Grieving Palestinian mother receives arrest warrant from Montreal police

Prominent Montreal-based Palestinian activist Samar Alkhdour and demonstrator Ned Mansour turned themselves in to police after receiving an arrest warrant on Friday. Local 514 visited the police station as Alkhdour and Mansour turned themselves in. Soon after I left another activist turned themselves in after receiving a warrant during the processing of Alkhdour and Mansour.

Savana Craig – Local Journalism Initiative

Alkhdour is a prominent activist as she has been hosting a sit-in outside of Immigration Minister Marc Miller's office since late March after her daughter Jana died in Gaza in early January. Alkhdour has been trying to bring Jana to Canada for years. She has been urging the government to grant her 13-year-old daughter Jana Elkahlout a visa since moving to Montreal in 2019.

Alkhdour received an arrest warrant for shouting at Canada's immigration minister at a protest, after the government failed to grant her daughter a visa before she died in Gaza this year. Alkhdour says Canada's immigration programs failed her daughter and is continuing to fail Gazans. Only 212 people have arrived in Canada from Gaza and only 539 people have exited Gaza and are waiting to come to Canada under the temporary resident visa (TRV) program, according to recent statistics from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC),

On 5 September, Alkhdour was attending a protest outside Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) Laura Palestini's office when she saw Miller. She approached him and began filming on her phone, yelling to him he "killed my daughter Jana" and "Marc Miller child killer".

We spoke with Alkhdour who explained to me why she refuses to sign police’s conditions. The SPVM said they could not comment on the arrest citing reasons of confidentiality.