Two events this week tell us something’s gone wrong on Canadian university campuses and streets. On Tuesday, the University of Toronto (U of T) Students’ Union will be organizing a rally titled “Honouring Our Martyrs.” This event will commemorate the second anniversary of the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel. On Thursday, activists in Vancouver intend to commemorate Hassan Nasrallah, the long-serving leader of Hezbollah who was killed in 2024. .OLDCORN: The public square is for everyone — not just the ‘tolerant’ Left.Both are billed as community “commemorations.” Both are tributes to terrorists. They should be cancelled. Start with the facts. Hamas’s October 7, 2023 rampage killed about 1,200 people and led to 251 hostages being dragged into Gaza. That isn’t “resistance.” It’s mass murder and kidnapping. The worst day for Jews since the Shoah. Marking that date by “honouring martyrs” isn’t solidarity with civilians. It’s a grim celebration of the killers and their terrorist crimes. .Canada’s own position is unambiguous. Ottawa lists both Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist entities. That matters. We’re not talking about controversial “movements” but groups our law recognizes for what they are. When student groups or community organizers frame their fighters as “martyrs,” they’re laundering terror with euphemism. That corrodes the norms that keep campuses and streets safe for everyone. There’s also the simple legal reality that freedom of expression is not freedom to glorify terrorism. The Criminal Code makes it an offence to counsel the commission of terrorism offences “without identifying a specific offence.” .RUSS: BC Conservatives need a leadership race right now.Universities and venue operators don’t need to wait for a line-by-line legal opinion to act. They can decline to platform events that credibly tend toward praise, justification, or promotion of listed terrorist groups and their leaders. Consider the Vancouver memorial for Nasrallah. For several decades, he led Hezbollah, a designated terrorist organization in Canada since 2002, until an Israeli airstrike killed him last year. A public “honour” for that record on Canadian soil is not a neutral remembrance. It’s a signal to followers and a thumb in the eye of Canadians, including Lebanese-Canadians, who’ve suffered from Hezbollah’s violence. Authorities and venue owners should shut it down. .At U of T, alumni and commentators have already condemned the Tuesday rally as grossly insensitive at best. They’re right. The date isn’t incidental. It’s the point. Choosing that day, and using the word “martyrs,” reframes a terrorist massacre as a cause for veneration. That chills Jewish students and staff, and it further polarizes a campus that’s already struggled to balance protest rights with safety. It also undermines genuine, difficult conversations about the rights of Palestinians, Israelis, and others caught in the war. If organizers want a peaceful, lawful space for grief, there’s a way. Gather to mourn civilians on all sides and explicitly reject terrorism. That is precisely Canada’s policy — to condemn all terrorism, including Hamas’s October 7 attack, and to reject incitement. .WENZEL: Teaching our kids the wrong lesson.You can advocate for Palestinian rights, argue about policy, and demand accountability from governments without celebrating people who deliberately targeted families at a music festival or fired rockets into densely populated neighbourhoods. This isn’t about banning ideas. It’s about drawing a necessary line in the sand. Terrorists should not be celebrated. The October 7 attack should not be celebrated. And events that aim to sanctify those acts — whether under a campus banner or at a downtown venue — should be cancelled. University administrators, city officials, and venue operators have a duty of care. Exercise it. Replace “honour our martyrs” with “honour our neighbours.” Replace rallies for a terror chief with vigils for victims. That’s how you keep a diverse country together.
