by Daniel McClelland
This is a response to Lawrence Pinsky’s opinion piece in the Winnipeg Sun, titled ‘Hamas is coming for you’ shouted at Winnipeg pavilion‘ dated August 19th, 2025
As a member of Peace Alliance Winnipeg, I feel it is my duty to make clear certain misconceptions perpetuated in this opinion piece.
Everything about these protests and vigils, were in the spirit of Peace.
Demonstrations have been going on outside the Israeli Pavilion since 2014. Organizers have always stated that their protests would be peaceful and have remained that way. No one has ever attempted to block the entrance to the Asper Jewish Community Centre, the road or enter the event to disrupt the entertainment or dinner.
Our joint effort of peace groups, faith groups and Palestine solidarity activists which were there for three days, decided to focus on the theme of: “Israel is starving Gaza”. Signs were made and leaflets were made and handed out. At the last demonstration, on August 16th, a moment of silence was held for the six journalists that were killed in their tent by an Israeli drone on August 10th. This, along with poetry reading, song being sung and a prayer recited by Jewish members of an interfaith group at the conclusion of one of the Pavilions performances, constitutes the bulk of that night’s activities. It was indeed followed up by audio recordings of Israeli drones being dropped on Gaza as Mr. Pinsky alludes to in his article but I will return to that shortly.
Contrary to what the author of that piece might have you believe; that we are all ‘an unruly mob openly celebrating Hamas’, it is no where near the truth. I challenge the author to find a photo, from the nights in question, of a sign praising or celebrating Hamas.
If we are on the subject of photos, let’s talk about the only photo he (or the Winnipeg Sun) can find to fit their narrative that they are attempting to create. It is a photo, from April of this year, at an event at the same location, the Jewish Community Centre, which depicts an unidentifiable protester, holding a sign with a well-known expletive repeated three times. (On a side note, the editor attempted to cover this word up and the attempt was less than stellar). The event in April that this protester was at was tastelessly called “Triggered: The Tour. From Combat to Campus”. At an event where two IDF soldiers were invited the campus, to give a retelling, I imagine, of ‘brave stories’ fighting off the Hamas ‘terrorists’. This event was controversial in that the UN, Amnesty International and International Criminal Court have all claimed that the State of Israel and the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) have committed war crimes and atrocities, up to and including:
- Bombing Hospitals
- Shooting Civilians
- Using starvation as a weapon of war
The third one, starvation as a weapon of war, would fall under the UN’s third definition of ‘genocides’ which states: “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part” At the time, this event was rightly protested by several groups in Winnipeg, including Peace Alliance Winnipeg.
Again, I ask the author to produce a photo from the event with signs about Hamas. The last time I had checked, the expletive in that photo was protected under Section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
As for any unruliness or ‘vile sexual slurs aimed at women and girls’ on the part of our protest, several people, all of whom who wish to remain anonymous say there were no fights, that a few protesters called them (supporters of Israel) names in Hebrew but these were not sexualized or aimed at women’.
The author used an alleged quote of ‘Hamas is coming for you’, spoken, allegedly, by a member of the pro-Palestinian side. Since there is no direct evidence of this, I challenge the author to produce it. As Mr. Pinsky has stated in his piece, saying such things are ‘a breach of Canadian law, a violation of the basic right to safety’. He then goes on to define the Criminal Code on harassment, which is: ‘conduct that causes someone to reasonably fear for their safety or the safety of others. This includes repeated communication, threats, and provocative behaviour meant to intimidate or cause distress.’
Again, I asked Mr. Pinsky to supply this evidence, if it indeed exists.
If we are going on the metric used by the August 19th opinion piece then it was also alleged by someone on the Palestinian side that a member of the pro-Israel community shouted from across the street to ‘turn Gaza into a parking lot’, a clearly genocidal slogan which police did nothing about.
Also, on Saturday, August 16th, I witnessed several pro-Israel supporters on our side of the street. I thought this odd, considering the clearly defined lines by the police. As it turns out, two or three people took it upon themselves to stand on the Palestinian side of the street, very close to us as some form of intimidation. The police told them to return to their side; they refused. They eventually complied but several remained on the opposite side of the entrance to the parking lot. One might call this behaviour ‘unruly’.
Lastly, I will address what Mr. Pinsky equated us to and the ‘loud sounds’ we were playing: “The Hamas supporters – and no matter how they try to conceal their true identity, that is what most (though not all) of them are — played sounds of gunshots, screaming, and other offensive noises at loud volumes well into the evening…”.
Equating every single person there as ‘Hamas supporters’ is unequivocally false, degrading and means to paint anyone who opposes Israel’s continued genocide with the same brush. As for the ‘offensive’ sounds, yes, there were sounds played. These were recordings of drone sounds, drones that drop bombs on Palestinian civilians. This was done, according to one of the organizers, to have everyone hear the sound of what quite possibly be the last sound a person hears before they die.
Mr. Pinsky also commented on the noise by-law: “Besides breaching several sections of the Criminal Code, their loud music and disruptive behaviour likely violated the municipal noise bylaw.” I won’t theorize as to why Mr. Pinsky thought these sounds consisted a violation of the noise bylaw because the bylaw states that loud sounds of this nature, in this case, sounds/music from a speaker, must cease at 9pm. This happened promptly at 9pm, in front of the Winnipeg Police, to make sure it was followed.
Pinsky: “Some members of the police have privately expressed frustration that they lack support to charge offenders…” With all due respect to the Winnipeg Police Service, who were excellent in their duties to separate both sides and remained in good communication between the police liaison and the organizers, I would imagine that some members – not all – are itching to enforce the tiniest of infractions to shut down our protests at the Israeli Pavilion during that week. Later on, a Palestinian supporter I interviewed, after reading Mr. Pinsky’s article said: “They don’t like hearing the sounds of their own war crimes, I guess.”
One cannot help but notice the tension at these face-to-face events. Tensions, along with hard feelings and emotions are thick these days. Anger, not action, can be justified at these peaceful demonstrations, especially if people have lost loved ones personally or if children are being starved and bombed. People have a right to express that anger, peacefully. Alleged hand gestures and insults aside, these three days went off with very little physical action and interaction with the counter-protesters. Mr. Pinsky’s article is full of actions that are exaggerated for the sake of sensationalism; to give the reader the sense that we, the anti-genocide protesters, are a bunch of rabid, unruly, lewd, unreasonable bunch of people. Perhaps Mr. Pinsky can take that low powered lens, update it and point it across the road, to the supporters of genocide.
Lastly, Mr. Pinsky pointed out that we ‘had no Canadian flags in sight.’ This is true. I don’t remember seeing any. My best guess as to why there weren’t any is because our side sees no pride in our government and our country in their inability to sanction Israel, sever diplomatic relations or to tell us the truth on what weapons they are currently sending Israel.
Canada was founded on stolen land and the genocide of indigenous people, just like Israel. They are two peas in a pod. We see it otherwise.
Daniel McClelland is a writer. He is a member of Peace Alliance Winnipeg & Manitoba-Cuba Solidarity Committee.
2 comments for “Blatant misinformation from Winnipeg lawyer about protests at Israeli Pavilion”