By Brenda Shaffer
The day after the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacres in southern Israel, hundreds of anti-Israel demonstrations were held around the globe. Israel had not even buried its dead, Hamas terrorists were still loose in Israel, and the counterattack had not begun. Yet many of the protests displayed placards with identical slogans, calling to end the “genocide” of Palestinians and for a ceasefire.
Dozens of October 8 demonstrations were held in Canada, including in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Mississauga, Windsor, St. John’s, Halifax, Winnipeg, and even Whitehorse in Yukon.
Despite the fact that Hamas murdered a Montreal man attending the Nova Music Festival, hundreds of pro-Palestine supporters gathered in Dorchester Square on October 8 to express their support for the Hamas rampage. Even outside the Vancouver Art Gallery, demonstrators held a post-October 7 celebration.
National Post columnist Tristin Hopper commented at the time that the organizers of the demonstrations were not trying to conceal their outright support for the October 7 attacks: “They’re trying as hard as they can to tell you that mass shootings and house-to-house slaughter is what they want and why they rallied.”
While those organizers were not privy to Hamas’s attack plan, the formidable network of Hamas supporters was poised to spring into action.
This October 8 network is an alliance of radical leftists, hard-left union networks, anti-Israel movements, Islamists, and climate change organizations. It is well-organized and well-funded, representing an increasingly powerful force in the politics of Western countries.
In Canada, it includes the nation’s largest labor union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). CUPE Ontario president at the time, Fred Hahn, retweeted pro-Hamas messages over the 2023 Thanksgiving holiday, praising Palestinian “resistance.”
Several of Canada’s leading climate change organizations play a major role; the Palestinian Youth Movement partnered with climate organizations and anti-free-market groups to hold sit-ins at offices of Canadian parliamentarians. The group 350 Canada, which aims to end production and use of fossil fuels, helped organize the anti-Israel sit-ins and a demonstration in Edmonton alongside Leadnow Canada, which campaigns against fossil fuels and pipelines.
Climate Action Network Canada (CAN-Rac) called for an immediate ceasefire instead of allowing Israel to defend itself, a right that is accorded to most states. Later the organization stated that it “is deeply troubled by the Canadian government’s response to the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s recent ruling that ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza.” CAN-Rac also expressed support for the flotillas of left-wing activists that attempted to enter the Gaza Strip by sea.
Greenpeace Canada called for a Canadian arms embargo against Israel, claiming that “By continuing to send weapons to Israel through the U.S. supply chain, Canada is complicit in this genocide.” The organization also called on the Canadian government to “end all military trade and cooperation with Israel; sanctions individuals and institutions responsible for war crimes; respect and uphold Canada’s commitments under international human rights law.” Sierra Club Canada also supports the imposition of a Canadian arms embargo on Israel.
Why have leftists, Islamists, and climate organizations joined forces in Canada and beyond? The activists who comprise these organizations largely share an anti-West worldview, but their alliance is more practical. The left’s alliance with Islamists, despite differences of opinion on issues such as abortion and transgenderism, expands their electorate.
In addition, climate organizations serve as the network’s cash cow; working with them gives other alliance members access to funds from mainstream foundations and government grants as well as corporate sponsorships.
In the United States, climate-mitigation philanthropy generates astounding sums of money. ClimateWorks Foundation estimates that individuals and foundations direct between $11 billion and $18 billion annually to climate change activity. That does not include subsidies, tax breaks, corporate sponsorships, and more.
Anti-free-marketers and anti-Zionists cannot reach this scale of finance on their own. Moreover, climate organizations give the Islamists and extreme leftists the ability to engage non-leftist constituencies including pro-Israel Jews. Pro-Israel individuals who support action against climate change may not realize that their donations to climate organizations could be funding anti-Israel activity.
As pointed out in a recent article I co-authored in Tablet, “Palestine energizes the network by putting a face on the enemy. A struggle over the ‘means of production’ is abstract; a campaign against Israel and the supposedly hidden power of its supports is concrete, and it readily slides into antisemitism.”
Each component of this network on its own cannot achieve major political power in Western democracies. But, as seen in the rising power of the Communists inside the U.S. Democratic Party, the new trinity of anti-free-market, anti-Israel, and climate mitigation organizations can gain power in both the streets and the halls of government.
In Canada, this trinity is already powerful.
Prof. Brenda Shaffer is a faculty member in the Energy Academic Group at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School and a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center. An international energy and foreign-policy specialist, her research focuses on energy security, Iran, the Caspian region and the relationship between energy and geopolitics.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated to clarify ClimateWorks Foundation global funding estimates.
I suspect another major ally are indigenous activist groups but I've read nothing about any financial links even though the same indigenous actors regularly populate the same demonstrations.
Not well though out, or balanced. The Hamas led slaughter deserves massive condemnation. What brought it to that point, warrants massive condemnation too.