Citing what she called “inaction” on the part of B.C.’s attorney general, Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie announced plans Wednesday to bring a private prosecution against a woman caught on video at a public rally last year praising the Hamas attack on Israel.
Charlotte Kates, international co-ordinator of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, was the subject of a VPD hate investigation after she gave a speech in favour of Hamas at a rally outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 26, 2024.
In a widely circulated clip, Kates leads the crowd in a “Long live Oct. 7” chant, referring to the 2023 date Hamas terrorists attacked Israel.
Vancouver police recommended provincial Crown charge Kates with wilful promotion of hatred and public incitement of hatred well over a year ago; however, B.C. Prosecution Service spokeswoman Damienne Darby said the VPD investigation remains under charge assessment with no available timeline for completion.
“It’s been over a year of complete inaction on this file,” said Brodie. “David Eby’s attorney-general, Niki Sharma, has inexplicably refused to authorize Kates’s prosecution, despite repeated calls from myself and other groups to do so.”
CBC reached out to Kates but had not heard back by the time of publication.
On Oct. 15, 2024, the federal government listed Samidoun as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code.
Speech at pro-Palestinian demonstration leads to hate crime investigation
Charlotte Kates gave a speech in favour of Hamas at a rally outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 26. Video circulated of the event has since led to a hate crime investigation by the Vancouver Police Department and an arrest.
In a statement to CBC, Sharma said Brodie’s private prosecution “appears to fall under federal jurisdiction as opposed to the jurisdiction of the B.C. Prosecution Service.
“We will be following this process closely, while continuing to work as a government to eliminate any incidents of hate in British Columbia,” said Sharma.
The sidewalk outside of provincial court in Vancouver drew a robust police presence Wednesday morning when a group holding signs and waving Palestinian flags shouted down Brodie at a news conference arranged by her OneBC party.
Over a dozen uniformed officers formed lines along either side of the speaker’s podium, while an overhead drone captured video.
A private prosecution is a prosecution started by a private individual who is not acting on behalf of a law enforcement agency or prosecution service.
The Public Prosecution Service of Canada says the right of a citizen to launch a prosecution for illegal activity is a “valuable constitutional safeguard against inertia or partiality on the part of authority.”