More than a dozen offices of MPs and federal ministers, including those of Chrystia Freeland, Melanie Jolie and Jagmeet Singh, were briefly occupied on Monday by pro-Palestinian activists demanding a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
In Montreal, demonstrators occupied the offices of Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly and the offices of Liberal MPs David Lametti and Rachel Bendiane in mid-afternoon. They sent the media photos and videos of their coup.
The demonstrators are calling on the government to call for an immediate ceasefire. They also call on Ottawa to stop selling weapons to Israel, and to call on the government to lift the blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip.
Last week, about thirty MPs signed a letter calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to support a ceasefire. Mr. Trudeau did not take this step, and merely referred to a humanitarian truce to allow international aid to flow into the Gaza Strip.
The demonstrators said that the representatives targeted on Monday were among those who did not sign this letter.
The Montreal Police Department, for its part, indicated that the demonstrations took place peacefully. No criminal acts or arrests were reported.
Besides MI Jolie in Montreal, and demonstrators targeted the offices of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland in Toronto, and the offices of NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh in Vancouver. Other occupations have occurred elsewhere in the country, including Edmonton, Winnipeg and Victoria.
