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FIRST READING: Canadian police politely ask antizionists to stop blocking roads all the time

Antizionists say 'no'

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FIRST READING: Canadian police politely ask antizionists to stop blocking roads all the time Back to video

After more than two years and millions of dollars spent escorting anti-Israel marches through the B.C. capital, police have politely asked organizers to please stop illegally blockading roads each week.

To which organizers have already replied, no.

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On Wednesday, the Victoria Police said that they would stop providing traffic control and “related police resources” to anti-Israel demonstrators that had been routinely blocking roads in the city’s core every Saturday.

Citing “unsustainable strain” on officers, Victoria Police asked marchers to do like most other Victoria protests, and confine their demonstrations to the grounds of the B.C. Parliament buildings.

“After 126 weeks and 10,000 hours of support, VicPD is asking that protestors peacefully conclude the marching portion of their weekly Palestine demonstrations,” wrote the police department in a statement.

https://x.com/vicpdcanada/status/2036861616931954718

“We strongly encourage organizers and participants to remain on the Legislature lawn, where the environment is safer and more controlled.”

Within hours, protest organizers announced that they would be continuing to block roadways anyway.

“We will not stop marching. We will not stop until the Canadian state completely ends its complicity in apartheid, war crimes, and genocide in occupied Palestine,” reads a statement posted to the Instagram page of the group Coast Salish to Palestine.

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The group does not recognize Victoria as a legitimate entity, referring to it in the statement as “unceded Lekwungen and WSANEC territories.” They also said rally organizers “have never asked for police presence.”

Victoria, like most major Canadian cities, has been subject to regular anti-Israel demonstrations following the Hamas-led October 7 terrorist attacks in 2023.

The most notable of which is a weekly Saturday march through the city’s tourist core conducted with Victoria Police escorts.

While police cordons for such rallies is pretty common across Canada, Victoria is somewhat different in that Victoria Police will routinely give several days’ advance notice to Victoria residents of upcoming anti-Israel demonstrations.

“Traffic disruptions are expected due to a planned demonstration this Saturday, January 3, at the front of the BC Legislature,” reads a typical Victoria Police alert issued earlier this year. Victorians were told to expect road closures for about “two hours.”

The costs of these demonstrations have run into the millions of dollars just in terms of police resources. Between October 2023 and November 2024, an Access to Information request filed by a Victoria citizen found that policing costs due to the weekly “Rally for Palestine” had hit $1,009,426.30.

Victoria’s various anti-Israel actions have repeatedly featured extremist rhetoric, including endorsements of violence and the targeting of local Jewish figures.

Last June, a fundraiser organized by NDP MLA Nina Krieger was crashed by anti-Israel demonstrators accusing her of complicity in genocide. Krieger said the protesters seemed to target her specifically for no other reason than her Jewish heritage.

“The protesters that visited my event this weekend crossed the line into intimidation and harassment because of who I am,” Krieger said in a statement at the time.

In May 2024, a speaker at a police-attended Saturday anti-Israel rally in Victoria expressed praise for violent resistance against Israeli forces. “I feel very proud when I see young warriors in Gaza … running up to a tank and delivering demolition charges,” he said.

At another march in November of that year, police maintained a cordon around demonstrators blockading Douglas Street, the city’s main thoroughfare. As officers held back waiting cars, a speaker standing in the middle of the road admonished passersby for wearing Remembrance Day poppies, saying that Canadian Armed Forces fighting the Second World War had helped end the Holocaust only for liberated European Jewry to become “victimizers.”

And in one case, an anti-Israel demonstrator was charged with hate crimes for screaming invective at Jewish counter-protesters.

Last July, police charged a 28-year-old man with public incitement of hatred for what they described as “alleged antisemitic remarks directed towards a group of Jewish demonstrators.” The remarks allegedly occurred at a March 17, 2024 rally that had featured police traffic control and assistance.

Nevertheless, in their Wednesday statement, the Victoria Police praised the “passion and commitment” of demonstrators.

“This decision is not a judgment on the merits of their cause, but a necessary step to ensure sustainable policing and protect the long‑term health of our officers,” said VicPD Chief Constable Fiona Wilson.

Blocking any roadway is illegal in Canada. Under B.C. law, it violates the Motor Vehicle Act. Under the Criminal Code, blocking or obstructing a highway falls under the category of “intimidation,” which can carry a five-year prison sentence.

But the anti-Israel marches, like many other protests in the B.C. capital, exist in a legal non-enforcement grey area given the presence of the seat of the B.C. government. It’s why the policing costs aren’t covered by the Victoria Police. Under a Memorandum of Understanding between Victoria and the B.C. government, the costs of any protest that occurs within the vicinity of the B.C. Legislative Assembly can be invoiced to the province.

“The costs have all been recovered from the Province and do not impact the operational budget of the Victoria Police Department,” a Victoria Police spokesperson told National Post in 2025.

Michael Ma is probably best known as one of three Conservative MPs who have crossed the floor to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals in recent months.

And unlike the others, his was clouded by allegations of foreign interference, with some of Ma’s Chinese-Canadian constituents alleging he is a “puppet” of Beijing.

This week, in a House of Commons committee, Ma grilled a witness on her mention of forced labour in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, seeming to suggest it wasn’t real.

Xinjiang, China’s most sparsely populated province, has for years been the site of a systematic Chinese program of “re-education” for the region’s Uyghur minority. The most notable facet of which is massive detention facilities, and the alleged use of detained labour in agricultural production — for example, tomatoes.

The official position of Ma’s own government is that there is slave labour in Xinjiang. As far back as 2021, Ottawa placed import controls on Xinjiang products for the precise reason that they may have been produced with slave labour. Any Canadian companies operating in the province were also required to submit a “Xinjiang Integrity Declaration” declaring non-involvement with human rights abuses.

That was the same year the House of Commons voted to recognize China’s treatment of the Uyghurs as a “genocide.”

But in questions directed at career civil servant Margaret McCuaig-Johnson this week, Ma questioned her claims of forced labour in Xinjiang on the grounds that she hadn’t personally seen it.

Said Ma, “you claim about forced labour in Xinjiang, have you witnessed this yourself?” When the question yielded only a confused expression from Johnson, Ma continued “just a short answer; have you witnessed forced labour in Xinjiang, yes or no?”

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