Mississauga vigil honouring Hamas leader cancelled by organizers

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The organizers of a Mississauga vigil honouring slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar have announced the planned commemoration has been cancelled.

The controversy surrounding the planned vigil has roiled the city west of Toronto since Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish decided earlier this month not to prevent the event from taking place on city property. It had been organized by a group called Canadian Defenders 4 Human Rights (CD4HR).

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“CD4HR has decided to cancel the November 26 Vigil for the Great Martyr Yahya Sinwar, our Mandela, due to several reasons — primarily the security and safety of our city Mississauga and secondly, the urgent food security issue declared 3 days ago that CD4HR members will be volunteering with to eradicate,” the group wrote in a public statement posted to X on Saturday.

“CD4HR has consulted the city of Mississauga and we have been assured that we can practice our Charter of Rights and Freedoms and we’ll keep you posted on the next event.”  

The group did not respond to National Post’s request for comment on whether they plan to run any future vigils or organize other public demonstrations supporting Hamas.

Before the group cancelled the event, the city of Mississauga had no plan to stop it.

“The City will not interfere with a peaceful vigil, as long as all laws and City by-laws are adhered to,” Parrish wrote on Nov. 9, adding that permits are not required for events that use public city property.

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Following pushback from the local Jewish community, Parrish published a statement on Nov. 11, describing conversations she had with “a network of Muslim organizations” who said: “No organization exists. No vigil is planned.”

However, CD4HR directly disputed that in a video address released by the group’s leader Firas Al-Najim, which was filmed outside a Royal Canadian Legion branch in Mississauga. In the video, he holds a printout of the event flyer, which caused controversy because it featured poppies and the phrase “Lest we forget,” which are both associated with Remembrance Day. In the video, he calls Sinwar a “great man,” and defends the event.

Al-Najim is a controversial Canadian activist known for publicly supporting the October 7 attacks perpetrated by Hamas. In August, the Middle East Research Institute (MEMRI), a watchdog group which highlights antisemitism throughout Muslim communities, unearthed a video of Al-Najim, in which he said that the roots of the ongoing conflict resulted from “deviant Jews” trying “to kill (the) Prophet Muhammad.”

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Last week, during a city council meeting, Parrish compared Sinwar — widely viewed as the architect of the October 7 atrocities — to South African anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela.

“I just want to point out — and I’m not being facetious — Nelson Mandela was declared a terrorist by the United States of America until the year 2008. Your terrorist and somebody else’s terrorist may be two different things,” the mayor said last Wednesday.

The statement paralleling Mandela’s activism to Sinwar — the former leader of a group committed to Israel’s destruction — were widely condemned by leading Jewish voices across the country.

Parrish’s comments came during a tense meeting in which several local counsellors criticized the mayor for not handling the situation better. “Don’t tell me we can’t say to a group, ‘You can’t use Celebration Square’ because of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I’m sorry. I don’t buy it,” council member Brad Butt said in an impassioned speech. He said he “was not impressed with the city’s response.”

Media representatives from the mayor’s office have acknowledged receipt of several requests from for comment but have not responded to questions from the Post.

Vigil organizers CD4HR have offered support to Parrish throughout the ordeal in a series of complementary social media posts defending her stance on the event. “Sinwar is our Mandela,” the group wrote on X the day after her comments comparing the two figures.

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