FIRST READING: How Montreal descended into two, near-simultaneous violent riots
Scenes of violent extremism came from two simultaneous events that were technically unrelated, save that they both hate Israel and think Canada is illegitimate
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A series of anti-Israel riots in Montreal have attracted international condemnation, and prompted Conservative calls for an emergency parliamentary probe.
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“Violent protesters set cars on fire, threw small explosives and other objects at police officers, and set fire to an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” reads a Monday letter penned by Conservative members of the Standing Committee on Public Safety.
“This is the crime, chaos and antisemitism that is taking over Canada,” it added.
The violence was condemned by everyone from Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante to Quebec Premier François Legault to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
A lengthy statement by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre became one of the most circulated reactions to the disorder in Montreal.
“This is what happens when a Prime Minister spends 9 years pushing toxic woke identity politics, dividing and subdividing people by race, gender, vaccine status, religion, region, age, wealth, etc.” wrote Poilievre in an X post seen nearly six million times.
You act surprised. We are reaping what you sowed.
This is what happens when a Prime Minister spends 9 years pushing toxic woke identity politics, dividing and subdividing people by race, gender, vaccine status, religion, region, age, wealth, etc.
On top of driving people apart,… https://t.co/FkEAPCnY6g
The disorder was two-fold. One was an anti-NATO, anti-Israel demonstration on Friday that resulted in smashed windows and burned cars in the Montreal core.
The other was a two-day mass-walkout of post-secondary students that would see masked activists blockading university property, forcibly........
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