on his hands who allegedly dismembered a body for an ISIS film."

"Whereas Trudeau waited far too long to ban pro-terror groups like the IRGC, who are responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents, including 85 people who called Canada home, and Samidoun, who are affiliated with and support listed terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)."

"Whereas Houthi terrorists are still currently allowed to operate, organize, and fundraise in Canada."

"And whereas Justin Trudeau is not serious about Canada’s national security and disregards the safety of our citizens and it is now impossible for Canadians to have any faith in the Liberals’ ability to protect our country."

"Therefore, we the undersigned support Pierre Poilievre and common sense Conservatives in their commitment to secure our borders, ban pro-terror groups, and keep dangerous terrorists out of our country."

Parliamentary Opposition Conservative Party of Canada

 

 

The group Samidoun was added to Canada's list of terrorist groups in October of 2024 under the Criminal Code of Canada. This move by the-then Liberal government of Justin Trudeau was finally forced on the government when Canadian flags were being burned at a Samidoun Vancouver rally honouring the Hamas terrorist group following the Palestinian terrorist invasion of southern Israel that produced an orgy of sadistic savagery, raping, mutilating and slaughtering Jewish children, women and men.

 

Investigators and Jewish groups pointed out to the Liberal government Samidoun's ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one of Samidoun's founding members being a leading figure in the PFLP which was already outlawed and on Canada's terror list. Samidoun leading a demonstration chanting "Death to Canada" while burning a Canadian flag did not endear the group to Canadians other than those who found merit in lionizing Palestinian terrorism.  

 

What is inexplicable is that some eight months have passed since Samidoun was placed on the terrorist list, but the group, based in Vancouver and linked to other groups which have roiled the streets of Canada's cities in ongoing violent displays of anti-Israel, pro-Hamas support, taking over major intersections in mass prayer sessions symbolic of Islamist conquest, have continued their hateful messages of Intifada, 'From the River to the Sea', and 'Final Solution', without restraint by any government agency or regional police forces.

 

A photo shows a flag of the organization 'Samidoun' during a "in solidarity with Gaza" demonstration in Duisburg, western Germany, on October 9, 2023. (Photo by INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images

 

And nor has the group's registration as a non-profit, able to continue raising charitable funds for Islamist terror groups like the PLFP and Hamas been interrupted. Continuing to operate openly in Canada despite its affiliations and activities, Samidoun makes a mockery of Canadian law. Its key figures such as co-founders Charlotte Kates and her husband Khaled Barakat go about their business of leading protests in honour of October 7 and the courageous terrorists who murdered 1,200 Jews, as 'revolutionaries' against the 'occupation' of Palestine by Israel whom they label criminal genocidaires.

 

Despite publicly declaring "I am here to express the views of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine", no legal action has been taken against Khaled Barakat who has been instrumental in establishing terrorist cells in the West Bank and areas of the West. Proudly and publicly lauding Hamas as "heroic and brave", his wife Kates attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last year. The visited Iran where she was bestowed with a 'humanitarian' medal in recognition of her work on behalf of the Islamic Republic.

 

During the October 7 slaughter of Israelis in southern Israel, some Canadians were victims of the Hamas incursion. Family members of October 7 victims in Canada filed a lawsuit against terrorists, one that includes Samidoun, Kates and Barakat. Samidoun is labelled a sham charity in the U.S., outlawed in Germany and the Netherlands, yet the government of Canada, while performatively placing it on a terror list, allows it continued charitable status, to fundraise in support of Hamas, in Canada.

 

Charlotte Kates, a co-founder of Vancouver-based Samidoun, which has been declared a terrorist entity by the Canadian government, poses for a photo at the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon in February 2025. Photo by @charlottekates/X

 

In Canada, Prosecuting Funders of Islamist Terrorism -- While the Liberal Government Funds Terrorism-Enablers

On May 12, 2025, at the Superior Court of Justice in Toronto, Khalilullah Yousuf (36), of Toronto plead guilty to two charges relating to the largest terrorism financing scheme in Canadian history.

Between September 2019 and December 2022, Mr. Yousuf used cryptocurrency and money transfers to fund terrorism overseas. Yesterday, in an agreed upon statement of facts, Mr. Yousuf admitted to the financing of terrorism, contrary to section 83.03 of the Criminal Code of Canada.

"As part of the plea agreement, Khalilullah Yousuf has admitted to raising over $15,000 through the platform "GoFundMe" and contributing over $35,000 to multiple receivers for the benefit of Daesh, a listed terrorist organization."

"Regarding the second charge, Mr. Yousuf has plead guilty to participating in the activities of a terrorist group, contrary to section 83.18 of the Criminal Code of Canada. He has admitted to creating and distributing a collection of over 3,800 internet-based hyperlinks. These links were curated with the purpose of radicalizing, indoctrinating and recruiting for the benefit of Daesh, a listed terrorist organization. Between October 2020, and March 2021, Mr. Yousuf communicated with an individual in the United States who was later convicted there for attempting to provide material support to the same listed terrorist organization."

