Prosecutors have dropped criminal harassment and mischief charges that were levelled against three pro-Palestinian activists who protested outside the offices of federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller.
Barbara Bedont, a lawyer with Defend the Movement Quebec, a legal clinic that defends protesters, said Friday that the Crown withdrew the charges once presented with video evidence.
“Because of that evidence the prosecutor realized they were falsely charged,” she said.
Bedont said Miller, who was present the day the accusations were levelled against the protesters, should apologize “at the least” and meet with the protesters, who had been staging a sit-in outside his office for months.
Samar Alkhdour, the woman who led that sit-in, lost her 13-year-old daughter, Jana Elkahlout, in Gaza while awaiting approval from the federal government to bring her to Canada.
Alkhdour had staged a daily protest outside Miller’s office to condemn Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza and criticize what she described as Canada’s inaction in the face of a growing death toll.
Alkhdour said she was happy the charges against her were dropped.
“The whole case was based on false accusations but I’m glad that justice prevailed in the end,” she said.
She said she would continue her sit-in protest.
Samar Alkhdour says she finally got a call from Global Affairs Canada to say her 13-year-old daughter was cleared to leave Gaza two weeks after her death.