Written by: Aidan Jonah

On October 17, 2024, then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was murdered by Israel in Gaza. In the Islamic faith, 40 days after a person’s death, a commemoration will be held to remember them. And that is what Canadian Defenders for Human Rights (CD4HR), led by Firas Al-Najim, sought to do on November 26, with a vigil in the Canadian city of Mississauga.

CD4HR, according to Al-Najim, is an organization focused on helping people in the most oppressed countries such as Palestine, by bringing them a voice and assisting with aid campaigns.

Soon after it was announced, Zionists began targeting the vigil.

Chaos around the vigil

After it was announced, the vigil quickly came under fire from Zionists. This was a surprise to Al-Najim, as last year, CD4HR had organized a vigil on November 11, 2023 for Palestinian martyrs and Canadian peacekeepers, with no problems. To avoid causing problems, for this year CD4HR avoided having the Sinwar vigil on November 11, putting it instead 40 days after his death.

On November 10, 2024, to the surprise of many, Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish came out to share a statement confirming that the city doesn’t require permits for vigils at Celebration Square and emphasizing that “Under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, groups have the right of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.”

On November 11, 2024, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs wrote a letter to Parrish and said, “The Mayor must use every tool available to ensure this event does not proceed on city property” and claimed that allowing the vigil to occur on city property “would be an affront to the values of freedom, peace and justice that Mississaugans and all Ontarians hold dear.” On November 12, B’nai Brith Canada complained about the vigil and demanded the provincial Ontario and federal government step in.

Al-Najim says on November 12, Parrish posted that the vigil wasn’t happening after consultation with some local groups, which led to CD4HR confirming that the vigil would still go ahead. CD4HR later got in contact with staff at the City of Mississauga, including a security-focused staffer. That security staffer said there weren’t problems with the vigil going ahead, according to Al-Najim. On November 13, after communications with the Royal Canadian Legion, CD4HR came out with an updated poster.

On November 14, at a Mississauga City Council meeting, Mayor Parrish enraged Zionists by stating that, in the vein of retaining one’s critical faculties:

“I just want to point out, and I’m not being facetious, Nelson Mandela was declared a terrorist by the United States of America ‘til the year 2008. Your terrorist and somebody else’s terrorist may be two different things.”

Zionist lobby organization B’nai Brith Canada responded by putting pressure on Parrish, on November 15, with a written letter posted to social media, with the core demand to prevent the vigil from taking place:

“B'nai Brith has written to @citymississauga Mayor @carolynhparrish to inquire into why the City is not following its own guidelines and policies. The citizens of Mississauga and Canada's Jewish community deserve to be informed as to why the planned "vigil" to honour Yahya Sinwar is receiving special treatment. We demand that Mayor Parrish restore order and take immediate action to prevent this harmful event from taking place. Doing anything less is a shameful dereliction of her duties.”

In response, on the same day, Mayor Parrish defended the Charter rights of Canadians and did not commit to cracking down on the event, in a letter sent to B’nai Brith Canada, and also posted to social media.

However, Al-Najim says around this time, the CD4HR committee studied the situation and decided it would be best to cancel the vigil because “there was a security issue, a safety issue, and we care about that in our city”.

Al-Najim continued to say that:

“I care about Mississauga, I care about the Mayor’s responsibilities, especially now that we have a insecurity emergency for food… People are having problems getting basic foods just to survive.”

With this in mind as well, Al-Najim says the CD4HR committee decided to cancel the vigil “to de-escalate the issue and let the Mayor work on her responsibilities”. But he emphasized that the rally was not cancelled because of Zionist hysteria and intimidation attempts, and pointed to CD4HR’s history of opposing – on-the-ground - the Walk for Israel held in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), in the face of threats from the Kahanist (fascist) Jewish Defence League’s Canadian chapter.

CD4HR also sent a letter to the City of Mississauga, informing them that they want to contribute and work as a team to help eradicate the food insecurity emergency.

Al-Najim says:

“They [City of Mississauga] were very happy to hear that. We were presented with some different options of what we could do, for instance collecting funds or collecting food, cans and different kinds of food, and then giving them to the food bank… We put that as a priority and said okay, the vigil, we will work on that at the right time.”

CD4HR publicly indicated their gratitude to Mayor Parrish for standing up for Canadians’ Charter rights, on November 17. The next day, CIJA demanded that:

“Mississauga Mayor @carolynhparrish should apologize for her offensive remarks comparing Yayha Sinwar to Nobel Peace Prize Winner Nelson Mandela and that the City should never let such a vigil take place on City property.”