"This is the largest terrorism financing conviction to date in Canada in terms of monetary value. This conviction is also the first successful terrorism financing conviction in Canada where the accused used crypto currency and the first where they used online crowdfunding."

"The success of this RCMP-led project would not be possible without the contributions of the following Canadian partnerships: RCMP Federal Policing Central Region (Ontario) The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), Forensic Accounting Management Group (FAMG), Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC), Ministry of the Attorney General (MAG), and the Toronto Police Service (TPS)."

"The RCMP would also like to recognize and thank our international partners that were instrumental in this file: The Spanish Guardia Civil Special Central Unit 2, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Maldives Police Service."

Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 15 May 2025 report 

An RCMP patch is seen on the shoulder of a Surrey RCMP Officer in Charge on Friday, April 28, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

"At its core, terrorism is violence that seeks to justify itself. But the violence needs support by advocates, recruiters, and financiers as essential parts of the cycle of intimidation and destruction."

"The verdicts and sentences… represent how Canadian society in accordance with the rule of law, emphatically holds to account those who make the violence possible."

George Dolhai, director public prosecutions, Public Prosecution Service of Canada

 A 12-year prison sentence was handed down to a man, now 36 years of age, who has Canadian citizenship and was a resident of Toronto. Khalilullah Yousuf pleaded guilty to involvement and taking part in financing a terrorist group named as the Islamic State. He admitted to crowdfunding on such sites as GoFundMe on behalf of Palestinians in Gaza and for Muslim religious events, all the while collecting the funding by Canadian contributors to send what he collected to ISIS group supporters in the United States, Spain and other countries.

 

He had applied for, and received pandemic COVID Emergency Response Benefits (CERB) and contributed that money too that he received from the government of Canada under false pretenses. Supporters, on receiving the tens of thousands he provided for ISIS benefit, forwarded to him as proof ISIS was receiving the funding, photographs of weapons and ammunition provided by the funding, along with an ISIS flag.

 

Crowdfunding, or raising money from several investors over the Internet, has made websites like GoFundMe and Kickstarter popular. Photo: Karissa Donkin/Telegraph-Journal

 

This man and his schemes do not represent the rare and only incidents of funding collected in Canada by groups and individuals portraying themselves as legitimate charities whose only concern is raising funds for charitable programs to benefit Palestinians or other so-called marginalized groups, or civilian groups caught up in conflict in the Middle East, sending funding collected in actual fact, to the very terrorist militias that cause sectarian, tribal and anti-Western, along with anti-Israel war situations. There are a multitude of such groups masquerading as humanitarian while financially supporting Islamist terror groups.

 

In this instance, Khalilullah Yousuf, who was closely embroiled in an international ISIS funding network, communicated with the group through encrypted messages online, while taking part in recruitment and creating propaganda while providing methodology to supporters on how to mount successful attacks on behalf of violent Islamist culture. A two-year investigation on this man's activities involved intelligence forces in Canada, the U.S. and Spain, leading to an arrest in July of 2023. 

 

Cryptocurrency, increasingly being used for funding terrorism, may have signalled to authorities that there was something to investigate there. Samidoun, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hezbollah and Hamas, have all received funding through Canadian sources that have successfully exploited the Canadian public to fund terrorism both abroad and internally.

 

Popular fundraising sites encourage crowdfunding in various and mostly specific categories that include patient medical needs, support of school teams, raising funds for Palestinian children, with sky-high funding goals. And while the platforms emphasize their trust that users will collect funds only for the stated reasons and not resort to illegally collecting funding in support of proscribed terror groups, any kind of actual policing of the results is not followed as being unfeasible.  

The Government of Canada itself sends mixed messages on the funding of terrorism; on the one hand decrying terrorism, and on the other continuing to fund it with taxpayer money. As with the Liberal government overturning the previous Conservative government's cutting off of UNRWA funding in recognition of its complicity in Palestinian terrorism where UNRWA-run school curricula teach Palestinian children to hate Jews and to visualize themselves as future martyrs in the 'struggle' against Israel.

 

Proven reports that UNRWA staff were actively involved in the October 7 attacks on southern Israel, and that almost two hundred were, while on UNRWA staff, also Hamas or Islamic Jihad operatives. UNRWA teachers glorify terrorism, encourage martyrdom, demonize Israelis and incite to antisemitism among their Palestinian pupils, modelling them in the vision of Hamas. Despite all of this, known and yet excused, the Liberal government continues its funding of UNRWA.

 

Photo sent by ISIS facilitator to show donated funds were going to fighters. U.S. Department of Justice

 

 

 

In Its Own Words: Hamas is a Palestinian Islamic Liberation and Resistance Movement Whose Goal is to Liberate Palestine and Confront the Zionist Project

"It's an honour to have contributed to this critically important application ... against the criminalization of Palestinian resistance in Britain, the imperial power responsible for Zionist colonialism in Palestine." 

"[Aiding and assisting on request an application to de-list Hamas in the U.K. as a] proscribed/banned [terror group]."

Charlotte Kates, leader, Samidoun

 

"The British government’s decision to proscribe Hamas is an unjust one that is symptomatic of its unwavering support for Zionism, apartheid, occupation, and ethnic cleansing in Palestine for over a century."

