Canada designates Samidoun a terrorist entity after ‘death to Canada’ chant

Samidoun, a Vancouver-based anti-Israel organization, has been designated as a terror group in both Canada and the United States.

“The listing of Samidoun as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code sends a strong message that Canada will not tolerate this type of activity, and will do everything in its power to counter the ongoing threat to Canada’s national security and all people in Canada,” said Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc in a press release.

Khaled Barakat, whose wife Charlotte Kates is a director of Samidoun, has also been designated a terrorist by the United States’ government and identified as a member of the leadership of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the U.S. State department said.

“His fundraising and recruitment efforts support the PFLP’s terrorist activity against Israel,” says a separate U.S. news release.

Last week, at a Vancouver rally organized by Samidoun on the one-year anniversary of the October 7 terror attacks, attendees chanted “death to Canada.” Samidoun later that “we at Samidoun stand by this phrase as the call to action that it is” in a statement posted to Instagram.

At the event, five masked protesters set a Canadian flag on fire. An unidentified woman chanted “We are Hezbollah and we are Hamas,” referring to the terror groups active in, respectively, Lebanon and Gaza.

In a press release, the United States, in a joint action with Canada, said it was designating Samidoun a “sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.”

“The PFLP, which was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the U.S. Department of State in October 1997 and October 2001, respectively, uses Samidoun to maintain fundraising operations in both Europe and North America,” the U.S. press release says.

Canada has listed PFLP as a terrorist organization since November 2003.

Founded in 2011 following a widespread hunger strike organized by the PFLP in Israeli prisons, Samidoun has been a prominent organizer of protests in Canada since the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel. Its full name is Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

But, the two countries allege that Samidoun’s activities go far beyond raising awareness about Palestinians behind bars in Israel or organizing street protests in Canada and around the world.

“Organizations like Samidoun masquerade as charitable actors that claim to provide humanitarian support to those in need, yet in reality divert funds for much-needed assistance to support terrorist groups,” said Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith, in the U.S. press release.

In the U.S., the designation means that property owned by Samidoun or Barakat will need to be reported to the Office of Foreign Assets Control, a financial intelligence arm of the U.S. Treasury Department. Any banks or individuals carrying out transactions with those sanctioned could themselves be at risk of sanctions or criminal enforcement, the U.S. news release says.

In Canada, the Criminal Code prohibits providing financial services, money or property to a designated terrorist group.

“In Canada, any bank accounts that Samidoun has, or that organizers have, are almost certainly being frozen, probably closed, reported to FINTRAC, our financial intelligence unit, and there’s probably a flurry of suspicious transaction reports and mandatory reporting going in on anyone associated with this organization,” Jessica Davis, a counterterrorism expert at Carleton University, said.

The Canadian government’s news release did not mention Barakat specifically or note any sanctions against him personally.

Samidoun is a registered not-for-profit in Canada. As of Tuesday morning, its registration page on the government of Canada website noted that it is now designated a terrorist organization.

In designating Samidoun as a terrorist entity, Canada is following in the footsteps of Israel, which did so in 2021. Germany has also banned Samidoun, and declared it a terrorist organization. Media reports Tuesday also said the Dutch parliament had voted to designate Samidoun a terrorist organization. 

Prior to Tuesday’s announcement, the Vancouver Police Department launched a hate-speech investigation into Kates, one of its directors in Canada, who praised the Hamas and Islamic Jihad attackers during a speech at a rally last spring.

“We stand with the Palestinian resistance and their heroic brave action on October 7,” Kates said at the time.

She has yet to be charged.

Davis said it’s likely that the designation will make it challenging for Samidoun’s leadership to travel internationally and they’re likely to have financial transactions scrutinized and bank accounts frozen.

“This process has not been tested in Canadian courts,” Davis said. “A lot of the reason for that is because we are designating, for the most part, foreign entities. This is one of the only cases where I’ve seen a direct Canadian tie and a direct Canadian leader … who will be directly affected by a terrorist listing.”

No charges have been announced against anyone involved in Samidoun.

“In the case of an organization like Samidoun, or really any listed terrorist entity, the question comes down to what the people are doing to support the organization,” Davis said. “Just being a member of an organization is not a criminal offence in Canada. However, as soon as you cross the line into conducting any kind of support or sort of advancement activities that are fairly concrete, then you come very close to facilitation (of a terrorist activity) and some of those activities.”

Over the past year, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) has lobbied to have Samidoun declared a terrorist organization and B’nai Brith Canada launched a petition to have Kates and Barakat deported. (Both have said they are Canadian citizens.)

Both groups celebrated the announcement Tuesday.

“Now, as a terror entity, it will not be able to operate with impunity in Canada,” CIJA said in a news release.

Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s director of research and advocacy, said, “This is a decisive blow against the forces of hate and extremism.”

Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative party leader, vowed last week to designate Samidoun as a terrorist group were he to become prime minister. In response, the Liberal government said it was “considering all options.”

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