Grieving Palestinian mom charged for protesting Canada's immigration system

For the last six months, Samar Alkhdour has been working tirelessly to get Canada to honour a national plan granting Palestinian refugees limited asylum in the country. The temporary resident visa (TRV) program was rolled out in January, and expanded in May to include 5,000 Palestinian relatives of Canadian citizens.

However the program has floundered because of the Canadian government’s inability to help applicants actually leave Gaza, due to Israel's sealing off of all border crossings.

Critics including Alkhdour say Canada has been slow-rolling visa applications from people in Gaza for years. She has been petitioning the government to grant her 13-year-old daughter Jana Elkahlout a visa since moving to Quebec in 2019.

​​Jana was born with cerebral palsy and was forced to stay in Gaza because of security and health complications associated with transporting her out of the territory at the time.

Global Affairs Canada finally approved Jana's visa in January - two weeks after she had passed away due to malnutrition at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City.

With little improvements to the TRV program since it was unveiled, Alkhdour has turned to direct action to pressure her government to do more. She now faces criminal charges brought forth by Canadian officials, after being detained overnight for more than 24 hours.

Arrested for protesting

Alkhdour has become an iconic face of the pro-Palestine movement in Montreal, educating Canadians about the brutal reality that people in Gaza are facing during Israel's war. Her story is also representative of how often activists in the West come up against silencing tactics when they critique Israel.

As the visa application process dragged on for her other family members with few updates, Alkhdour began hosting daily sit-ins outside of Immigration Minister Marc Miller's office in late March in southwest Montreal. This soon turned into a wider movement, as protesters began sit-ins outside the offices of other politicians supporting pro-Israel policies.

In September, Alkhdour was attending a protest outside the office of Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) Laura Palestini when she saw Miller. She approached him and began filming, yelling "Marc Miller child killer" and he "killed my daughter Jana."

Two of Miller's assistants filed a complaint with the Montreal police following the incident, resulting in her arrest as well as two other activists involved in the sit-in. Alkhdour is now potentially facing criminal charges of harassment and mischief, which can result in a maximum of two years in prison or a $5,000 fine.

"When there's an incident, police will take statements from people, including the alleged victim, then they will decide whether or not to put together a (case) they will then send to a prosecutor," said lawyer Barbara Bedont, who is representing all three activists, including Alkhdour. "Then it's the decision of the prosecutor to start the case."

Bedont said it's concerning that Miller's assistants filed the complaint and not the minister himself. "He did not step up and take responsibility for this case," she told TRT World.

Bedont, who runs a pro-bono clinic Defend the Movement, which offers legal support to protesters, added that there has been an intensification of police cracking down on pro-Palestine protesters in recent months.

"The police have been charging demonstrators with different things … then they've been imposing these conditions that prevent the demonstrators from returning to the sit-in. This is using the legal process to effectively criminalise freedom of expression."

Surveillance concerns

"They're just like the Israeli military," Alkhdour said in a conversation with TRT World in July during a pro-Palestine rally in downtown Montreal. Pointing at a police officer, she said "they're filming us," as an officer in a squad car held up his phone and appeared to film Alkhdour for nearly 10 minutes.

The activist said she and many others involved in the sit-ins have been under watch by law enforcement almost on a daily basis.

"I know on social media I'm being surveilled," Alkhdour said, explaining that after she announces the location of the sit-in on the morning of the protest, police arrive at the location before she or activists do.

Intimidation tactics are also common. Alkhdour recounted an experience in which an employee at Miller's office approached a fellow activist.

"They were by themselves and they said one of the employees … mentioned their name and said, 'We know who you are,'" Alkhdour said. "It's him as a minister who is responsible for this type of behaviour."

Other Palestinian solidarity activists have faced similar treatment.

Universities across Canada hired private security guards or utilised campus security to surveil students involved in campus encampments this year.

But pro-Palestinian activists on university and college campuses across Canada and the United States have faced scrutiny, criticism and pushback for years, according to a 2022 report by Independent Jewish Voices (IJV). It added that websites such as B’nai Brith and Canary Mission also dox individuals and accuse their activism of being anti-Semitic.

Failing Gaza

On January 9, one day after Jana died, the Canadian government announced the TRV program for Palestinians in Gaza. But few made it to Canada, and Miller himself called this program a "failure" in March.

According to recent statistics shared with TRT World by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), only 212 people have arrived in Canada from Gaza while 539 people have exited Gaza and are waiting to come to Canada under the TRV program.

"With Israel's ongoing ground invasion on Rafah, it's increasingly difficult for individuals to cross the border to Egypt," said Haya Alsakka, who applied for her family members in Gaza on the day the TRV program opened.

"My dad's side of the family are still trapped in Gaza for the foreseeable future as the Rafah crossing is inaccessible," she told TRT World.

Both Alkhdour and her husband Mahmoud Elkahlout have been fighting for both sides of their family to leave Gaza and come to Canada. Elkahlout had the opportunity to meet Miller when he visited the Islamic Community Centre in March.

He said he told Miller that his wife was hosting a sit-in outside of his office. "His reaction, however, was extremely cold, showing no interest, as if our demands meant nothing to him," Elkahlout said.

Elkahlout told TRT World that he left his phone number and email address with Miller's office manager, as advised by Miller himself. But he added that he was never contacted.

A court has ordered Alkhdour to stay at least 50 metres away from the minister until her case is processed, but she said she will continue to protest, even if it takes months, until the genocide in Gaza ends.

As Israel’s bombardment of Gaza approaches the one-year mark, the Canadian government still maintains numerous ties to Israel, and activists are growing frustrated with their lack of response.

Alkhdour has been requesting a meeting with Miller since April of this year. "Seeing Marc Miller that day, I had to remind him of his negligence," she said. "He's not even refusing (to meet me), there’s no response."