"Hamas does not and never has posed a threat to Britain, despite the latter’s ongoing complicity in the genocide of our people."

"Hamas is] a Palestinian Islamic liberation and resistance movement whose goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project."

Legal Petition to the United Kingdom by Hamas 

"The legal profession is being damaged by ideologues exploiting their status to platform extremism." 

"This isn’t about free speech. It’s about a man [Riverway Law attorney Fahad Ansari], who repeatedly crosses the line into open support for terrorism — all while the authorities look away."

British Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick  

"They pose an ongoing threat to our security and to the peace and stability of the Middle East and have weapons and training facilities that put lives at risk and threaten our interests."

"They show no respect for human rights, life, and dignity and have oppressed people living in Gaza for too long."

"Those campaigning to end the proscription of Hamas fail to understand the seriousness of the threats this terrorist organization poses."

"[Hamas is an] evil Iranian-backed terrorist organization, which kidnaps, tortures, and murders people, including British nationals."

Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel

Demonstrators hold Israeli and British flags outside the Law Courts, during a march against antisemitism, after an increase in the UK, during a temporary truce between the Palestinian Islamist terrorists Hamas and Israel, in London, Britain, Nov. 26, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Susannah Ireland

 

The United Kingdom classified the 'military wing' of Hamas as a terror organization in 2001; a definition expanded two decades later to encompass the entire organization, including the political arm. Hamas encourages the West to think of it as a legitimate group fighting oppression, with distinct arms: a Health Authority, a political wing, a military wing and an executive body. In reality Hamas itself scoffs derisively at the very thought that there are such executive divisions; they consider the entire group as single-mindedly focused and engaged in its singular purpose: the destruction of the State of Israel.

 

A legal group by the name of Riverway Law which is supporting Hamas in its application to the U.K. government for the terrorist designation to be rescinded, contacted Charlotte Kates, herself head of a Vancouver-based outfit that advertises itself as a support for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, and which advocates as well for the legalization of Hamas and other terrorist groups as 'freedom fighters' and is part of a group proscribed in Canada as a terrorist entity.

 

One of Samidoun's leaders, Kates's husband, has direct links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine as a leading figure within it, another terrorist group that is proscribed as such in Canada. Riverway Law contacted Kates with a request for an "expert report" representing Samidoun that she and her husband co-founded, and Kates we happy to comply, as an ardent supporter of Hamas in Canada. Notorious for leading public chants of "Long Live October 7!"

It is such an honor to be here in Beirut today, one among a sea of over a million people in collective tribute, mourning, love and commitment to the road of resistance and liberation exemplified by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayyed Hisham Safieddine. Kates on X

 

According to Kates, the savage atrocities in Israel were "heroic and brave". So committed is she that she attended Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's public funeral that took place in Lebanon in February, memorializing him as a "great anti-imperialist leader of our day, the great Arab and international revolutionary, the beloved speaker of truth and warrior of justice". 

 

A Hamas political leader, Mousa Abu Marzouk, who lives in Qatar, rejected charges of  antisemitism: "Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. Our struggle is not against Jewish people because of their religion but against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Hamas is of the view that the Jewish problem of antisemitism and the persecution of the Jews are phenomena fundamentally linked to European history and not to the history of the Arabs and the Muslims or to their heritage", he wrote in a witness statement to the Riverway application.

 

"[Hamas's terror listing runs]contrary to the European Court of Human Rights [and is] disproportionate" , wrote the Riverway Law application addressed to U.K. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper as they were "instructed by Hamas" to do. "The reality is that [Hamas] poses no threat to the U.K. people and have been explicit about this" -- handily bypassing the 15 British nationals who were slaughtered in the October 7 southern Israel attack in 2023.

"A whole host of legal and mental gymnastics were provided by the head of the law firm to explain why their actions are legitimate and how this is somehow a valid pathway to ending the bloodshed in Gaza and responding to the daily scenes of murdered Palestinian children."

"None of these individuals, including those at the law firm, bothered to understand that Hamas is the very root of the destruction of Gaza and the collapse of the Palestinian national project, having served the interests of the far right and the anti-Palestinian forces within Israeli politics and society."

Palestinian American researcher Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib

The Islamist Mainstreaming of Antisemitism Across Canada

"There's been a long history of concern about Al-Quds Day, which is an annual hateful protest, an event that calls for the elimination and eradication of the State of Israel." 

"That often ends up bringing out folks who are glorifying terrorists and waving Hamas flags and calling for the death of Jews, and I think in a country like Canada, that is morally objectionable."

Toronto city councillor Brad Bradford

 

"Many people who grew up there do not recognize the city anymore."

"They are shocked and disheartened by the hate and threats that's taken over in many aspects of day-to-day life, particularly targeting the Jewish community."

"The rallies are nothing more than hate gatherings."

James Pasternak, Toronto city councillor 

"Sights like these [Hamas-supporting mobs], are no longer uncommon because Canada's Liberal government has refused to stand against even the most vile behaviour happening in plain view."

"Our Canadian values are under attack right before our eyes -- pretending not to see it is simply shameful."

