Dear Mr. Ben Carr, 

As constituents in your riding, we have heard you state how committed you are to hearing and integrating diverse points of view. This is why we were confused by your social media post on April 1, 2025, calling for “bubble legislation that will prevent any religiously associated facility from being the target of intimidation and protests.”

 

 

We share the belief that people and institutions should not be targeted because of their religion or when participating in religious events. However, what you left out of your post was that this was in no way a religious event. The event, organized by Students Supporting Israel and entitled “Triggered: From Combat to Campus”, featured two members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). 

 

 

As described on their website, Students Supporting Israel is not a religious organization but “a rapidly growing Zionist international campus movement that supports the State of Israel”. Given that the event on April 1, 2025, consisted of a group of people expressing political views about a foreign government, and platforming members of a foreign military, why would a group expressing different political views not be allowed to gather peacefully? 

As you are surely aware, Section 2(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms enshrined in law the freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression. Section 2(c) protects the freedom of peaceful assembly. The Supreme Court of Canada has maintained that the connection between freedom of expression and the political process is “perhaps the linchpin” of democratic governance (Government of Canada, 2023). According to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (2025), if we create too many restrictions on the fundamental freedom of peaceful assembly, “we silence the voices of many in our society, particularly those who may have limited other means for making their views known”. We are deeply concerned that this is your intention, to silence those who have a different view than yours. 

According to a CBC news article dated November 16, 2023, you expressed concern that a academic panel entitled "Palestine and Genocide: Reflections on Imperialism, Settler-Colonialism, and Decolonization” could “further spur antisemitism and make Jewish students on campus feel vulnerable”. Yet, Students Supporting Israel described their event on April 1, 2025, as an opportunity to “come listen to 2 IDF soldiers as they share their powerful stories and experiences of bravery, sacrifice, and hope for Zionism”.  Why did you not express the same concern about this event leading to an increase in Islamophobia or about Arab individuals feeling unsafe? Your words and actions appear to prioritize the rights and needs of one religious/ethnic group at the expense of another. 

As you may know, Canada played a pivotal role in establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC). When Canada adopted the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act in 2000, we became the first country in the world to incorporate the obligations of the ICC’s Rome Statute into our national laws (Government of Canada, 2023). In November 2024, the ICC issued warrants of arrest for Benjamin Netanyahu (the Prime Minister of Israel) and Yoav Gallant (the former Minister of Defence of Israel) for crimes against humanity and war crimes.Your decision to support an event with active military personnel from a country accused of war crimes stands in direct opposition to our international commitments and our own laws. As our representative in the Canadian government, please help us understand your decision to support this event instead of international law. 

Given that we are currently in an election period, we think it is important for the constituents of Winnipeg South Centre to understand your answers to the questions above. In addition, we respectfully ask that you:

1. Update your social media post from April 1, 2025, to accurately reflect the events that occurred (i.e., that the event being protested was presented by Students Supporting Israel, a non-religious organization, and involved expressing political views).
2. Clarify your stance on Section 2(b) & (c) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and how you plan to uphold these freedoms regardless of whether you personally agree or disagree with the political opinion being expressed.
3. Clarify why you viewed Students Supporting Israel as deserving of these freedoms, but not the academic panel in November 2023. Knowing what you know now, would your words and actions differ should a similar event happen in the future? 

We appreciate that this is an especially busy time for you, and we see this correction and clarification as crucial for community members to make an informed choice in the federal election on April 28 2025. As such, we respectfully ask that you provide a written response to this petition before Friday April 18 2025 to ensure that we have time to share this information with voters in our riding.