Vancouver police raided the home of anti-Israel activist Charlotte Kates, 44, late last week as part of an investigation into her alleged violation of hate-crime laws.
“This is part of an ongoing investigation, a hate-crimes investigation,” Sgt. Steve Addison of the Vancouver Police Department told Canada’s Global News.
Kates, a former president of the University of Guelph, is the international coordinator of the Vancouver-based nonprofit Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, together with her husband, Khaled Barakat, a former senior official of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist organization.
Neighbors reported hearing a “bang” at around 9 a.m. and saw an armored police vehicle and the heavily armed Vancouver Police Department’s Emergency Response Team.
“I saw what looked like a tank with guys in tactical gear outside aiming a teargas gun at the house,” one neighbor told Global News.
One person was arrested at the home and then released, police said, without identifying the suspect arrested since charges had not been laid.
The investigation was opened on April 26 after a video on social media showed Kates making pro-terrorism statements at a demonstration involving several hundred outside the Vancouver Art Gallery.
In the video, Kates shouts from the art gallery steps that Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Hezbollah are not terrorist organizations. “These are resistance fighters. These are our heroes.”
She also said, “We say today, ‘Long live October 7.'” The crowd shouted the refrain back, the CBC reported.
“Portions of the video have been widely shared on social media, and viewed several hundred thousand times,” a police statement said at the time.
Kates was arrested on May 1 and later released with an order to appear in court on Oct. 8. She was told not to attend any more “protests, rallies or assemblies.”
Samidoun was designated a terror entity by the U.S. and Canada in a joint action on Oct. 15.
In the announcement, the U.S. Treasury Department described Samidoun as “a sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.
“The PFLP, which was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the U.S. Department of State in October 1997 and October 2001, respectively, uses Samidoun to maintain fundraising operations in both Europe and North America.”
In August, Kates received a human rights award in Iran.
And in April, she spoke at an unauthorized Columbia University event, in which she said, “There is nothing wrong with being a member of Hamas, being a leader of Hamas, being a fighter in Hamas,” The New York Times reported.
According to Samidoun’s website, Kates and Barakat have been denied entry into Germany, which lists the organization as a terrorist entity. Its offices in Germany were raided in fall 2023.
The Netherlands, which designated Samidoun a terrorist organization last month, also denied the two entry in 2022, according to Samidoun’s website.
Samidoun is also listed as a terrorist entity by the European Union and Israel.
On May 4, 2022, B’nai Brith Canada started a letter-writing petition calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to declare Samidoun a terrorist entity and deport Kates, a U.S. citizen, and Barakat for incitement.
“It is essential that Canada’s leaders take proactive measures to ensure that our country remains a safe place for all Canadians. We will never allow the future of our democracy to be in the hands of terrorists,” said Michael Mostyn, B’nai Brith Canada’s chief executive officer.
