A British Columbia legislative member filed a private prosecution for terrorism offenses last Wednesday against the Vancouver-based coordinator for an organization that serves as a branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group.
OneBC party interim leader and Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie filed the rare citizen-laid criminal charges to be screened by a judge, alleging that Samidoun (officially Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network) coordinator Charlotte Kates had facilitated and counseled the commission of terrorism offenses.
In her sworn written statement, Brodie alleged that Kates had facilitated and counseled terrorism by glorifying and defending terrorist entities at an April 6, 2024, Toronto rally and the April 26 Vancouver Art Gallery event in which she led the crowd in chants of “Long live October 7.” Kates had called at both rallies for the removal of PFLP, Hamas, and Hezbollah from Canada’s list of terrorist entities. The Samidoun leader was arrested for her remarks during the April 26 rally.
She allegedly participated in the activity of a terrorist group in February when she attended the funerals of Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hisham Safieddine in Beirut. Brodie said Kates had also urged followers to promote the deceased arch-terrorists’ cause, counseling the commission of terrorism offenses.
While Samidoun had been designated as a terrorist organization by Canada and the United States in October, Brodie said, Kates had continued to share Samidoun communications on social media, urging “to escalate our actions” and to “inflict pain on the enemy.”
On May 24 this year, Kates also allegedly praised the murder of Israeli embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim in Washington, and according to Brodie, instructed others to commit acts of terrorism by encouraging them to consider “how they can escalate meaningful consequences on the war criminals through organized mass action.”
Brodie also argued that Kates had called on social media for terrorist activity among followers by directing them to “answer the call from the resistance” and to act to create “criminal cost,” in a post lauding the activities of proscribed political vandalism group Palestine Action.
The MLA also sought to hold Kates responsible as Samidoun’s director, noting that the group had held an October 7 anniversary event in which crowds cheered “Death to Canada,” Israel, and the United States. Materials were allegedly distributed at the rally, explaining how to conduct attacks on infrastructure.
“I won’t have a terrorist attack on my conscience here in BC, here in Canada,” Brodie said at last Wednesday’s press conference. “The indicators are here that it is just a matter of time before it happens.”
Brodie attacked BC Attorney-General Niki Sharma for not immediately authorizing Kates’s prosecution.
Allegations of genocide denial
Sharma told the CBC that she would be following the process, which would fall under federal jurisdiction.
The Basil Al-Araj Prisoner Committee organized protests at Brodie’s press conference, decrying her as a far Right extremist who denied genocide against indigenous Canadians and supported a supposed genocide against Palestinians.
“This attempt to prosecute an advocate for Palestinian prisoners under the false guise of fighting terrorism is both comical and ironic, coming from a supporter of Israel’s ongoing violence and ethnic cleansing against Indigenous peoples here in Turtle Island,” said the Canada Palestine Association Vancouver sub-committee.
“We stand united against such cynical manipulations of [the] justice system and will continue to defend the right to organize against oppression in all its forms,” it added.
THE JEWISH Federation of Greater Vancouver responded to Brodie’s private prosecution by reiterating its calls for accountability for Kates’s April 26 rally.
“Individuals and organizations like Charlotte Kates and Samidoun have exacerbated” a “dramatic wave of antisemitism,” federation CEO Ezra Shanken said in a statement.
“Today’s development is a stark reminder of the urgent need for justice. Justice delayed is justice denied,” she concluded.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs also slammed the authorities for refusing to recommend charges against Kates, arguing that she was acting with impunity, including flying to Iran to receive a human rights award from the Islamic Regime.
“Our legal system must send a clear message: Antisemitism and hate have no place in British Columbia or anywhere else in Canada,” CIJA Pacific Region vice president Nico Slobinsky said in a joint statement with the Federation. “Charges must be pressed without delay.”