Deputy Conservative party leader Melissa Lantsman

 

"In the past, Al-Quds Day rallies, particularly in Toronto, have crossed the line into promotion of hate, antisemitism and support for designated terrorist organizations."

"I will be asking the Mayor of Montreal and police to ensure that all federal and provincial laws and municipal bylaws are strictly enforced and that police have a clear plan to do this and will immediately step in the second the line into illegality is crossed."

Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather 

 

Another annual Al-Quds Day across the country is planned for Sunday. Like all such previous events, it is anticipated the rallies will be rife with antisemitic chants that glorify terrorism. Politicians and community leaders, given the number and frequency of similar rallies that have taken place across Canada for the past year and a half following the October 7, 2023, rampage of deadly violence against Israeli civilians in farming communities in southern Israel that killed 1,200 children, women and men, saw organized 'protests' in support not of the victims of the deadly attack, but the Palestinians responsible for the savagery who portray themselves as the victims.

 

Those familiar with the events and who deplore them for their celebration and support of deadly violence are warning civil society and taking measures to ensure that law enforcement be prepared to protect the Jewish Canadian community which has been ceaselessly targeted by antisemitism through organized marches and demonstrations, many of which take place deliberately in Jewish-majority enclaves of Canadian cities. 

 

Typically, the events take place toward the end of the Islamic holiday of Ramadan. They materialized in 1979 following the Iranian Revolution when Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini -- whose Islamist ideology has created Shiite terrorist groups like Hezbollah and the Yemeni Houthis, arming, training and focusing them on the destruction of Israel -- adopted the idea of the "liberation" of Jerusalem [Al-Quds in Arabic]. The demonstrations that take place globally call for "Death to Israel", "Death to America", while effigies and flags are burned. 

"Al-Quds Day is not just another protest or demonstration."

"It is a state-sponsored, anti-Israel event, orchestrated annually by the Iranian regime to support the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] -- a Canadian-listed terrorist organization -- in its efforts to destabilize the Middle East and spread hatred against Israel, Jews, and Western democratic values around the world."

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

Large rallies for the Al-Quds Day marches have been planned across Canada, in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and Montreal. Astonishingly, in the past decade, immigration, refugee intake and illegal migration has given Canada large populations of Muslims from the Middle East and North Africa. The Palestinian Youth Movement is featured in posters for the Toronto and Montreal rallies, a group that supports the October 7 terror attacks. Samidoun, a group designated as a terror entity by the federal government is still permitted to organize events such as these in Canada without demur from the Federal Liberal government.

 

Toronto city councillors James Pasternak and Brad Bradford have demanded that the city and Toronto police enforce the Hate Rallies policy to protect the Jewish community and ensure 'every necessary precaution is taken'. There is frustration with the mainstreaming of antisemitism across the Greater Toronto Area since the invasion by Hamas of Israel on October 7, 2023. 

An Al-Quds Day rally in Toronto, 2014. Photo by YouTube/Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center

 

"As with all demonstrations and large gatherings, police will be there to ensure public safety."

"In addition to a visible frontline officer presence, we will also have officers from our specialized Hate Crime Unit on the ground, to immediately gather evidence and investigate any suspected hate crimes, or hate speech, or signage."

Toronto Police Service spokeswoman Stephanie Sayer

 

Canada, Fundraising Haven for Palestinian Terrorism

"It is such an honour to be here in Beirut today, one among a sea of over a million people in collective tribute, mourning, love and commitment to the road of resistance and liberation exemplified by Sayyed Hassan Nasralla and Sayyed Hisham Safieddine."

Charlotte Kates, Canadian citizen, co-founder, Samidoun Terrorist group, Vancouver-based

 

"Today, I attended the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut."

"During the ceremony, Israeli warplanes flew low over the stadium on two occasions, provoking a defiant response from tens of thousands of mourners."

Dimitri Lascaris, lawyer 'activist journalist', Canadian citizen 

"Barakat [Khaled Barakat, Samidoun co-founder] has previously publicly acknowledged Samidoun's affiliation with the PFLP [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group outlawed in Canada], despite direction from PFLP leadership to maintain the confidential nature of the relationship."

U.S. Treasury Department statement

Charlotte Kates posted this photo on her X account with the following caption: "It is such an honor to be here in Beirut today, one among a sea of over a million people in collective tribute, mourning, love and commitment to the road of resistance and liberation exemplified by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayyed Hisham Safieddine." Photo by Charlotte Kates /X

Charlotte Kates, who styles herself an 'international coordinator' for Samidoun, circulated photographs of herself at the Beirut 'funeral' of Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah, while holding a Samidoun flag. Apart from her presence at the event, two other Canadians were in attendance to mourn the assassination by Israeli airstrikes of Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, leaders of the Islamist terror group. Representatives of Islamist terrorist groups gathered in their tens of thousands to pay homage to the two acclaimed terrorist leaders, beloved of the Islamic Republic of Iran theocratic leadership and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

 

Lebanon's largest sports arena was used as a venue for this public funeral, where mass chants of 'death to Israel, 'death to America' rang out. The current head of Hezbollah, Naim Qassam, gave a keynote address to the crowd -- remotely, in fear he would become the third in succession to be assassinated by the military of the country that remains the sole target of Islam's terrorist contingent. 

