Charges dropped against pro-Palestinian activists accused of criminally harassing Marc Miller
Samar Alkhdour, one of the protesters charged, said 'justice prevailed'
Prosecutors have dropped criminal harassment and mischief charges that were levelled against three pro-Palestinian activists who protested outside the offices of federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller.
Barbara Bedont, a lawyer with Defend the Movement Quebec, a legal clinic that defends protesters, said Friday that the Crown withdrew the charges once presented with video evidence.
"Because of that evidence the prosecutor realized they were falsely charged," she said.
Bedont said Miller, who was present the day the accusations were levelled against the protesters, should apologize "at the least" and meet with the protesters, who had been staging a sit-in outside his office for months.
Samar Alkhdour, the woman who led that sit-in, says her 13-year-old daughter, Jana Elkahlout, died in Gaza in January 2024. She says the federal government was slow to approve Jana's permit to come to Canada.
A spokesperson for Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada said the government approved Jana's assisted departure from Gaza in December 2023, but conditions made it impossible to get her out.
Alkhdour had staged a daily protest outside Miller's office to condemn Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza and criticize what she described as Canada's inaction in the face of a growing death toll.
Alkhdour said she was happy the charges against her were dropped.
"The whole case was based on false accusations but I'm glad that justice prevailed in the end," she said.
She said she would continue her sit-in protest.
A spokesperson for Miller's office said the minister would issue no comment on the court proceedings, but said the sit-in protests have taken a "physical and mental toll" on the minister's staff.
The minister's Montreal riding office, where the protests took place, will remain closed, the spokesperson said, until the safety of staff there "can be fully secured."
Written by Matthew Lapierre with files from Kwabena Oduro