Israeli-Canadian Shiri Tamam lights a candle during a memorial in Israel for the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. On the second anniversary of the attack that launched Israel’s war in Gaza, people gathered across Canada to commemorate the victims and to protest the ongoing war.Emilio Morenatti/The Associated Press
Canada marked the second anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel on Tuesday with mourning and protest amid renewed U.S.-brokered peace talks that have raised cautious hopes for an end to the war.
Montreal resident Raquel Ohnona Look lost her son Alexandre, 33, at the Nova music festival in the Israeli desert that day. He was attending the event on vacation when militants struck, killing hundreds of civilians.
Israelis mark two-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack as war in Gaza grinds on
Alexandre called his mother when the attack was under way. Soon after, he was shot while protecting other concertgoers who were sheltering with him, she said.
“He was a hero,” she said.
Alexandre’s family has commemorated his death with a public green space named in his honour, which they visit often, in the Montreal suburb of Côte Saint-Luc. But the Oct. 7 anniversary is the “saddest, hardest day,” Ms. Look said.
Raquel Ohnona Look holds a photograph of her son Alexandre in the Montreal park named after him, on Oct. 1, 2024.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
In downtown Montreal, hundreds of students marched in protest of Israel’s war in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, according to local health authorities. Demonstrators chanted “Free Palestine” and “Long live the intifada.” Seeing such demonstrations only added to Ms. Look’s anguish.
“It feels like they’re dancing on my son’s grave,” she said.
None of the protesters The Globe approached were willing to be quoted by name for fear of reprisal.
At Concordia University, students faced a line of riot police. The school shut down its downtown campus Tuesday in anticipation of the protests, and after some classes and an exam were disrupted on Monday.
Groups representing more than 80,000 students across different post-secondary schools in Montreal signed a petition to strike on Monday and Tuesday to support the pro-Palestinian movement.
In Toronto, a group of about 100 people gathered at Earl Bales Park in North York.
“We really wanted to give our community a place to go and be together and support one another, and pay respect to the people that perished on that horrible day on Oct. 7,” said Revi Mula, vice-president of Canadian Women Against Antisemitism, a group that helped organize the event.
One of the attendees, Maayan Shavit, whose aunt was killed on Oct. 7 and whose cousin was taken hostage and later murdered, said the event was an important opportunity for the community to come together.
“I didn’t want to be alone on this horrific day,” she said.
Anna Ackerman said she and her friends chose to attend the event as a show of solidarity. “It’s about people supporting people. We’re here for the people.”
Students protest in Montreal on Oct. 7.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
At the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus, more than a hundred students attended an event titled “Honouring our Martyrs,” advertised on social media by the UTM Students’ Union to “commemorate two years of genocide in Gaza.”
UTM student union president Andrew Park declined an interview request on Tuesday.
Online, many commenters took issue with the scheduling of the event on Oct. 7, describing it as insensitive to the Israeli victims of the Hamas attacks that took place two years ago that day.
Taha Ghayyur, executive director of Justice for All Canada, encouraged those gathered at the event to keep up their advocacy for peace in Gaza.
“I want you to keep showing up, because that’s resistance. I want you to keep remembering these people in your prayers and in your thoughts,” Mr. Ghayyur said.
Born in Gaza within weeks of Oct. 7, these twins have known nothing but war
Kate Maddalena, a faculty member at UTM in media studies, said she attended the event because many of those present are her students.
“Two years ago there was a chilling silence here on campus. The students didn’t know if they were safe to speak, and that has changed a lot. So I wanted to show up in support,” she said.
The University of Toronto in a Tuesday statement said that it recognizes this is a difficult day for many members of its community and that it would take action if any of the events on its campuses posed a risk to public safety, or if they contravened university policies. It added that those policies “are in full compliance with the provincial government’s mandate for post-secondary institutions to uphold free speech.”
Events were also held leading up to the anniversary, including a large pro-Palestinian rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Saturday and a commemoration in Victoria jointly hosted by the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island on Sunday.
The Jewish Community Centre in Vancouver had scheduled a broadcast of Israel’s national memorial ceremony for Tuesday evening.
Earlier this week, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs called on the federal government to spend millions more on security for Canada’s synagogues, saying a rise in antisemitism has forced Jewish communities to spend more than $40-million in the past year on private security and in fortifying their places of worship.
The Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis, while 251 others – including women, children and the elderly – were taken hostage. Most have since been released during ceasefires or through other deals, and 48 remain in Gaza, with Israel believing 20 are still alive.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, displaced about 90 per cent of the territory’s population and caused a humanitarian crisis. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the world’s leading authority on food crises, said in August that famine is occurring in Gaza City and is “entirely man-made.”
Delegations from Israel and Hamas began indirect negotiations in Egypt this week on a U.S.-brokered peace plan, with both sides signalling support.