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Two-Year Criminal Case against 44 Palestine Solidarity Defendants Goes out with a Bang
Fourteen remaining Scotiabank protestors are exiting the courts after more than two years of proceedings, citing judicial bias and discrimination. The criminal case – the largest recent mass arrest of
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Fourteen remaining Scotiabank protestors are exiting the courts after more than two years of proceedings, citing judicial bias and discrimination. The criminal case – the largest recent mass arrest of pro-Palestinian activists in Canada – closes with a bylaw noise ticket, which the Crown offered to co-defendants after they filed a Charter challenge.
“This is an absurd end to a repressive prosecution who consumed over two years of court time and significant taxpayer funds,” said Marie*, one of the co-defendants. “We were charged for opposing a genocide. Letting us off with a noise ticket doesn’t make that right but exposes the weakness of the Crown’s case and how little the outcome had to do with justice. We should have not been charged in the first place.”
Divest from Israeli Weapons
On April 15, 2024, the defendants held a sit-in at a downtown Scotiabank branch in Montreal to demand the bank divest from Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company, which produces 80% of the weapons and 85% of the drones used by the Israeli military, and then markets its products as ‘battle-tested’ on Palestinian civilians in Gaza. For years, Scotiabank had been investing in Elbit, with over $100-million (US) in investments as of late 2024. The protesters were mass-arrested, allegedly illegally detained, and ill-treated by the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), and subsequently, criminally charged. The co-defendants and their lawyers brought forward a defense arguing their Constitutional rights were violated during arrest and detention: kettling, prolonged unlawful detention, restricted access to bodily needs, and harassment by the SPVM.
“Bias, not justice, drove this process from the beginning. The court demonstrated a deeply concerning attitude toward justice and a clear bias in favour of the SPVM’s violations of the law and their own rules for interacting with protesters,” said Jean*, another defendant.
“Our legal system failed to acknowledge that pressure to divest from war and genocide is a justifiable form of democratic engagement, but we won what we set out to achieve: Scotiabank fully divested from Elbit in February 2026. Now there are renewed efforts to pressure other Canadian companies to divest from the weapons manufacturer. And today we are filing a complaint against the judge who presided over this case for a repeated pattern of bias, because accountability doesn’t stop at the bank. Actions like ours are legitimate and necessary,” continued Jean*.
“Our case is emblematic of systemic bias, profiling, and abuse of power which erode our democratic values and threaten our right to protest. The media is revealing more and more examples of racist behaviour in the SPVM, and bullying and abuse in the courts,” shared Marie*. “We encourage everyone in Canada to pay closer attention to the ongoing criminalization of pro-Palestine solidarity activists, as they are the canary in the coal mine for free speech and the rights of all.” •
* Pseudonyms are used to protect the identities of arrested individuals.