Al-Najim says:

“If it’s [the law] against them [Zionist lobby], if it’s not in line with their agenda… at that point it’s illegal and police have to get involved, and there should be pressure from the city, all the MPs, all the MPPs, all the councillors, all the Senators to condemn this organization, to condemn this individual, to condemn what they said, and they’ll create this false-flag type of atmosphere.

And it’s exactly what Israel does… the State of Israel will say oh this is a terrorist organization and they’ll make up this thing about human shields and this and that, and they’re hitting schools… and they will justify their [attack on Palestinians].

And that’s exactly what they do here: they create this atmosphere of these people are dangerous, these people are supporting terrorism… and they’ll push pressure for the police to arrest and kind of alter the laws to their benefit”.

Al-Najim believes Canadians are waking up to the importance of a liberated Palestine, and that this is causing panic within the Zionist lobby and Israel.

Soon afterwards, CIJA demanded Parrish be censured by Mississauga City Council if she didn’t apologize, by November 22, for not cracking down on vigil and making pro-Palestine tweets and tweets critical of Zionists. On November 19, CIJA repeated the demand.

Then, on November 23, Mayor Parrish met with Palestine liberation activists, Ghada Sasa, Khaled Sasa and Dr. Sabreena Ghaffar-Siddiqui.

On November 25, CIJA kept protesting Mayor Parrish’s actions, stating that:

“CIJA and the Jewish community demanded an unequivocal apology for her offensive remarks and her dismissive attitude toward the concerns of the Jewish community. As she has not, Mississauga City Council should put forward a motion to censure the mayor until she recognizes the impacts of her words.”

No response has come to CIJA’s demands.

Carolyn Parrish, who is she exactly?

Al-Najim sees Mississauga Mayor, Carolyn Parrish, as a unique politician in Canada. Al-Najim said: “She has visited Palestine five times, she has visited the ‘Holy Land’, she has visited Jenin, she’s visited Gaza, she’s visited a lot of these places and she’s seen the crimes, the hard life of the Palestinians, she’s seen the cruelty of the IDF soldiers, she’s seen the differences between the Israeli life and the Palestinian life.”

Mayor Parrish opposed an Iraq war in 2003, even directly in Parliament, while openly criticizing then-US President George W. Bush’s war drive that soon succeeded. CBC reported in 2004, that “She's referred to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as the ‘coalition of idiots.’ And on Wednesday she was videotaped as she stomped on a doll of President Bush for the television program, This Hour Has 22 Minutes.”

In July 2013, she tweeted “Palestine being destroyed by Israel.Inhuman.” In January 2015, she tweeted “I don't get into discussions with Zionists. Have tried in past&found it fruitless exercise. Been to Palestine. Know what's up.”

That same month, she also tweeted that “Israel again freezes Palestinian tax funds needed to pay police and other public servants. That's THEFT. Again not one country speaks out!” and that “Israel also blocks shipments of donated medical supplies, ambulances, wheelchairs, etc. Left to rust for years on docks.”

Al-Najim further said: “She believes in equality, she believes in justice, she believes in human rights”.

After the controversy of the cancelled Sinwar vigil, Mayor Parrish didn’t choose to lay low. Instead, she met with three Palestine liberation activists, Ghada Sasa, Khaled Sasa and Dr. Sabreena Ghaffar-Siddiqui, and even posted about this meeting stating that:

“Productive, informative, positive visit with three amazingly well-informed young Canadians: Khaled, Sabreena and Ghada. Mississauga is fortunate to be a truly multicultural city where every opinion matters and residents feel free to express themselves in a safe and open society.”

Mayor Parrish, being a politician who will oppose the repression of Palestine organizing even to a degree, while holding elected office with real political power, is a rarity in Canada. While the vigil for Yahya Sinwar had to be cancelled, Parrish’s actions are a genuine positive that came out of a tough situation.

Note: You can watch the full interview with CD4HR’s Firas Al-Najim on The Canada Files’ YouTube channel.

Aidan Jonah is the Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, a socialist, anti-imperialist news outlet founded in 2019. Jonah wrote a report for the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in September 2021.

Editor’s note: The Canada Files is the country's only news outlet focused on Canadian foreign policy. We've provided critical investigations & hard-hitting analysis on Canadian foreign policy since 2019, and need your support.

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