Meanwhile Toronto Metropolitan U hosts IDF soldiers who have served during the genocide in Gaza, and the IDF soldier that physically assaulted protesters has not been arrested.
@idlycurious.bsky.social:
@info.radio-canada.ca @rci.bsky.social @mark-carney.bsky.social
What’s going on chaps?
A 95 year old war crimes investigator is a threat to Canada???? With the Orange gasbag to your south, this is threat you check out?
@reidangela.bsky.social:
I keep saying we aren’t who people think we are! Canada has been compromised!!Herr Hideous Harper! Worse, Mark Carney is more Zionist and pro genocide, and extreme right than Harper ever could be.
@stephaniecarvin.bsky.social:
It’s hard to even know where to begin with this. Professor Falk is in his 90s and one of the world’s most prominent international legal scholars. It beggars belief that he could even remotely be considered a threat to Canada.
Former UN special rapporteur Richard Falk interrogated for hours in Canada, Falk, who has investigated Israeli abuses, says questioning reflects push to silence truth of Israel’s war on Gaza by Jillian Kestler-D’Amours, 15 Nov 202515 Nov 2025, Aljazeera
Montreal, Canada – A former United Nations special rapporteur who investigated Israeli abuses against Palestinians says he was interrogated by Canadian authorities on “national security” grounds as he travelled to Canada this week to attend a Gaza-related event.
Richard Falk, an international law expert from the United States, told Al Jazeera that he was questioned at Toronto Pearson international airport on Thursday alongside his wife, fellow legal scholar Hilal Elver.
“A security person came and said, ‘We’ve detained you both because we’re concerned that you pose a national security threat to Canada,'” Falk, 95, said on Saturday in an interview from Ottawa, the Canadian capital. “It was my first experience of this sort – ever – in my life.”
Falk and Elver – both US citizens – were travelling to Ottawa to take part in the Palestine Tribunal on Canadian Responsibility when they were held for questioning.
The tribunal brought together international human rights and legal experts on Friday and Saturday to examine the Canadian government’s role in Israel’s two-year bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which a UN inquiry and numerous rights groups have described as a genocide.
Falk said he and his wife were held for questioning for more than four hours and asked about their work on Israel and Gaza, and on issues of genocide in general. “[There was] nothing particularly aggressive about his questioning,” he said. “It felt sort of random and disorganised.”
But Falk said he believes the interrogation is part of a global push to “punish those who endeavour to tell the truth about what is happening” in the world, including in Gaza.
“It suggests a climate of governmental insecurity, I think, to try to clamp down on dissident voices,” he added.
Asked about Falk’s experience, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), which manages the country’s border crossings, told Al Jazeera that it cannot comment on specific cases due to privacy regulations.
The CBSA’s role “is to assess the security risk and admissibility of persons coming to Canada”, spokesperson Rebecca Purdy said in an email. “This process may include primary interviews and secondary examinations,” she said.
“This means that all travellers, foreign nationals and those who enter Canada by right, may be referred for secondary inspection – this is a normal part of the cross-border process and should not be viewed as any indication of wrongdoing.”
Global Affairs Canada, the Canadian foreign ministry, did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on Falk’s allegation that his interrogation is part of a broader, global crackdown on opposition to Israel’s Gaza war.
Canadian Senator Yuen Pau Woo, a supporter of the Palestine Tribunal, said he was “appalled” that two international law and human rights experts were questioned in Canada “on the grounds that they might pose a national security threat”.
“We know they were here to attend the Palestine Tribunal. We know they have been outspoken in documenting and publicising the horrors inflicted on Gaza by Israel, and advocating for justice,” Woo told Al Jazeera in an interview on Saturday afternoon.
“If those are the factums for their detention, then it suggests that the Canadian government considers these acts of seeking justice for Palestine to be national security threats – and I’d like to know why.”
Like other Western countries, Canada has been under growing pressure to cut off its longstanding support for Israel as the Israeli military assault on Gaza killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and plunged the coastal territory into a humanitarian crisis.
Ottawa announced in 2024 that it was suspending weapons permits to its ally as pressure mounted over the war.
But researchers and human rights advocates say loopholes in Canada’s arms export system have allowed Canadian-made weapons to continue to reach Israel, often via the United States.
Rights groups have also called on the Canadian government to do more to support efforts to ensure that Israel is held accountable for abuses against Palestinians in Gaza, including war crimes.
“This violence is not in the past tense; the bombs have not stopped falling,” Rachel Small, the Canada organiser for the antiwar group World Beyond War, said during the Palestine Tribunal’s closing day on Saturday.