It is telling just how deeply Islamist terrorism has infiltrated Canada at all levels of society, from its growing Muslim population, ascending to become stealth-acting members of government at every level. Dimitri Lascaris, one of the three Canadians attending this notorious event was a candidate for the leadership of the far left Green Party of Canada in 2020; a former chair of the board of directors for Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East. Yet another innocuous-sounding title for yet another group whose purpose is to slander Israel, to mount divestment campaigns in BDS and to persuade others that Palestinians are entitled to the Judean ancestral land that present-day Israel sits upon.

 

The Israel Air Force flyby Lascaris referred to in a video he shot of the warplanes buzzing the funeral was confirmed by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz to include the very types of aircraft used to assassinate both Nasrallah and Safieddine in separate incidents; intended to send a 'message' to the faithful in Hezbollah. "You will specialize in funerals, and we will [specialize] in victories", he had stated. 

Born in the United States, Kates claims Canadian citizenship, living in Vancouver since 2009, founding Samidoun with her husband Khaled Barakat, a high-ranking member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, recognized as a terrorist group in Canada since 2003. Samidoun was also declared a terror entity following Samidoun organizers seen burning a Canadian flag on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery, leading chants of "death to Canada", during one of their pro-Hamas demonstrations following the events of October 7, 2023 when Hamas operatives by the thousands that included PFLP members, stormed across the border from Gaza into Israel to perpetrate a savage bloodbath killing 1,200 and taking 120 Israeli children, elderly, women and men along with foreign farm workers into Gaza as hostages.

 

To say that the current Liberal-led Justin Trudeau government is soft on Palestinian terrorism is a bit of an understatement. Despite the fact that these terrorist groups are classed as such in Canada, no level of government has acted to outlaw them and arrest those supporting them in Canada. Their ongoing representations on behalf of Palestinian terrorism, openly supporting the sadistic savagery of October 7, the mutilation and rapes of Israeli girls and women, the torching of Israeli homes with entire families inside, the wholesale slaughter of a high percentage of Israelis living in border kibbutzim (communal farming villages), with no official intervention, much less action on the part of Canadian police forces.

 

The United States assigning terror status to Samidoun, stated that the group headquartered in Canada functions as an "international fundraiser" for the PFLP. While in Lebanon, Barakat writes openly about co-ordinating 'resistance' activities with Hezbollah. "This country Lebanon, will fight, and will emerge stronger and unified, trampling the criminal Zionists and imperialists", he stated while praising the Al-Aqsa Flood, so named by Hamas as a titular nomenclature for the massive bloodletting October 7 campaign of 2023. 

Also present for the funeral last Sunday for Nasrallah, Barakat made an on-camera appearance for the English-language propaganda outlet of the Islamic Republic of Iran: "Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was an exceptional historical leader and we are very lucky that we lived in his time", he stated, lauding the Hezbollah leader whose butchery against Israel gained him fame in the Islamist world of terrorism. Barakat also boasts Canadian citizenship.

 

Despite having been designated by Canada as a terrorist group, Samidoun's website and social media channels continue to function openly with no intervention by any government agency. They continue their solicitation of donations, while continuing to support the BDS movement, and although under suspicion of terrorism activity and subject to court-ordered conditions barring Kates from attending public protests she was still able to travel to Iran where she accepted an Islamic Human Rights Award in recognition of her "anti-Zionist activities". 

Khaled Barakat — the husband of Samidoun leader Charlotte Kates — is seen at a 2015 protest in Brussels in a photo posted on the Samidoun website. Israel’s internal security service alleges that Barakat is a senior figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a listed terrorist organization in Canada and elsewhere. Photo by samidoun.net

Risen Tide of Antisemitism in Canada

"[Samidoun, also known as Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network], claims to be campaigning for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails."

"Many Palestinian prisoners for which Samidoun advocates for release have ties to terrorism, assassinations and countless attacks against Israel."

"Samidoun's ideology revolves exclusively around the worldview that Israel and Zionism are the greatest danger to the Middle East and the world."

Public Safety Canada

"The Vancouver Police Major Crime Section, with assistance from the Vancouver Police Department Emergency Response Team, executed a search warrant yesterday at a residence in the 1800 block of East 1st Avenue, as part of an ongoing hate crime investigation under Section 319 of the Criminal Code."

"One person was initially taken into custody and has now been released pending completion of the investigation."

VPD media spokesperson Tania Visintin

Social media posts from pro-Palestinian activists supporting Kates and Samidoun expressed outrage and questioned the “excessive” police presence involved in the Nov. 14 raid (top left, via Global News) to execute a search warrant in a public incitement of hatred investigation. (Via Instagram)

"At times, the community [Vancouver and wider B.C. Jewish community] feels alone… Jewish businesses have been targeted, Jewish members of the community have been targeted in schools, at university, in the workplace."

"We have seen the glorification of terrorism at the hands of members of Samidoun [including at weekly protests on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery]."

"[The community is feeling] threatened and unsafe."

