Temporary injunction granted to keep pro-Palestinian demonstrators away from Jewish community buildings in Montreal

Pro-Palestinian protesters will need to keep their distance from certain Jewish community buildings in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce after a temporary injunction was granted.

This comes after back-to-back protests in front of some of the community buildings on Monday and Tuesday.

Demonstrators will need to stay at least 50 metres away from the Federation CJA and the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue, which demanded the injunction. It also applies to the Cummings Jewish Centre, the Sylvan Adams YM-YWHA and the nearby high school and elementary school, Herzliah and Talmud Torah.

Federation CJA president and CEO Yair Szlak says the temporary injunction was a direct response to those protests.

“When protesters stand in front of the doors of a Jewish community centre, which by the way serves as a Holocaust centre, as a library, as a place where seniors and Holocaust survivors come for services, support the vulnerable, where kids come here to get educated, and they barricade the doors, not allowing people to enter or exit the building – and police did not have the ability to move them away – we felt very strongly that we needed to provide the police the legal enforcement to make sure that they would allow the freedom of access,” Szlak said.

The injunction granted will be in place for 10 days and was served to several groups: Independent Jewish Voices, Montreal4Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement Montreal, Alliance4Palestine, and an individual.

Sarah Boivin, a member of Independent Jewish Voices’ Montreal chapter, one of the groups named as a defendant for the injunction, said they are disappointed.

“Upset to see Federation CJA claim to represent Jewish Montreal, deciding to go for the injunction against a group of Jewish Montrealers, sending a message that we’re very clearly not welcome in spaces,” she said.

On Monday night, some attendees were blocked from entering an event at the Federation CJA building — a speaking tour of three Israel Defence Forces (IDF) reservists on the “fight against the delegitimization of Israel.” Others remained stuck inside the building after the event was over.

It was organized by Startup Nation, DiploAct and Hillel Concordia, per a promotional poster.

“I was stuck in this building for over four hours due to the protests,” Szlak said. “And so were about 100 people, and that is a concern of ours. So to ensure that we have free access to our buildings. Again, protests — whether correct or incorrect — are part of the democratic discourse.

“Canceling a building by not allowing entrance or exit is not part of the democratic discourse, and that’s what we’re trying to challenge here.”

Then on Tuesday, there was another protest outside the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, as pro-Palestinian supporters condemned a real estate presentation for Canadians to buy land in Israel and in the West Bank.

Both sides were standing off until about 8:30 p.m. and Montreal police say there were no major incidents. One person, a 23-year-old man, was arrested for uttering threats.

Boivin said protesting was not the first resort. “There was a lot of movement just to simply get the event cancelled, to say that these are these are not acceptable events to be happening,” she said.

“There were two specific events that were being hosted back-to-back in the same neighbourhood, so it has nothing to do with protesting these spaces as Jewish spaces really, it’s about the specific events.”

“We do this out of love for our Jewish traditions in terms of being justice-oriented and standing in solidarity with other communities and we do this out of love for the Jewish community and Montreal,” Boivin added.

“In our best interest, we would have peaceful demonstrations,” Szlak said. “We haven’t seen that. People who tried to get into the building on Monday night were intimidated, were shoved, were yelled at, were harassed. That’s not something we’re looking for in Montreal, not in front of a Jewish building, not in front of a synagogue, any house of worship, by the way.

“I don’t think that’s a society we’re looking to have in Montreal, the culture we’re looking to have in Montreal, and we need to make sure that those things don’t happen on our doorstep.”

The ban appears to prohibit anyone, regardless of their affiliation, from protesting. The injunction authorizes plaintiffs to call on police to enforce the order. 

CityNews reached out to, but did not immediately hear back from, Montreal4Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement Montreal and Alliance4Palestine.