Pro-Palestinian groups say Toronto Mayor Trudeau has spread false information about the protest

Organizers of the pro-Palestinian march passed by a Toronto hospital earlier this week The prime minister and the city mayor are accused of spreading false information and treating peaceful protesters unfairly.

In a joint written statement, the three groups that organized Monday's march – Jews Say No to Genocide, Palestine Youth Movement-Toronto and Toronto4Palestine – said the suggestion that politicians targeted the Mount Sinai hospital in an act of anti-Semitism was baseless and inaccurate.

The protest groups “respect the sanctity of hospitals and hospital grounds,” the statement said.

“The protest marched for four hours from the Israeli consulate and ended at Yonge-Dundas Square, passing many buildings and monuments across the city, with some participants climbing structures and poles to raise Palestinian flags at various points along the way: none of them were targeted,” he wrote. they.

“We condemn Canadian politicians for mischaracterizing the protest as targeting the hospital.”

The prime minister's office and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

Located in downtown Toronto, Mount Sinai Hospital was founded by the Jewish community over a century ago.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted on the X page, formerly known as Twitter, calling the demonstration's stop outside the hospital a “reprehensible” display of anti-Semitism and saying, “Hospitals are places of healing and care, not protest and intimidation.”

Chow declared Monday's actions at Mount Sinai “unacceptable” on X. “Targeting Jewish institutions is anti-Semitic,” he wrote.

A group of 15 hospital executives, including Sinai Health's president and CEO, called the meeting anti-Semitic in a letter released Wednesday.

“This protest posed a real risk of disrupting the hospital's operations and compromising the safety of staff, physicians, students, patients and visitors – all of which are completely unacceptable,” the leadership of the Toronto-based Academic Health Sciences Network wrote.

A video posted online showed a protester scaling poles outside the hospital and waving a Palestinian flag during the demonstration, but a protest marshal said the man walked over several high points along the way.

Chelsea Lichtman, also a member of the Jewish organization No Genocide, has been a frequent participant in the city's recent pro-Palestinian protests, calling herself “Spiderman for Palestine” online.

“Spider-Man for Palestine is a frequent visitor to protests and an expert in climbing,” he said. “None of the structures he chose to climb were specific targets.”

Lichtman said he did not witness any obstruction outside the hospital when he led the march, and that protesters did not block people from entering its entrance. He said the police knew the direction of the protest and were monitoring the demonstration at the scene.

“People were coming and going from this hospital just like any other hospital on University Avenue that we were walking by,” he said.

“As a Jew, I was standing along this road, and when we were outside Mount Sinai, it didn't occur to me for one second, 'Oh, no, we're outside the Jewish hospital.' This is a hospital that treats anyone.”

Toronto police said Tuesday they were investigating the incidents in front of the hospital and along the protest route, and that there would be more in the area known as Hospital Row. They did not say whether the work of the hospital was disrupted during the protest.