The office of Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles has been vandalized after almost two weeks of internal party strife over the Israel-Hamas conflict came to a head.
On Tuesday, printed letters were glued to Stiles’ Toronto office with the words, “Free Palestine, blood on your hands.” Red paint also appeared to have been dripped onto a photo of Stiles in her office window.
Speaking to reporters, Stiles said no one was injured and staff working at the office were okay.
“I don’t know who did it or what happened, nobody’s hurt,” she said.
The vandalism comes the day after Stiles booted rookie Hamilton Centre MPP, Sarah Jama, from her caucus after a lengthy debate over a statement she released about violence in the Middle East.
On Oct. 10, Jama released a statement on NDP letterhead criticizing Israel’s human rights record, calling for a ceasefire in the region and for an “end (to) all occupation of Palestinian land.”
The statement came three days after Hamas, categorized as a terror group by the Canadian government, launched a bloody attack on Israel. Thousands of Israelis and Palestinians have died in the violence that has followed.
Jama was criticized for her statement, particularly its failure in its original form to condemn Hamas.
Almost two weeks of controversy came after the statement was posted, including calls to remove Jama from the NDP caucus. The Hamilton MPP also threatened to sue Premier Doug Ford and the government voted to ban her from speaking in the house.
The controversy resulted in Stiles removing Jama from the NDP caucus after initially resisting calls to do so.
Stiles said the vandalism at her office was part of the modern reality of working as an MPP.
“Our offices get vandalized — it’s not OK, I would never condone that, I don’t want it, but it happens to us in politics sometimes,” she said.
The Ontario NDP leader used the incident to call for unity.
“We have a bigger issue right now in this province,” she said.
“We have very divided, very divided communities. We have a rise in Islamophobia and antisemitism. And this is a time to bring people together, this is a time to unite people and not divide.”