MP Anthony Housefather said he has reached out to Mayor Valérie Plante about “absurd policing” decisions.
A local rabbi is speaking out after he says police asked him to leave the site of a pro-Palestinian protest in downtown Montreal, saying his presence was a provocation.
Adam Scheier, the head of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, said Sunday he was asked to move away from an area where protesters were marching downtown, for fear that his presence, as a person wearing a Jewish skullcap or kippah, could provoke violence. Neither Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante nor the Montreal police have commented on the event.
“While we sipped our drinks, an anti-Israel rally — flanked by police protection — marched up the street,” Scheier wrote in a public post on Facebook. “I stood silently and filmed the messages of hate that have become so commonplace in our once-tranquil city. The police approached me and asked me and my family to leave the area. I asked why we were given this directive, as we had not exchanged even one word with a protester.
“The only thing I am guilty of is shopping in downtown Montreal … while wearing a kippah. The policeman explained to me that he was fearful of a ‘fire starting between the two sides.’ Apparently, my presence is deemed a sufficient provocation for removal, while their hateful chants are allowed to continue.”
Mount-Royal MP Anthony Housefather said he was in touch with Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante Sunday night about the situation.
“Today a Montreal rabbi and his family were told to leave a downtown area by police,” Housefather wrote on X on Sunday. “He was wearing a kippah and police were worried he might incite the demonstrators walking by, yelling chants. I have reached out to the mayor as this absurd policing needs to end now.”
Plante did not immediately return a request from The Gazette for comment. Montreal police also did not respond immediately.
Opposition leader Aref Salem denounced the incident and the silence of the Plante administration.
“It is high time for SPVM director Mr. Dagher to instruct his officers to enforce the law, put an end to criminal acts, threats and insults, and remind everyone that the right to protest does not justify violence,” Salem wrote in a statement. “Asking citizens to leave an area for their own safety is unacceptable. If anyone threatens public safety, it is they who should be removed — not law-abiding citizens.”
Salem also called for Plante and the police force to crack down on such behaviour.
In a statement posted online, a group called the Black Bloc said police used pepper spray before any damage occurred. The protesters justified their actions.
The statement read in part that they “attack” the downtown Montreal area “to oppose symbolically and materially the most odious crimes committed for capitalism. … Our acts are charged with rage born from the horrors we witness and denounce here, but also from our own grief.”
This story will be updated.