Vancouver police boost presence at protests, schools for Oct. 7 anniversary

Police in Vancouver say more officers will be deployed at what they call "strategic locations," including faith-based schools and places of worship, leading up to Monday's one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel.

Vancouver Police Chief Const. Adam Palmer says planned and unplanned protests across the city are posing a "significant" risk of disorder, and officers trained specifically for large-scale events will be deployed.

In addition, Palmer says tactical response and uniformed officers will be placed at "key locations" in consultation with leaders of both the Jewish and Muslim communities.

He says uniformed school liaison officers will be highly visible during student pickup and drop-off at faith-based schools on Monday, while a VPD Mobile Command Centre has been posted outside the Jewish Community Centre at Oak Street and West 41st Avenue.

The Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel killed 1,200 people and saw 250 abducted, according to Israeli tallies, triggering a counteroffensive in Gaza that the health ministry there says has left more than 41,000 dead.

Among the groups planning rallies and events over the weekend and on Monday is pro-Palestinian group Samidoun, which is promoting its events on social media by referring to the Oct. 7 attacks as "Al-Aqsa Flood," the Hamas code name for the operation.

The "week of action" includes what Samidoun calls a "teach-in" about the operation and a rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Monday, as well as attending an Oct. 8 court appearance the group says will be made by Samidoun organizer Charlotte Kates. 

Vancouver police say there have been 344 protests in the city related to the Israel-Hamas war, amounting to more than 3,000 overtime shifts by police and costing $4.1 million in policing.

"In the first 100 days following the Oct. 7 attacks, we saw a 62 per cent increase in reports of antisemitism," Palmer said at a briefing.

"Members of our Muslim and West Asian communities are also hurting," he added. "For some, their sense of safety and belonging has been impacted by Islamophobia, things like hateful encounters with strangers and hurtful graffiti written on walls of schools and community centres."

Palmer says policing protests related to the Israeli-Hamas war was one of the main cost pressures that would put the VPD around $6 million over budget by the end of the year. That is equivalent to about 1.5 per cent of the entire police budget.

He says police have proactively reached out to protest groups and organizers, and the responses have been mostly — but "not always" — co-operative.

"We will facilitate that, when people have lawful protests," Palmer says. "But what we will not put up with is violence or hatred or crimes against other people. There's no criminality, no violence, no unlawfulness allowed. So that's where we draw the line."

Samidoun director Kates was arrested last year in a hate-crime investigation after praising the Oct. 7 attack as "heroic and brave" in a speech at a rally.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association wrote to the VPD in June to express concern about her arrest.