A Montreal-based human rights centre has submitted to the government a list of 60 individuals and entities linked to the Oct. 7 attacks
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OTTAWA – Relatives of Canadians killed in Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks are calling on the RCMP to open an investigation into Hamas’s murder of Canadian citizens.
The move, organized by the Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR), also calls on Canada to sanction those who facilitated the deadly terror attack that killed over 1,200 people in Israel.
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“The murder and maiming of over 1,200 people, the taking of over 250 hostages — 134 of which remain in captivity and continue to suffer as we speak: make no mistake, that’s motivated by antisemitism,” said Brandon Silver, a human rights lawyer and the centre’s policy director, during a Wednesday morning press conference.
“Not because I say so, but because the perpetrators say so.”
Hamas’s charter, he said, specifically calls for the destruction of Israel and the murder Jews — wherever they may be found.
“Including here in Canada,” he added.
“They’ve repeated it, and said they’ll continue Oct. 7 over and over again until they carry out our genocidal mission — that is the message of Hamas, and what their goals are.”
Silver said the centre has submitted to the government a list of 60 individuals and entities linked to the Oct. 7 attacks, calling for sanctions.
“We are calling on the Canadian government to take action, to list the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, and to impose Magnitsky sanctions against the leaders of Hamas, of PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad,) and of the various businesses and organizations that funnel them money,” he said.
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Jacqui Rivers Vital, a Canadian who lives in Jerusalem, told reporters she was visiting family in her hometown of Ottawa when the Oct. 7 attacks happened.
Her daughter, Adi Vital-Kaploun, was murdered by Hamas in her home, an act witnessed by her three-year-old and six-month-old children.
The terrorists also booby-trapped Adi’s body, ensuring rescuers would also be killed.
Hamas took the children, along with a woman dragged screaming out of her home, towards Gaza, but reportedly left them at the border.
Galit Lapidot was the aunt of Tiferet Lapidot, a 23-year-old daughter of Canadian parents, who was kidnapped by Hamas from the Supernova music festival.
Her body was found a little over a week later.
“I was there when she was born,” Lapidot said at the press conference, holding up a photo of Tiferet.
“She was my sunshine, I loved her like a daughter.”
As Hamas thugs murdered, shot and raped the young festival-goers, Tiferet made one last phone call to her mother.
“Tiferet asked, ‘what shall I do? I’m running and hiding behind the bushes,” Lapidot recalled.
“‘Do I go to the people behind the bar, with them? Or continue to hide?’”
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She said it’s impossible to imagine the horror her sister went through, with Tiferet pleading for help over the phone as gunfire cracked in the background.
That was the last they heard from her for nine days, when her body was found.
Iris Weinstein’s mother, 70-year-old Judih Weinstein, was out for a morning walk with her husband on Oct. 7 when they were taken hostage by Hamas.
They were confirmed dead in late December.
Despite an unusual number of alerts that morning, Weinstein told reporters she and others thought little of them, as Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza were common.
“They said there were hundreds of rockets over their heads,” she said.
Reports from others in the kibbutz reported Hamas terrorists dressed in Israel Defense Forces uniforms, followed by reports of terrorists going on a door-to-door killing spree, shooting civilians and children in their homes and lighting them on fire.
“Massacring my hometown,” she said.
“Almost 50 per cent, if not more, of the houses are completely burnt.”
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Canada’s adoption of a watered-down NDP motion that, at one point, called on Canada to recognize Palestinian statehood, sparked anger among Canada’s Jewish community and around the world.
Canadian-born Sharren Haskel, an Israeli politician and Knesset member, told the National Post she reacted to the motion’s passage with concern.
“You have failed to support Israel at a time of deep trauma, war, and need,” she said, addressing her comments at the Canadian government.
“Your response — as articulated in a motion passed, resoundingly, in Canada’s Parliament yesterday, undermines the legitimacy of Israel’s inherent right to defend itself against brutal assaults by Hamas, an Islamist death cult which Canada lists as a terrorist organization.”
Combined with Canada’s decision to resume its funding of UNRWA, despite evidence its employees took part in the Oct. 7 attacks, Haskell said Canada’s stark shift in its Israel policy is alarming.
“Justin Trudeau’s government has brought our nation’s relations to perhaps the lowest point, ever,” she said.
National Post
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