Anti-Military Protests Now Embrace the Anti-Israel, Pro-Palestinian Movement

"Freedom of expression has reasonable limits to protect citizens, property and businesses from disruptive or unlawful [events]."

"Identity-concealing clothing and masks [and] dumping paint on the roadway, [while demonstrators were also] observed filling disposable water bottles with paint, which they reportedly were to be used to target police officers [cannot be countenanced]."

"At this time, 12 people have been arrested for mischief and assaulting police. There have been no injuries reported."

"People are still being processed, and the incidents are being looked into. This will take some time. As of now, a woman is being charged with assaulting police and disguise with intent. She is being held in custody and will appear in court tomorrow."

Ottawa Police Service statement

 

"People are aware that the weapons companies that are arming the genocide are at the EY Centre, so there is definitely the motivation to come out and protest."

"[Some of the arms manufacturers exhibiting supply weapons to Israel for its Gaza operations]."

'Shut Down CANSEC' co-organizer, Brent Patterson

 

"We’re here because this is Canada’s biggest weapons fair and we know the companies in this building, the military representatives in this building are responsible for some of the worst war crimes on the planet." 

"We have a vision for Canada that is not based on dropping bombs around the world, that is not based on partnering with Israel and its attacks on Palestine."

"We’re demanding a foreign policy from Canada that, yes, is separate from the U.S., but is also separate from U.S. warmaking and from its allies’ wars."

Rachel Small, with World Beyond War

 

"These arrests had taken place after numerous hours of negotiations through our police liaison team with their representatives and with those individuals themselves to move back onto the sidewalk, as opposed to on the roadway."

"Our east investigation detectives are currently working on that file [assault on trade show attendee] right now."

Ottawa police Duty Insp. Scott Pettis 

A protester holds a baby doll covered in fake blood at an attendee arriving at the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries annual defence industry trade show CANSEC, in Ottawa, on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

After the Ottawa Police Service's liaison team "made numerous attempts to have the protesters co-operate", demonstrators were cleared outside the CANSEC military trade show in Ottawa. A dozen protesters were arrested and charged with "mischief and assaulting police". Outside Ottawa Police Service headquarters, another demonstrator was arrested later, for "causing a disturbance". 

Nice to see Ottawa Police in action, upholding lawful assembly, but moving in to remove those individuals whose actions went beyond mere civil disobedience. This event was treated somewhat differently than myriad similar protests that have taken place in Ottawa over the past 18 months, focused solely on castigating Israel as a war-mongering 'genocidal' state for responding to the Palestinian terrorist assault on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.

 

Those demonstrations, where protesters increasingly made it plain they were supporting the Hamas terror group, proscribed in Canada, but obviously supported and even venerated as a freedom group, bent on 'liberating' Palestinians from Israeli occupation, while denying the Palestinian groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PLFP and Fatah are terrorist groups guilty of indiscriminate slaughter and grisly savagery in their hatred of Jews 'occupying' their very own ancestral lands the Palestinians identify as theirs alone. 

While there is a police presence at these demonstrations where masked and keffiyed participants scream invective at Jewish Canadians, shout 'globalize the Intifada', and 'From the river to the sea' with its implied message of destroying Israel and extinguishing Jewish lives in another 'Final Solution', there has been no restraining or protective police action, even when mobs of Muslims squat on the streets and intersections in mass prayer sessions.

 

Police closed Uplands Drive near Ottawa's EY Centre for more than two hours Wednesday as demonstrators protested the annual weapons fair. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

War protesters representing various anti-war groups are accustomed to protesting at events such as the annual conference of military and government personnel, diplomats and weapons-manufacturing representatives. Adding slanderous accusations against the Jewish State as a war-mongering country with an agenda to wipe out neighbouring Palestinians is a newish twist, as is the presence of masked, keffiyeh-clad anti-Israel groups intent on smearing Israel by attributing to it the kinds of lethal savagery that Palestinian terrorist groups have perfected against Israel, causing the state to respond to a declaration of war.

 

Canada's new government has pledged a commitment to rebuilding the wan and feeble Canadian military, at the ongoing demands of NATO and in particular of U.S. President Donald Trump, that it step up its military preparedness in an increasingly hostile world where China, Russia, North Korea and Iran present singly and as a conspiratorial quartet, threats against the democratic world order. Over12,000 people were expected to appear at the CANSEC conference with its 285 exhibitors highlighting the latest  technological advances in military hardware. 

A rally was previously held on May 1 at the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries offices calling for CANSEC to be cancelled. A conference attendee was assaulted in the area around the conference, coming away with minor injuries and treated on scene by paramedics. 

Speaking before the CANSEC audience of military contractors, Canada's Defence Minister David McGuinty informed gathered contractors that globally countries are swiftly adjusting to a fast-moving, global threat environment. He discussed the new government of Canada's plan to join ReArm Europe, a major European defence procurement pact to rearm and build up domestic defence industries. 

"The lessons that we're seeing that through the brutal war in Ukraine and the loss of countless lives unnecessarily by the illegal invasion of Russia ... show us that we need to be prepared for potential future threats."

"ReArm Europe is one of those ways of diversifying portfolios, and I think it'll probably be good for Canadian business."

Royal Canadian Airforce Commander Lt.-Gen.Eric Kenny

Police keep watch as protesters yell and gesture toward attendees arriving at the annual CANSEC trade show at Ottawa's EY Centre on Wednesday. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)