"We believe that it is crucial for civil society that Charlotte Kates be charged immediately. She’s now the leader of a terror organization."

"Let the courts decide."

Nico Slobinsky, vice-president, Pacific Region, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

Since the Palestinian terrorists' attack on southern Israel led by Hamas in Gaza on October 7, 2023, Samidoun, along with other Palestinian agitprop group have been inciting to violent antisemitism in the guise of criticizing 'Zionism', and organizing ongoing weekly and sometimes daily marches, protests and groups harassing Jewish communities and Jewish-owned businesses. Crowds of Palestinian-flag-waving antisemites have gathered outside hospitals, old-age retirement homes, synagogues, Jewish schools and community centres to shout invectives and threats against Israel veiled with 'From the River to the sea".

Clearly antisocial verging on psychopathic activities like blocking streets and  highways with marchers shouting 'Intifada!' and 'Final Solution' have inspired no reaction by authorities at any level, anywhere across the country. Jews are left to fend for themselves against the risen tide of antisemitism, viral in its endless permutations of isolation and hate-messaging. The federal government, much less provincial or municipal authorities have been satisfied to sit back and 'not notice' that a cultural/ethnic/religious minority in Canada's equal society with its guarantees of security for all, have been besieged for over a year.

And then when it became obvious that Jews were the appetizer, and once that went down well, the main course would commence, when Palestinian, pro-Hamas groups and organizers turned on Canada itself as a purportedly racist, colonialist, imperialist country perched on land not their own, taken by force from its original denizens, and shouts of derogatory derision damning Canada along with the attempted burning of a Canadian flag by Samidoun supporters moved the government to finally outlaw Samidoun as a terrorist group, closely aligned with the already-designated Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. 

Despite Samidoun being listed as a terrorist organization in Canada last month, its co-founder and director Charlotte Kates has been proceeding with the group, continuing to organize marches that demonize Israel, calling for its destruction, and threatening Canadian Jews' security, with no moves by either the Federal government or law and order to step in and put a halt to those activities. Listing Samidoun as a terrorist entity was a first step, but it seemed that following through to stop its activities was a step too far.

Now, finally, the Vancouver home of Charlotte Kates, out of which the management of the Samidoun group and its many branches abroad is located, was raided by the Vancouver Police Department's Emergency Response Team. A search warrant was executed relating to a hate crime investigation. During the raid, a flash-bang grenade was used, resulting in windows of the house being broken. It was explained by a police spokesperson that the emergency response team is "often used in the execution of search warrants when we believe there could be a risk to the public or a risk to the officers".

 

Time for justice and the Canadian court system to work in tandem with the police departments of the nation, in coordination with government, serious about condemning racism and terrorism and putting a halt to its expansion within Canada. 

Terrorist Pro-Hamas Supporting Groups in Canada

"[T]he plaintiffs plead that the Samidoun Defendants have committed offences including, but not limited to, providing or collecting property for terrorist activity, providing or collecting property for the benefit of persons facilitating or carrying out terrorist activity, participating in the activity of a terrorist group, leaving Canada to participate in the activity of a terrorist group, and facilitating terrorist activity."

Statement of Claim in Ontario Superior Court of Justice

 

"[Criteria enabling the federal government to list a terrorist entity is if the person or group in question has] knowingly acted on behalf of, at the direction of or in association with an entity that has knowingly carried out, attempted to carry out, participated in or facilitated a terrorist activity."

Canada's Criminal Code

"Samidoun is knowingly acting on behalf of, at the direction of or in association with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist group under the Criminal Code."

"This qualifies Samidoun for a terrorist listing."

"Why hasn't this happened?"

Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong

"These are resistance fighters."

"These are our heroes. These are those who are sacrificing so that we can live and speak and struggle and fight."

"These are the people whose blood is being shed to defend humanity and to defend the world."

Charlotte Kates, international coordinator for Samidoun

"The expiration of her conditions of release will allow her to continue to initiate hate and division against the local Jewish community."

"If we value respect, inclusion, and diversity the Crown must approve and lay the charges recommended by the Vancouver Police Department."

Ezra Shanken, CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver

 

Samidoun, a clearly terrorist-supporting group that has established itself in Vancouver with branches elsewhere across Canada, has declared itself a solidarity network for Palestinian prisoners. Its founder, Khaled Barakat, married to Charlotte Kates, Samidoun leader, also happens to be identified as a senior figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, itself a listed terrorist organization in Canada, the U.S., Israel, the U.K. and the European Union. Yet this group that has been at the forefront of organizing countless pro-Hamas demonstrations across Canada, enjoys charitable status in Canada.

And irrespective of its representation of a proscribed terrorist group listed as such in Canada, the federal Liberal government refuses to address the issue of allowing such a group to operate in Canada, despite the social upheaval it has been part of, in demonizing Israel and harassing Jewish Canadians. There are, in fact, Muslim Members of Parliament at the ministerial level that had signed a contract with Khaled Barakat to conduct instructive human rights sessions for various government departments, until it was revealed that the man had a background linked to terrorism.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has an established record of having pioneered the carrying out of assassinations, suicide bombings, hijackings and murders. Shortly following Germany expelling Kates and Barakat, they established Samidoun in Vancouver as the headquarters of its global operation. A number of Members of Parliament have called upon the federal government to designate Samidoun for what it is, a terrorist organization. Muslim MPs will resist that, and the Trudeau Liberals will not go out of their way to alienate the large and growing Muslim-Canadian demographic, since it's a poor vote-garnering technique.

