MacLEOD: From protest to anarchy, Canada's moment of truth has arrived

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It started with protesters. People marching in our streets, waving placards, chanting slogans.

Canada has always allowed dissent, it’s part of our democracy, a right protected by our charter. But somewhere after Oct. 7, 2023, some protesters crossed a line. They stopped being demonstrators and became anarchists.

We saw the signs early. Jewish day schools shot up in the dead of night. Classrooms where children should feel safe instead turned into symbols of fear. Then came the father beaten in front of his children simply for being Jewish. These were not isolated incidents. They were warnings.

Soon, the so-called protesters moved from symbols to spaces. Synagogues and Jewish neighbourhoods were targeted with intimidation. Rallies in our streets echoed with chants celebrating terrorism. Canadian families felt less safe in their communities. The line between lawful assembly and mob coercion had been erased.

Then over the weekend, the last straw: Ottawa’s Pride parade was cancelled. Pride, an event rooted in equality, love and belonging. A day when Canadians come together in celebration of dignity. In our nation’s capital, that celebration was silenced because anarchists threatened to hijack it. Not because organizers lost their will. Not because people stopped caring. But because intimidation won.

Think about what that means. If anarchists can cancel Pride parades without consequence, what comes next? Canada Day? A Remembrance Day service? A Stanley Cup celebration? Our civil society itself is now at risk.

This is not protesting anymore. It is targeted, organized and deliberate disruption designed to destabilize Canadian democracy. These mobs are not in our streets to defend Palestinians or to alleviate suffering in Gaza. They are well-funded, co-ordinated, and, in some cases, paid to terrorize Jewish Canadians. Their aim is not peace. Their aim is not justice. Their aim is to erase Jews, destabilize western democracies and destroy the Canadian values we hold dear: Peace, order and good government.

Yet what has been our collective response? Passive policing. Weak political leadership. Leaders afraid to call this what it is: Antisemitic hate and anarchy determined to undermine the very foundation of our country. Too many have chosen to appease and placate, hoping the chaos will burn itself out. Instead, it has spread. Every concession, every shrug, every “both sides” equivocation has emboldened the worst instincts of the mob.

This cannot continue. Our Constitution, our Bill of Rights and our Charter of Rights and Freedoms are not mere words. They are solemn promises. They guarantee that Canadians can live free from persecution and fear. They guarantee that civil society belongs to the law-abiding, not to those who terrorize communities under the guise of protest.

When those guarantees fail for Jewish Canadians, they fail for us all. When schools are shot up, when fathers are beaten, when parades are cancelled, when families are harassed, those failures accumulate. Pride’s cancellation is not just another headline. It is proof that our values are under assault and that the anarchists are winning ground.

Leadership now requires clarity and courage. Leaders must stop appeasing, stop placating and stop hiding behind platitudes. They must stand up and defend Canadian values without apology. That means saying clearly that Hamas is a terrorist organization. Its sympathizers in Canada are not peaceful protesters, they are anarchists bent on destabilization. That means recognizing that antisemitism is not a “viewpoint,” it is hate, it is unCanadian. And it means calling intimidation what it is: A direct assault on democracy.

Law enforcement must also reclaim its role. Police are not bystanders. Their duty is to protect the vulnerable, enforce the law and safeguard civil order. Jewish day schools, synagogues, community centres and public events like Pride must not be surrendered to mobs. Canadians must be able to gather, celebrate and worship without fear. If that requires firmer policing, then it requires firmer policing. The rule of law must not be optional.

This is a warning. We are at a moment of truth. If we continue to indulge anarchists, if we allow them to dictate which communities can gather and which cannot, if we continue to treat intimidation as protest, then our most cherished values will collapse under the weight of cowardice.

Canada has stood firm before against fascism, against apartheid, against terrorism. Today, the threat is here at home. The agitators who silenced Ottawa Pride and terrorize Jewish Canadians are not defenders of rights. They are enemies of them.

The reasonable majority must now decide: Will we allow our democracy to be dismantled by anarchists or will we stand up for peace, order and good government?

I know where I stand.

— MacLeod is the former MPP for Nepean and is co-founder of Secord Strategies/Wandering Women: North of 50.