Protest at Jewish campus sparks call for legislation

WINNIPEG — Federal Liberal MP Ben Carr has called for bubble-zone legislation to ban protests outside “religiously associated facilities,” after a demonstration outside the Asper Jewish Community Campus in Winnipeg on Tuesday.

A pro-Palestinian group held a protest while the campus hosted an event featuring two Israel Defence Forces soldiers who were involved in the offensive in Gaza, launched after Hamas’ cross-border attack in October 2023. A pro-Israel group held a counter-demonstration.

In social media posts, Carr described the protest as “completely unacceptable,” noting the Tuxedo campus has a school, daycare, community centre and Holocaust memorial.

“I am fully supportive, always, of the right for people to protest peacefully around any issue of importance to them in Canada,” Carr, who is Jewish, told the Winnipeg Free Press. “I do not support the ability for protests to gather within close proximity of religiously associated facilities, whether they be Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Christian or any other.

“I do not believe that protests should be able to occur outside of a synagogue, a mosque, a Jewish school, a Jewish daycare, a Muslim school, a Muslim daycare.”

This type of legislation does not seek to protect one group over another, said the MP for Winnipeg South Centre, who didn’t attend the event.

Carr’s social media posts called on protesters to “leave identifiable Jewish spaces alone,” claiming protests at those locations fuel hate and intimidation, and stoke division.

Ramsey Zeid, president of the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba and one of the demonstration’s organizers, said the protest was directed at the soldiers, not the campus.

“We were there rallying (against) two IDF soldiers that were given a platform to glorify the killing of innocent Palestinian women and children in Gaza last year,” Zeid said. “I would be 100 per cent for that legislation, but I think that legislation needs to go further. It needs to prevent the organization from providing a venue for glorifying violence.

“If they had had this event anywhere, we would have protested it. They chose to have it there.”

“Bringing two IDF soldiers to Winnipeg” fuels hate and intimidation, he said in response to Carr’s claim.

Zeid, in a comment published on an Instagram post by Carr, noted the candidate’s social media posts did not state that the demonstration was in response to an event with IDF soldiers.

“Please be a MP for all Manitobans and not just the zionist (sic),” Zeid wrote.

Winnipeg police monitored the counter-demonstrations. The campus is in the Winnipeg West riding, close to its boundary with Winnipeg South Centre.

The event that featured the soldiers was part of “Triggered, The Tour: From Combat to Campus.” It was hosted by Students Supporting Israel members who attend the University of Manitoba.

The students met with the university and, in the end, decided to hold the event at a different venue, a U of M spokesperson said.

It was not a religious event, but a political one, said Jorge Requena Ramos, the NDP’s candidate in Winnipeg South Centre for the April 28 federal election.

“I support the idea of bubble legislation for religious protections, but I do not support the idea of bubble legislation for political events,” Requena Ramos said.

He said he wants the campus and attendees to be protected, but protesting a political event should be within Canadians’ freedom of speech.

Carr suggested protests such as the one held Tuesday should take place outside venues such as city hall, the legislature or Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

“This is about simply redirecting the space away from vulnerable religious minorities, whatever religion they may be affiliated with, to spaces that are neutral and symbols of our democracy … which I would argue is the more appropriate and suitable place to express one’s views, which leaves innocent religious minorities out of the equation,” he said.

The Jewish Federation of Winnipeg has called on all levels of government to implement bubble or safety zone legislation to protect “vulnerable” communities and places of worship from intimidation and hate.

“We’re certainly in favour of it and being able to protect people who, for religious or other reasons, should be able to feel comfortable in their own settings,” said Jeff Lieberman, the organization’s CEO. “We don’t feel there should be protests at a place like our community hub, our schools and our synagogues.”

Bubble zones were discussed in some recent committee meetings in the House of Commons.

Carr believes bubble legislation to protect identifiable minority groups can be modelled on laws which ban protests outside abortion clinics. A new provincial law created a buffer zone of at least 50 metres outside abortion clinics.

Several Ontario cities have recently passed or launched studies of bubble zone bylaws amid protests related to the Israel-Hamas war.

A bylaw in Vaughan, Ont., bans demonstrations within 100 metres of “any vulnerable social infrastructure,” including places of worship, schools, child-care facilities, care homes and hospitals. The maximum fine for violating the bylaw is $100,000.

Bubble-zone legislation and bylaws raise serious Charter concerns, said Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s fundamental freedoms program.

The zones infringe on freedom of expression and lawful, peaceful protests, the association has said.

“When you’re talking about using bubble-zone legislation to limit protests near various types of community gathering spaces, you’re pretty much talking about creating a right not to be offended in certain parts of our civic space, which is problematic,” Bussières McNicoll said.

Police have the necessary power to intervene at protests, she noted.

Rev. James Christie, a United Church minister and professor emeritus of theology at the University of Winnipeg, supports bubble legislation for locations such as places of worship, schools and hospitals.

“I think there are certain places in society, we can all agree, simply shouldn’t be subject to the discord and disharmony of protest when people are, in one way or another, reasonably understood to have a degree of vulnerability,” he said. “It would need to be applied in very specific circumstances and locations, and strictly monitored.”

» Winnipeg Free Press