“And none of that violence, none of Israel’s genocide … [would be] possible without the flow of weapons from the United States, from Europe, and yes, from Canada,” Small said.
At least 260 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas came into effect last month, according to health authorities in the besieged coastal enclave.and 600 injured and over 1,500 buildings bombed.
Palestinians also continue to reel from a lack of adequate food, water, medicine and shelter supplies as Israel maintains strict curbs on humanitarian aid deliveries.
Against that backdrop, Falk told Al Jazeera on Saturday that “it’s more important than ever … to expose the reality of what’s happening” on the ground in Gaza.
“There’s this whole false sense that the genocide is over,” he said. “[But Israel] is carrying out the genocidal project in a less aggressive way, or a less intense way. It’s what some have called the incremental genocide.”
@mehlerpaperny.bsky.social:
Canadian border officials detained for hours a 95-year-old man on his way to a conference about human rights violations against Palestinians.
@cechurchill.bsky.social:
They thought he might be “a national security threat”?!?! Ridiculous and appalling.
Prominent legal scholar detained at Canadian border while on his way to a conference on Palestine, Richard Falk says he and his wife were held for close to 4 hours in Toronto by Sarah Petz, CBC News, Nov 15, 2025
Most popular article on CBC website.
A prominent academic and former UN special rapporteur says he was detained by customs agents in Toronto while on his way to speak at a conference on human rights violations against Palestinians.
Richard Falk, a retired Princeton University professor who was a UN special rapporteur on human rights in occupied Palestine, was on his way to Ottawa to speak at the Palestine Tribunal on Canadian Responsibility on Friday and Saturday.
Dubbed a “people’s tribunal,” the event was organized as a forum to analyze and document “Canada’s complicity in the genocide and dispossession of Palestinians, including over the last two years in Gaza,” says a news release from its organizers.
But upon arriving at customs at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on Thursday with his wife, he says border agents took their passports and led them to an interview room.
He said border agents told him they needed to determine whether he and his wife were a national security threat to Canada.
“That never happened to me in my long life,” said Falk. Thursday also happened to be his 95th birthday, he said.
Falk said they were asked a series of questions about his participation in the conference, his involvement in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and his position on Israel. After about four hours, Falk said he and wife were eventually released and allowed to enter Canada.
Asked about the incident, a CBSA spokesperson said they could not comment on specific cases, citing privacy legislation, but went on to say that all travelers entering Canada are subject to “secondary inspection.” Liar liar!
“This is a normal part of the cross-border process and should not be viewed as any indication of wrongdoing,” the spokesperson said.
“There are many reasons why a border services officer may determine that an individual, or the goods they are carrying, require further processing or inspection.”
But based on the questions he was asked, Falk said he suspects he was detained because of his participation in the event. Falk was there to speak about the relevance of international law in the Israel-Gaza conflict.
“It’s disappointing that Canada — after having acknowledged Palestinian statehood — would take such a hostile attitude toward a very forthright conference that really explained to a public, that hasn’t been so well informed, the nature of the objections to what Israel has been doing,” he said.
“One expects Canada to be a model of free speech and liberal democracy and it’s not as bad as the U.S., but it’s not as good as I would hope.”
Azeezah Kanji, chair of the Palestine Tribunal on Canadian Responsibility, said the conference’s organizers found out Falk was detained by border officials when they received a panicked phone call from his wife.
Kanji said that prompted them to reach out to different high-ranking officials in an attempt to get Falk and his wife released.
“We can’t reveal the particulars about what was done, but the degree of disturbance about this was extreme and universal across the board,” she said.
“It’s outrageous that this could have happened.”
Senator Yuen Pau Woo said he was contacted by the tribunal’s organizers about the incident on Thursday evening, which prompted him to contact the minister for public safety’s office.
“I am shocked that two eminent experts on international law would be treated in this way, on Dr. Falk’s 95th birthday no less,” Woo said in an email.
CBC News has contacted the ministry of public safety and will update this story if we receive a response.
IDF Soldier Manhandles Toronto Students Who Disrupted Event by David Gray-Donald, November 11, 2025, The Grind
Meanwhile, this genocidal IOF brute, who violently assaulted and injured Toronto students not arrested, not charged, not even interrogated.
TMU students protested an off-campus talk from two Israeli soldiers. One IDF soldier, Jonathan Karten, locked several of them into the event space before someone broke a glass door. Then Karten grabbed and threw the students out of the lobby into a stairway. The event has drawn international media attention, in many cases with misleading coverage.
On Wednesday, Nov. 5, an event titled “Combat on Campus” featuring two Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers was scheduled to happen at a hypnosis clinic located at Elm St. and Bay St. The business, which is unaffiliated with the event, had been rented out through an app by the Students Supporting Israel (SSI) group from Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU).
