{"id":127984,"date":"2025-08-08T03:05:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T03:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/127984\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T03:05:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T03:05:10","slug":"pro-palestinian-protesters-gather-outside-jolys-home-raising-security-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/127984\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-Palestinian protesters gather outside Joly\u2019s home, raising security concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Melanie Joly on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in May. Ms. Joly was foreign minister until this spring, making her a central figure in the government\u2019s response to the Israel-Hamas war.Adrian Wyld\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

A pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the home of Industry Minister M\u00e9lanie Joly has sparked calls for the government to consider <\/b>security measures to protect politicians from protests at their residences. <\/p>\n

A group of up to 60 protesters chanted slogans, rang bells, banged pots and projected messages onto Ms. Joly\u2019s house in Montreal on Wednesday evening, in an escalation of protest activity over the situation in Gaza. <\/p>\n

Ms. Joly was foreign minister until this spring, making her a central figure in the government\u2019s response to the Israel-Hamas war.<\/p>\n

The demonstration came a week after the current Foreign Minister, Anita Anand, closed her constituency office owing to protests there. <\/p>\n

Opinion: Netanyahu will win the war in Gaza, but he\u2019s lost it in London, Ottawa and Washington<\/a><\/p>\n

Ms. Joly\u2019s office would not comment on the protest. The RCMP would not say whether they are offering the minister extra protection after the demonstration. <\/p>\n

Manuel Couture, a spokesperson for Montreal\u2019s municipal police force, said officers attended the protest after receiving 911 calls, but no arrests were made or tickets issued. The protest was peaceful, with no reports of injuries or instances of mischief, he said.<\/p>\n

Current and former MPs reacted to the protest by calling for increased protection for politicians.<\/p>\n

Liberal MP Anthony Housefather told The Globe and Mail he thought targeting people\u2019s private dwellings was inappropriate, and said the Public Safety and Justice ministers should look at whether more security measures are needed to deal with such protests. <\/p>\n

Former Liberal MP Pam Damoff, who did not run in the last election after facing harassment and receiving death threats, said in an interview she thought a forthcoming bill introducing buffer zones between protesters and some sites, including community centres, should include politicians\u2019 homes. <\/p>\n

That bill is being prepared by Justice Minister Sean Fraser. It would make it a criminal offence to intentionally obstruct access to any place of worship, religious school or cultural centre, and to intimidate or threaten those attending those locations. The legislation is expected to be introduced later this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times MPs are not at home. The MP will be in Ottawa or travelling, and the people who are at home are the spouse and families who are subjected to this kind of thing. It\u2019s really scary,\u201d Ms. Damoff said. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Current Foreign Minister Anita Anand in the Netherlands in June. Ms. Anand closed her constituency office owing to protests there.Sean Kilpatrick\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

MPs currently carry panic buttons linked to local police forces. The RCMP said in a statement that it is \u201cmandated to protect Ministers of the Crown and those designated by the Minister of Public Safety to receive protection on a case-by-case basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProtective measures are intelligence-led and based on the latest risk and threat assessments, ongoing security considerations and a number of other factors,\u201d it said, adding that it does not confirm whether people are receiving police protection. <\/p>\n

Yves Engler, a prominent pro-Palestinian activist who was at the demonstration outside Ms. Joly\u2019s house, said it took place in part because other protests over the situation in Gaza had not received the attention they deserved. <\/p>\n

Mr. Engler, a campaigner and author who has announced his intention to run for the leadership of the NDP, <\/b>denied that the protest, estimated to have been attended by between 40 and 60 people, amounted to harassment at Ms. Joly\u2019s home address. <\/p>\n

He said he had demonstrated outside both her riding and campaign offices multiple times, adding that protesting outside a politician\u2019s home is his least favourite option.<\/p>\n

But he said the decision to target her home had a public-relations element to it, to draw attention to the situation in Gaza. He said there is a history of protest outside politicians\u2019 home addresses, in both Canada and the United States, and Ms. Joly\u2019s home had been the target of protests before. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe tactics escalated here are literally just people rallying on a public street with police all around, with children there,\u201d he said, adding <\/b>that they posed no danger to anyone. <\/p>\n

Mr. Engler has previously posted videos to social media that show him asking questions of politicians in public about their response to the war in Gaza and sometimes following them to their cars and opening their car doors. <\/p>\n

He was charged in February with engaging in harassment against a social media personality, but the charges were dropped last month. However, charges alleging he harassed a Montreal police investigator working on the case still stand, with a trial scheduled for November.<\/p>\n

Emma Khalil, an organizer of the pro-Palestinian protest outside Ms. Joly\u2019s house, said it was peaceful, with some banging pots and ringing bells, while a projected image on Ms. Joly\u2019s property called her a liar. Some carried homemade posters with slogans, and messages were chalked onto the sidewalk. <\/p>\n

She said protesters also left a printed book at her door with the names of children killed in Gaza. <\/p>\n

Ms. Khalil defended the protesters\u2019 decision to go to Ms. Joly\u2019s home and denied it was intrusive, saying they had previously gone to Liberal rallies and events to try to speak to her, as well as to her office, where they were \u201clocked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have written all the MPs. We\u2019ve gone to all the Liberal rallies that happened in Montreal. We had petitions. We called their offices. We very respectfully asked to be seen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said the protesters called on Ms. Joly to resign. <\/p>\n

The protesters allege that Canada sent arms to Israel after assurances in 2023 by Ms. Joly, when she was foreign minister, that there would be no more exports of weapons to Israel. <\/p>\n

They referenced a report published at the end of July that alleges that arms, ammunition and military components were shipped to Israel in 2024 and 2025. <\/p>\n

Ms. Anand issued a statement saying that no bullets or mortars have been shipped to Israel and that Canada continues to deny export permits for materials that could be used in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Her spokesman James Fitz-Morris said the report cited by protesters is \u201cdeeply flawed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antoine Laurier, who was also at the protest outside Ms. <\/b>Joly\u2019s house, said he expected such demonstrations to continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Melanie Joly on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in May. Ms. Joly was foreign…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":127985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2147,50,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-127984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114990935340298370","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}