Canadian leaders, demonstrators hold events on anniversary of Oct. 7 attack

The last time Tiferet Lapidot’s family heard from her was in a phone call from the Supernova music festival near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, where Hamas launched its brutal attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

“She called her mother at nine o’clock in the morning, telling her that she loves her and they’re shooting youngsters all around,” her uncle, Harel Lapidot, said Monday at a Toronto event marking the anniversary of the attack that triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.

A year later, the family’s grief over the loss of the young woman he described as their “sunshine” is “getting worse day by day,” her uncle said. She was one of at least eight people with ties to Canada who died that day. 

“It was the most horrific thing for us as a family to lose Tiferet. Tiferet was a happy young lady … that was just dancing at a festival,” he said.

Maureen Leshem said her 24-year-old cousin, Romi Gonen, was among those taken hostage at the festival, and the family has received confirmation she is still alive. “Every single second in these tunnels is a second too much,” she said, speaking at the Toronto event.

Across Canada, ceremonies, events and protests were being held to mark a year since the attack that killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and saw about 250 more abducted and held as hostages. Around 100 of the hostages, a third of whom are believed to be dead, have not been returned.

The attack triggered a retaliatory Israeli offensive in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip that the territory’s health ministry says has left more than 41,000 Palestinians dead. 

The war has had far-reaching effects around the world and in Canada — families grieving loved ones who were killed, hundreds of protests resulting in arrests, pro-Palestinian encampments at universities and a spike in reports of alleged hate crimes against Jews and Muslims.

On the one-year anniversary, police in Canada’s largest cities were stepping up protections, particularly around Jewish and Muslim places of worship and at events held to mark the anniversary.

A Toronto police van was parked out front of a Hebrew day school along Bathurst Street in one of the city’s most recognizably Jewish neighbourhoods. On the corner, a large poster called for the return of hostages.

Just up the road, at the Sherman Campus, a sprawling hub of Jewish groups and agencies, preparations were being made for a memorial event planned for Monday night.

A spokesperson for the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, which is hosting the evening event, said it’s important to gather to “remember all the lives that were tragically lost on Oct. 7 in Israel, but also to recognize that this situation is still a live situation.”

“This is not an opportunity where we are remembering something that happened. We still have more than 100 hostages, including family members of Canadians, who are in Gaza being held by Hamas,” said Sara Lefton, the organization’s chief development officer.

Some victims’ families also launched legal action on Monday over the attack. 

Tiferet Lapidot’s father, along with another Canadian who lost family members in the attack, filed a claim in Ontario Superior Court seeking $250 million in damages under Canada’s Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, plus an additional $100 million.

The claim lists Hamas, various Palestinian organizations, the leaders of Iran and Syria and several Canadian individuals and groups among the defendants. It alleges all the defendants are in some way responsible or liable for the losses and damages caused by the deaths. None of the allegations have been tested in court.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marked the grim anniversary in a written statement, saying his thoughts are with all Israelis and Jewish people, and with the Jewish community in Canada.

Trudeau condemned Hamas, which Canada recognizes as a terrorist group, and said his government remains committed to working towards a two-state solution, “where Israelis and Palestinians can live securely within internationally recognized borders.”

“Hamas has set the region down a path of war and violence. We mourn the Canadians and all civilians killed in the year that followed. We condemn Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, whose senseless attacks lead to more death and instability,” he wrote. 

“The scale of civilian casualties since Oct. 7 is heartbreaking and unacceptable, and all actors must comply with international law.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said hostages must be let go and condemned what he called “grotesque” antisemitism in Canada. “We unapologetically stand with Israel,” he wrote in his own statement. 

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, for his part, repeated calls for hostages to be returned and said New Democrats mourn with Canada’s Jewish community.

Several protests were also planned Monday to express solidarity with the Palestinian people, including one in Montreal that was billed as supporting Palestinians’ fight for “total liberation.” 

In that city, the groups that organized a months-long encampment on McGill University’s downtown campus last spring and summer, and who demanded the school cut ties with Israeli entities, were planning a walkout and march from Concordia University to McGill, which restricted access to its campus and held many classes online.

A Quebec Superior Court judge granted a temporary injunction against some of the groups, ordering them not to block access to Concordia or to disrupt any classes. 

Under the heavy presence of law enforcement, some 150 people gathered for about an hour on Monday afternoon near McGill to remember victims of the attack. A rabbi led them in song and prayer. A handful of protesters stood at a nearby corner waving Palestinian flags. 

Julian Silverman, a Concordia student, attended Monday’s vigil for Israel. “There’s a lot of emotions, a lot of pain that’s resurfacing,” Silverman said.

In Vancouver, Police Chief Const. Adam Palmer said planned and unplanned protests were posing a “significant” risk of disorder, and officers trained specifically for large-scale events were being deployed.

Pro-Palestinian group Samidoun, which referred to the Oct. 7 attacks as “Al-Aqsa Flood,” the Hamas code name for the operation, was planning a rally in the city.

Monday’s events took place against a backdrop of escalating hostilities in the Middle East.

Hamas, which remains in control of the bombarded Gaza Strip, marked the anniversary by firing a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv. 

Lebanon’s Hezbollah vowed to keep up its own rocket fire despite recent losses in southern Lebanon, where Israel has been mounting a ground incursion. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 7, 2024.

— With files from Jordan Omstead in Toronto, Sidhartha Banerjee in Montreal and the Associated Press.