A Canadian senator is raising questions about public safety after pro-Palestinian protestors jumped on his car during a demonstration outside Parliament.
Conservative Senator Donald Plett called the incident frightening, according to Blocklock’s Reporter.
“I think the public should know what is happening here and how unsafe we in fact feel,” he said.
“I would like to hear how we go about protecting ourselves because we are getting less and less protection,” Mr. Plett said during a meeting of the committee on internal economy on Nov. 9.
He said the incident happened when he was trying to get to a meeting of the Manitoba Conservative Caucus. Protestors from a group called Labour For Palestine jumped on his car and pounded on the hood when he refused to take a pamphlet, Mr. Plett said.
“As I get to the stop sign there is a car in front of me that has stopped with probably 30 or 40 protesters around that car, not letting the car move,” said Mr. Plett. “What I found out later on is they insisted the driver take a pamphlet and once the driver took a pamphlet they let the car go.”
“They all moved over to my car,” he said. “I just very, very slowly, slowly, slowly kept on driving and they actually jumped onto my car. They were banging on my windows.”
Mr. Plett said the protestors were blocking him from moving his vehicle.
“They were laying on the hood of the car and trying to prevent me from moving,” said Mr. Plett. “Of course, there were all kinds of cameras going off and I am sure I’m in many pictures now in the Gaza Strip.”
He said he slowly moved his car forward, but the incident shook him.
“There was no security around to help me. I felt very, very unsafe.”
He said he later found out there were “probably a dozen” members of the House that had been “under attack.”
“When they asked the Parliamentary Protective Service over at the House why they weren’t being given any help the answer was, ‘We don’t have enough staff.’”
Mr. Plett questioned that response.
“They seem to have enough staff to stop all hot tub parties and barbecues when we had some friendly protesters here,” he said, referring to Freedom Convoy street parties. “And now they don’t have enough staff when many of us feel very, very unsafe.”
The list includes a ceasefire and an end to the military action in Gaza, an end to Canada’s support of Israel, and a “free Palestine.”
