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Terry Newman: Why did Canada deny entry to Rima Hassan? France has the answer

French authorities recently arrested the MEP for allegedly supporting terrorism

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You may recall news Monday suggesting French-Palestinian, Rima Hassan, who was scheduled to speak at conferences in Montreal this week, was being singled out by the Canadian government because of her views on Israel. Headlines depicted her as a “censored” “European parliament member” who was denied entry to Canada. Likewise, the images on these stories portrayed Hassan as a serious young woman holding a microphone, or smiling while clapping and spinning while wearing a keffiyeh.

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This week, Hassan was arrested in France for allegedly supporting terrorism.

Terry Newman: Why did Canada deny entry to Rima Hassan? France has the answer Back to video

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Defenders of Hassan called her arrest “a new milestone reached in the judicial harassment aimed at silencing voices that defend the rights of the Palestinian people.”

Le Parisien reported that she was arrested as part of investigation into a since-deleted tweet that allegedly referenced one of the 1972 Tel Aviv airport bombing perpetrators, Kōzō Okamoto, a former member of the Japanese Red Army who was recruited and trained by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Reportedly, the tweet said: “I dedicated my youth to the Palestinian cause. As long as there is oppression, resistance will not only be a right, but a duty.”

Hassan’s background shouldn’t have been a surprise to Canadian news outlets, especially those in Montreal. Information wasn’t hard to find.

In fact, last week, before Hassan was denied access, an op-ed in Le Journal de Montréal, written by Julien Corona, the director of strategic communications and public relations at CIJA, laid out the concerns about Hassan’s visit, including her plans to speak to Montrealers through university student organizations, quite clearly.

In the op-ed, Corona explained why Hassan should be denied access to Canada. Hassan called the actions of Hamas on October 7 “legitimate,”refusing to characterize them as an act of terrorism, despite the fact that they were largely directed at civilians. Hamas is a listed terrorist organization in Canada. She’s called on French Palestinians to join the “armed Palestinian resistance,” adopted a slogan many view as calling for the complete erasure of Israel — “From the river to the sea.”

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Corona points out that, on two occasions, Hassan has been linked to events where political violence has erupted from the Jeune Garde (Young Guard) antifascist militia which has been dissolved by France.

On May 27, 2024, eight of its members who were providing security for an event hosted by Hassan allegedly violently assaulted and forced a 15-year-old boy on the Paris metro to chant “Long live Palestine” because they assumed he was Jewish. Two months ago, a 23-year-old French far-right activist Quentin Deranque, died from brain injuries after allegedly being beaten by several members of the antifascist group. Corona points out that this violent beating that led to death took place “on the sidelines of a conference (Hassan) was attending.”

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Corona pointed out how bizarre it would be for Canada to allow Hassan to come to Montreal to give lessons on anti-fascism and to meet with Concordia’s Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance, SPHR, a group he refers to as “linked to the campus’s transformation into a hotbed of tension, intimidation, and abuses for over two years.”

“Inviting Rima Hassan to Quebec is, therefore, also inviting an ecosystem that contradicts our shared values,” Corona wrote.

When CBSA denied Hassan’s entry to Canada last week, they gave a boilerplate statement that they couldn’t comment as to why due to privacy. Likewise, Immigration Canada declined to comment mentioning privacy and security issues.

It’s unclear why, in absence of comment from these agencies, so many Canadian news headlines ran with the censorship angle, given information about Hassan, as well as the increasingly violent far-left antifacist situation in France, is readily available on the internet.

What’s happened to journalistic curiosity?

While denied physical access to Montreal to lecture on anti-fascism, SPHR streamed Hassan into a live event, anyway, posting a video to their Instagram stories to highlight parts of the talk.

In the under three-minute video, a young woman dressed completely in black with her hair covered and a keffiyeh around her neck told the audience that their panel, “The Struggle Continues,” would question the “Canadian government’s complicity” and “call on their own collective responsibility for mobilization.” She suggested Canada had denied entry to Hassan “on grounds of technicalities.”

“We are not allowing the state to dictate the terms of our movements. Rima Hassan will still be joining us virtually,” she said.

She then asked those viewing the story to come “in numbers” to the Olympia theatre where the panel was being held, “to refute the Canadian government’s complicity and their attempts to weaken our movement for liberation.”

Later in the video, two keffiyeh-draped individuals can be seen on a stage giving the opening remarks: “Our movement does indeed challenge them, and that is why they refuse the entry of Rima Hassan. Because our movement is effective and powerful. So, today, the space we are in, is not only one created for discussion, but one that affirms the power of the people as superior to that of lobbies and dirty politics. On that note, and with our commitment to the cause unshaken, we will begin tonight.”

Later, the speaker tells the audience that the university administrations, assumedly referring to those in Montreal, will only apologize and express regret “when they realize that all colonial forces are temporary, and just liberation is eternal.” The video ends with an image on Hassan being livestreamed into the theatre.

It’s time Canadian news, especially local news, starts paying attention to these political groups amassing in our cities that glorify violence.

tnewman@postmedia.com

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