LILLEY: Terror supporters show their true colours in Toronto

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As most Canadians went quietly about their Saturday afternoon, thousands of their fellow citizens took over the streets of Toronto in support of terrorists. The chants, the flags, the signs were all to mark the start of several days of commemoration of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks one year ago.

“One year of genocide. One year of resistance,” said the posters promoting the march.

Of course, the anniversary being marked is the anniversary of the brutal attacks launched by Hamas. The people marching Saturday on Toronto’s downtown streets have been demonstrating every single week since those attacks happened.

A year ago, they were marching in solidarity with “the resistance” and this Saturday they were doing the same.

“Long live the resistance!” they chanted over and over.

The name of Hamas, translated into English, is the Islamic Resistance Movement.

As I’ve been saying since last October, these are not “pro-Palestinian” protests, they are anti-Israeli, anti-Jewish, they are pro-Hamas and more recently pro-Hezbollah. The marches, which were supposedly about basic human rights for the people of Gaza, have adopted the cause of Hezbollah and before that the Houthis.

Support for Hezbollah is not backing an oppressed people in a land dispute, it is backing a terrorist group that has been attacking Israel for the last year. Now that Israel is responding after thousands of missile attacks, including one that killed 12 Druze children and injured many more, this mob is chanting for Lebanon to be left alone.

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In a year of covering these marches, I have never once heard a call for the hostages taken by Hamas to be released. There have been calls for a ceasefire directed at Israel but never calls for Hamas to make any concessions.

If you listen to what these protesters say, they make it clear who they are. They aren’t hiding it, and you just have to be willing to pay attention.

“We don’t want two states, take us back to ‘48!” the protesters chanted before switching over to the genocidal favourite, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Those chants, together, are a clear call to eliminate Israel, to drive the Jews into the sea.

We have the equivalent of Nazis marching in our streets day after day, week after week and very little is being done about it. Thankfully, Toronto Police announced the arrests of two men for waving and displaying the Hezbollah flag on Sept. 28 in downtown Toronto.

Ahmad Sheikhani, 34, of Oakville and Hamad Khalid Menshed, 34, of Mississauga are both facing a charge of “public incitement of hatred,” according to a TPS news release. The release clearly stated that officers approached the men, warned them about waving a terrorist group’s flag but had to back off due to the large crowd size. Both men kept waving the terrorist flag.

This isn’t the first time terror flags have flown. This also isn’t the first time these marchers have boldly declared their support for terrorism.

We have a real problem in our society where a large portion believes they can and should openly support terrorist activities. There were several thousand people marching and declaring their support in Toronto alone on Saturday, as well as other demonstrations across the country.

While the protesters were clear, not everyone is listening to what they are saying. Standing on Bloor St., I overheard a conversation between a store worker and a customer leaving the store.

“They’re supporting terrorism,” the customer said on his way out.

“No they aren’t,” said the retail worker to the nodding approval of their co-worker.

The group had just finished pledging their allegiance to “the resistance.”

It hasn’t helped that most media have been blind, complicit or both on the rare occasions they’ve covered these marches. Soft peddling any of this as pro-Palestinian is either ignoring the words the marchers say or an attempt to politically massage the message.

Our media needs to stop giving this cancerous group of people cover. They wouldn’t do it if they were actual Nazis, and they shouldn’t do it for this group which holds the same views.

Our politicians also need to start speaking out forcefully and stop pulling their punches over electoral concerns.

If you want to back terrorists, buy a plane ticket and fly over there to join the cause, but stop doing it from the comfort of Toronto.

You aren’t welcome here anymore.