At a Samidoun-organized commemoration of the glories of the October 7, 2023 slaughter of 1,200 Israelis, the savage mass rape of Israeli girls and women, their pitiless mutilation and torture, and the abduction of 250 Israeli children, elderly, women and girls on its one-year anniversary when protesters burned the Canadian flag while chanting 'death to Canada', 'death to the United States', and "we are Hezbollah and we are Hamas", declaring 'Death to Israel'. 

Samidoun was 'mourning' the death of Hamas's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, vowing its intention to continue its "...jihadist path [and] follow [Nasrallah's] methodology". While Justin Trudeau's government has failed to advance remedial action against the rancid antisemitism that Samidoun and other pro-Hamas groups in Canada relish exhibiting in the public arena, Canada's Conservative Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre vows that when he becomes prime minister he will quickly intervene to declare Samidoun an outlawed terrorist group.

In a still of a video posted online, protesters at a pro-Palestinian rally are seen burning a Canadian flag as some chant 'death to Canada, death to the United States and death to Israel.' (Jarryd Jäger/Western Standard)

"So, if burning a Canadian flag, if calling for the death of Canadians, if fomenting hate in this country and most of all being a front for an already-listed terrorist organization is not enough to put them on the [federal government's terrorist] list, then what the hell is it going to take for them to ban them?"

The Psychopathic Antisemitism Serpents in Canada

"Back then, you simply did not see people running through the streets saying, I'm an al-Qaeda supporter, I love bin Laden."

"When I look at what's going on now, that's the important thing, in my mind [open expressions of support for terrorist groups]."

"It's very different now. With the Toronto 18 [homegrown terror group], we had a small group of people, some of whom had known each other for a while, and they built their little group and they did it in secret."

"They didn't have these massive demonstrations where like-minded people can easily identify one another."

Former RCMP counterterrorism investigator John Mecher

 

"We are very concerned."

Samidoun is known to be directly linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is already a listed terrorist organization [in Canada and elsewhere]."

"They have been inciting and glorifying terrorist attacks and massacres since October 7. They were already hanging signs from bridges in Vancouver."

"This is a serious source of concern."

Israeli Ambassador to Canada Ido Moed

 

"These are resistance fighters. These are our heroes."

"These are those who are sacrificing so that we can live and speak and struggle and fight."

"These are the people whose blood is being shed to defend humanity and to defend the world."

"We stand with the Palestinian resistance and their heroic and brave action on October 7."

"Long live October 7!"

Charlotte Kates, international co-ordinator for the Samidoun Prisoners Solidarity Network

Charlotte Kates spoke at a demonstration on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery last Friday. Her comments have led to a hate crime investigation by the Vancouver Police Department. (B'nai Brith Canada)

Samidoun is one of the major groups responsible for dozens of 'pro-Palestine' rallies and demonstrations that have appeared in Canada since the October 7 Hamas atrocities perpetrated on civilians in southern Israel. It was those savage acts of terror that included mass rapes, torching family homes with parents and children inside, mutilation of female victims, mass murders and hostage-taking of children, women and the elderly that led to Israel launching its military against Hamas to destroy its infrastructure and eliminate its terrorist operatives. 

Openly and with a sense of profound entitlement "Long live October 7" was the slogan chanted at the Vancouver Art Gallery last Friday and in Ottawa at yet another April 21 rally on Parliament Hill. Where Kates gushed about the "beautiful, brave and heroic resistance of the Palestinian people". She has no hesitation in addressing her concerns directly to Parliament. Little wonder -- at one time her husband was on contract with Heritage Canada to teach public servants how to deal with racism.

"It is long past time to delist Palestinian and Lebanese resistance organizations [Hamas and Hezbollah] from Canada's so-called list of terrorist entities."

"Hamas is not a terrorist organization. Islamic Jihad is not a terrorist organization. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is not a terrorist organization."

Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization."

Charlotte Kates, Samidoun

Banned in Germany for its links to terrorism and its blatant antisemitism along with its illegal activities, Samidoun, based now in Vancouver while terror-listed in Israel, has been intimately associated with the PFLP, once notorious for its suicide bombings and airline hijacking exploits. An internal dispute among 'pro-Palestine' activists at Rutgers University in New Jersey, saw this woman arrive in Canada some dozen years ago.

 

She is also the coordinator of the U.S. National Lawyers' Guild's International Committee whose member-lawyers expend enormous time and energy acting pro bono for 'pro-Palestine' protests and encampments at universities across the United States. Her husband, Khaled Barakat, born in Dahiyat al-Barid, a village near Jerusalem in 1971 was deported from the U.S. after an expired residency permit leading him to Vancouver as a student activist at the University of British Columbia in 2004.