This was at least the second time this year the group had brought IDF soldiers to speak in Toronto, the last time being in April.
Those who oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza have spoken out against these events, arguing that platforming IDF soldiers is completely unacceptable in the midst of a genocide and calling for Canada to investigate IDF soldiers here for war crimes and to ban them from entering the country.
However, much mainstream coverage used sensational language and omitted significant details, creating a narrative demonizing the pro-Palestine crowd. Here, we look in detail at what really happened.
On Nov. 5, several pro-Palestine groups, including Students for Justice in Palestine at Toronto Metropolitan University (SJP @ TMU), posted to Instagram calling on people to protest the event.
When people opposing the event arrived at the hypnosis clinic, they found the doors unlocked and no security blocking their entry, an SJP representative tells The Grind. The hours of operation of the clinic indicate that the business would be open at that time.
Those planning to attend the event to hear the IDF soldiers speak were arriving around the same time. One SSI member told the National Post that she was pushed to the ground outside the building while trying to get inside, though there is no video of this. She says she later experienced a stress seizure and went to hospital.
Five or six people opposing the event were able to get into the hypnosis clinic, wearing keffiyehs and masks. They chanted pro-Palestine messages and called the IDF soldiers “baby killers.”
Over 1,000 babies (under one year old) in Gaza have been killed by Israel since Oct. 7, 2023.
According to video and statements from SJP, one of the IDF soldiers, Jonathan Karten, told the disrupters, “You’re being fucking brainwashed” and “It’s not a genocide! I was there!” The other soldier, Chanoch Eli Berman, Chief Operating Officer of tech company BuzzztechUSA, can be heard on video calling them “sharmutas,” the Arabic word for “whore.”
A video posted by SSI shows Karten, event attendees and organizers in an interior room of the clinic which was set up for the talk with at least two people protesting the event.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Students Supporting Israel @ TMU (@ssi_tmu)
Karten had locked these people inside the event space, which also prevented others from entering, according to SJP and corroborated by the videos.
At some point in the video, a tall individual appears to break the glass of the locked door, either from inside or outside the room.
SSI claimed one of the protesters broke the window using a drill bit, which was found in the clinic afterwards, and Karten said they “broke through the glass door and charged at us,” adding that “one came at me with a drill bit.”
As pointed out by Toronto journalist Samira Mohyeddin, one of Karten’s supporters posted an Instagram story on Nov. 7 or 8, saying Karten broke the window, which Karten then reposted, further confusing the narrative.
After the window was broken, Karten is seen in the video lunging towards the person by the busted door, pushing them through while there is broken glass still attached to the sides.
In a video posted by SSI, one of the SSI organizers appears to be yelling at Karten “Jonathan, stop!” while also telling the protesters to leave and instructing someone to call 911.
Much was made by SSI and others about how Karten was cut in the arm, in some instances insinuating his arm was cut by the protesters. But there is no indication from any of the videos that he was attacked, only that he likely cut his arm on the broken glass of the doorway as he went back and forth through it on his own.
On Sunday, Nov. 9, Karten’s story about the broken glass changed again. In a video posted by Karten and the international SSI movement, he says “eventually the terrorists managed to push through the glass, shattering the door” that he had used to lock the students inside. Karten goes on to say that “fearing for the safety of the people inside, I jumped through to stop any additional violence.”
It is at this point that Karten gets violent.
After going back into the event room, another video shows Karten telling someone: “Now I’m going to physically remove them from the premises.”
He then turns around and shoves two women over some furniture and then out through the broken doorway into the lobby of the clinic. While this is happening, a student is yelling at him: “You locked them in the room, you’re not allowed to touch them! You’re not allowed to touch them! Assault!”
Once in the clinic lobby, Karten grabs the five people, one by one, and throws them through the doorway of the clinic into a stairway. Cries of “No!” and “Oh, my God!” can be heard from the students.
SJP says several people were seriously injured in the process and had to be treated by medical professionals.
After throwing people out, the video shows Karten instructing event organizers and others in the clinic to barricade the door. Protesters then chant and bang on the reinforced window.
Toronto police arrived soon after. SJP tells The Grind in a statement,”We told [the police] five people had just been assaulted, and they didn’t respond beyond telling us ‘You’re not welcome in this building anymore.’ We started exiting the building to de-escalate the situation when they started pushing us down the stairs.”
A third video shows police pushing people away from the entrance of the building, with Karten trying to direct police.
