Hundreds of protesters thronged the entrance of a hotel in downtown Vancouver Thursday night, where Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was thought to be holding a fundraising dinner.
Among the nearly 200 people protesting outside the Westin Bayshore hotel in Vancouver’s Coal Harbour, many could be heard shouting for ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
According to his itinerary, the fundraising dinner was after a roundtable discussion with Muslim and Jewish leaders.
Vancouver Police officers were stationed around the front of the hotel’s conference centre, while security guards maintained positions around the rest of the building.
People with flags and a megaphone shouted “Free, free, free Palestine” and “Shut it down.”
Roughly two dozen people could be seen lying motionless on the road outside the conference centre covered in white sheets painted with red.
“Justin Trudeau’s hands are red,” people chanting.
Social media accounts called for people to meet at 5 p.m. to protest in the “All out 4 Palestine” protest, which claimed “Canada is still complicit in the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.”
The latest round of intense violence began when Hamas militants carried out a massacre inside Israel on Oct. 7. About 1,200 people, many civilians, were killed in the attack, while another another 240 were abducted and taken back to Gaza.
Since then, the Israeli Defence Force's large-scale aerial bombardments and ground invasion of Gaza have left nearly 19,000 people dead and more than 50,000 injured, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry.
Vancouver Police tell Glacier Media an estimated 200 protesters showed up.
"There were no arrests and no incidents of note," says Const. Tania Visintin.
This is the second time in two months the prime minister has been confronted by protesters advocating for Canada to do more to address Israel's retaliatory strikes in Gaza.
In November, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters surrounded a Vancouver restaurant where Trudeau was dining.
Roughly 100 officers attended a "spontaneous" protest by about 250 people just before 10 p.m., according Sgt. Steve Addison, a spokesperson for the Vancouver Police Department (VPD). Addison said the officers had been sent to control the crowd so Trudeau could leave the restaurant.
Addison said police used a Taser to subdue one man who was arrested for assaulting an officer, while another was arrested for obstruction.
A 27-year-old man from Coquitlam, B.C., was arrested after an officer was punched in the face and her eyes were gouged while she was trying to disperse the crowd.
Jakub Jerzy Markiewicz, 27, was charged with assaulting a peace officer, assault causing bodily harm, and resisting/obstruction of a peace officer.