 

Barakat has been identified by the Israeli Shin Bet security service as a senior figure in the PFLP, the primary leader of Samidoun, the PFLP's overseas recruitment propaganda proxy. His tendency to violent, antisemitic rhetoric led to his being deported from Europe; both  husband and wife are now barred from reentering Europe. Shockingly, Samidoun has been given federally registered not-for-profit status in Canada.

 

Former RCMP counterterrorism investigator John Mecher is of the opinion that Ottawa should be taking Samidoun seriously, that it may be only a matter of time before Hamas and its Canadian supporters spawn a new generation of homegrown extremists. The current phenomenon of 'pro-Palestine' activism represents, he feels, a far greater risk of recruitment to violent extremism and terrorism than was present in the radical activist situation that prevailed in the wake of 9/11.

 

Charlotte Kates (top left) and Khaled Barakat (top right) spoke at an online forum organized by Columbia university students which later led to a series of suspensions by the university. (@thestustustudio/X)

"The Forces of the Resistance" Hamas Death Cult

"On October 7, we saw the potential for a Palestine liberated from Zionism by the forces of the resistance."

"[Demonstration attendees should make an effort] to live up to the examples that every fighter in the brigades [Hamas, PLFP, PIJ, etc.] and every Yemeni marine [Houthis] are showing on a daily basis."

Charlotte Kates, leader, Samidoun/People's Liberation Front for Palestine

"[Officers attending these protests] have been threatened with injury or death."

"Last weekend, a woman threw horse feces at our our officers, and another woman used a flagpole to spear at others."

"[Female police officers report] being targeted at these events in ways their male colleagues are not."

"Officers were at the Eaton's Centre to respond to a protest where threats were directed to a member of the public, not to police."

"[Officers] are working each day to ensure protests do not escalate & we are grateful for their efforts."

Toronto Police Association [union]

Anti-Israel protesters outside Toronto's city hall on Saturday, April 6, 2024. Photo by X

In Canada, in Toronto, which has seen hundreds of  'pro-Palestinian', pro-Hamas rallies take place, where cries of 'Intifada', "From the river to the sea", 'Final Solution' and other pointedly hate-consuming epithets ring out, all of them a threat by their very nature, and directed against Canadian Jews, the police and government officials, federal, provincial and municipal, while decrying the violence, have done little to uphold the law against threats and violence by masked perpetrators.

Finally, when the crowds have become rowdier, more vehemently vicious and begin to target the police themselves standing by to maintain order, police begin to react. It's one thing threatening Jews directly, attacking their synagogues, hospitals, private businesses, parochial schools and social centres, but expressing foul-mouthed threats against police and insults and violence directed toward the sentries of public order and security has gone one too far, evidently.

This past weekend in Toronto saw an uprise in terrorist-supporting rhetoric. Outlawed in Germany as a recognized terrorist group, Samidoun, with its direct links to violent terrorist groups with blood on their hands, and itching to increase that blood count, was up front and centre with one of its major leaders directing members of the protest to emulate Middle East terrorist groups and do it right here, in Canada, in Toronto, the city with the largest population of Canadian Jews. No censure, no comment from Justin Trudeau, Canada's witless prime minister.

On the Saturday terror-rally a sign reading "Hamas is a Palestinian Resistance Movement" was held by a child at Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square, among a small crowd of protesters present for the purpose of opposing a pro-Israel rally where Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was featured and where he would express his unalloyed support of Israel and dedication as future Prime Minister to the safety and security of Jewish Canadians.

 

 

Beside the child stood a man with a microphone, who addressed the Jewish attendees of the event: "It's so wonderful to see all the little kids here ... ask your parents to give you a history lesson about how they rape and murder children", he boomed at people who would forever mourn the dread October 7 bloodbath that Palestinian terrorists imposed on southern Israel when Jewish children were raped and slaughtered by terrorists who as children were taught at UNRWA schools to hate Jews and relish killing them.

That Canada lists Hamas as a terrorist group, and is technically in conflict with the Houthis in Yemen which has been busy attacking shipping in the Red Sea, yet both are being cited as models of 'resistance' against 'Zionists' by a radicalized terror-supporter in public, at a Square in Toronto named after a once-mayor and prominent Jewish Canada, seems to raise no concerns over hate-promulgation from any level of government leadership.

There was an image of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem as a backdrop to Samidoun's chief hate-monger, surrounded by a Star of David constructed of barbed wire. This was a celebration of Al Quds Day, a 'holiday' that then-supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeni conceived in 1979 following the Iranian Revolution. A day of anti-Israel and terror-promoting demonstrations regularly taking place in Canada's cities. Fulfilling their destiny, hate groups like Toronto4Palestine happily busied themselves organizing October 7 massacres with utter impunity.

"If they're going to break the law, if they're going to assault our police horses, there will be consequences and people will be arrested."

"Agitators [within the demonstrations would not be tolerated]."

Deputy Chief Lauren Pogue, Ottawa Police Service

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre arrives to speak to over 2,000 pro-Israel supporters gathered at Nathan Philips Square to mark 6 months since the deadly Hamas attack on Oct. 7.