Samidoun, group behind ‘death to Canada’ chant, listed as terrorist entity

Canada has listed Samidoun, a pro-Palestinian group behind a rally where people chanted “death to Canada” and burned the Canadian flag in Vancouver earlier this month, as a terrorist entity.

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc made the announcement on Tuesday and noted that the listing was made alongside the U.S. Treasury Department’s own decision to list the group as a specially designated global terrorist entity.

“Violent extremism, acts of terrorism or terrorist financing have no place in Canadian society or abroad,” LeBlanc said in a statement.

“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.”

Samidoun has been previously listed as a terrorist entity by Germany and the Netherlands and, in a release, Public Safety Canada, said the group has “close links with and advances the interests of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

That group is also listed as a terrorist entity by Canada, the U.S. and European Union.

The U.S. Treasury Department designated Samidoun as “a sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization,” and laid terrorism-related sanctions against both Samidoun and its leader Khaled Barakat, who holds Canadian citizenship.

The department said its actions were taken in coordination with the Canadian terrorist entity listing.

“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,” Bradley T. Smith, acting under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.

The U.S. statement said Samidoun and Barakat “play critical roles in external fundraising for the PFLP.”

Public Safety Canada (PSC) lists Samidoun as an international network of organizers and activists that “claims to be campaigning for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.”

According to PSC, the organization first emerged in 2011 and has at least 20 chapters in 12 countries, including Canada and the United States.

It also has a chapter in Iran, which has designated as a state supporter of terrorism.

The department says many of the prisoners Samidoun is advocating for release have ties to terrorism, assassinations and countless attacks against Israel.

“Samidoun’s ideology revolves exclusively around the worldview that Israel and Zionism are the greatest danger to the Middle East and the world,” the listing notes. “Their main goals are the destruction of Israel and establishing a Palestinian state in its place.”

The leadership of Samidoun is reportedly composed of current and former members of the PFLP, Public Safety Canada says.

Being a listed terrorist entity carries severe consequences. It is illegal to contribute to any activity of a listed group, and its property can be seized and forfeited.

The listing comes just over a week after MPs in the House of Commons condemned the group, whose supporters chanted “death to Canada, death to the United States and death to Israel” and burned the Canadian flag at a rally in Vancouver.

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The masked speaker at that rally who uttered the chant over a microphone also told the crowd “we are Hezbollah and we are Hamas.”

Both Hamas and Hezbollah are listed as terrorist entities.

The Conservatives during question period last Tuesday called on the federal government to list Samidoun as a terrorist organization.

“Samidoun has been fomenting these violent and horrific protests and mob actions, this organization is a front for an already banned terrorist group,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said last week.

Vancouver Police say they are also conducting an investigation into the pro-Palestinian rally in which the chant and flag burning took place, where law enforcement say speakers expressed “solidarity with terrorist groups.”

The police force has previously investigated Samidoun, having arrested its director — and Barakat’s wife — Charlotte Kates last year in a hate-crime investigation. She was released from custody on an undertaking, but the hearing which she was to appear at was cancelled, and her court-ordered conditions along with it.

B.C. NDP leader David Eby, who is running for premier in Saturday’s provincial election and previously condemned the chants made at the Vancouver rally, said in a statement Tuesday that he agreed with the federal designation.

He went on to say there has been a “disturbing rise” in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel which killed 1,200 people.

“There is no place in British Columbia for groups inciting and glorifying violence,” Eby said.

— With files from Global News’ Sean Boynton, Simon Little and Rumina Daya, and The Canadian Press