It was at that point, as the police began to use their batons, that the crowd decided to leave the area to de-escalate the situation, SJP tells The Grind. Many of them walked several blocks and then downstairs into the College TTC subway station.
“A dozen cops followed us into the station, and the trains stopped running,” according to SJP. “Toronto police started pushing people towards the gates and shoving people against the walls. When some of us asked for their badge numbers, they got more violent and at least a dozen more [officers] flooded in. They started arresting whoever was closest to them while people tried to get away.”
Toronto Police Services Chief Myron Demkiw mentioned the disruption the next day at a police board meeting, tying it to “rising incidents of hate, and in particular incidents of antisemitism,” without mentioning the event was protesting IDF soldiers.
Toronto police did not respond to The Grind’s request for comment.
Five of the protesters were charged with crimes, including forcible entry, unlawful assembly, obstruction of a peace officer, and assault of a peace officer. The charges have not been heard in court.
The additional video of Karten throwing people out of the clinic has led some to call for his arrest as well. Karten has not been charged, and may no longer be in the country.
When someone grabs and throws other people to the ground, the police have the discretion to lay charges, such as assault. In the Canadian Criminal Code, a defence against those charges is to claim self defence, such as when there is a violent trespasser. But to use that defence, only the minimal reasonable force can be used.
The determination around whether physical force is reasonable comes down to whether “force is being used against them or another person or that a threat of force is being made against them or another person.”
No one was seen trying to attack Karten in the videos. In every instance, protesters are seen standing around, sometimes chanting. Karten has claimed he was assaulted.
Karten was also not the property owner and it does not appear he was acting on the instruction of the owner of the hypnosis clinic to remove trespassers.
Neither Karten, Berman nor SSI responded to The Grind’s requests for comment for this story.
Karten has served on and off in the IDF for about 10 years, according to his Instagram posts, and on LinkedIn he lists New York City as his home. He posted several times in IDF uniform during Israel’s genocide in Gaza, often posing with a machine gun.
He often speaks about how his uncle was killed by Hamas in the 1990s.
Karten made waves in 2019 for filing a complaint against Columbia University, with support from the pro-Israel Lawfare Project, claiming he was discriminated against while he was a student. In one example of alleged discrimination, he says a professor yelled at him on campus to say that Karten was a member of Mossad, the Israeli spy agency.
Karten is currently listed as a partner of Awz Ventures, the Canada-based military tech company closely tied to the Israeli military, and which also lists former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper as a partner.
Following the incident, social media posts and articles quickly emerged, many suggesting the event was targeted just because Israelis or Jews were gathering speaking, burying the fact that IDF soldiers were speaking. Here are a few of the headlines from national and international outlets.
Toronto Sun: 5 charged after pro-Israel student event at TMU attacked by masked mob
Toronto Star: Five people arrested after protesters reportedly force their way into TMU off-campus event
CBC News: Several arrested after protesters allegedly force way into TMU student group event with Israeli soldiers
National Post: Jewish TMU student says Toronto event disrupted by anti-Israel protesters was a nightmare
The Ben Mulroney Show on Global News Radio: Olivia Chow must take responsibility for attack on Jewish students at Toronto university
Canadian Jewish News: Five arrested after violent attack at TMU event featuring Israeli soldiers
Fox News: Violent mob attacks pro-Israel gathering in Toronto days after mayor’s ‘genocide in Gaza’ remarks
Jerusalem Post: Anti-Israel activists storm Toronto student event with IDF veterans, one wounded
Haaretz: ‘Literally an Attempted Lynching’ Report: Pro-Palestinian Activists Arrested During Off-campus Israeli Event in Toronto
Times of Israel: Pro-Israel event at Toronto university ‘stormed’ by activists
After those articles had come out and additional video was released on Nov. 7, some local outlets covered the fact of Karten throwing people through the doorway:
Toronto Today: Activists raise concern after video shows former Israeli soldier shoving, pushing student protesters
CP24: New video from protest shows Israeli soldier assaulting students
This is not the first time pro-Palestine activists in Toronto have been framed initially as dangerous and then new details have significantly changed the story. In 2024, politicians at all levels vilified a protest that briefly stopped outside Mount Sinai Hospital as hateful. In 2021, Toronto Mayor John Tory and Ontario Premier Doug Ford denounced the pro-Palestine side’s involvement in a street scuffle before additional video came out showing that someone on the pro-Israel side had slashed at Palestine supporters with a knife. In both cases, the pro-Palestine side was demonized and no apologies were offered from senior politicians after new information emerged.
SJP, for their part, posted on Instagram after the recent arrests to say they will not be deterred by “attempts to criminalize those opposing genocide.”
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