Vancouver police staged a raid Thursday morning at the home of a high-profile pro-Palestinian activist who is currently facing a hate crime investigation.
Neighbours awoke to the sound of a “bang” around 9 a.m., and were surprised to see an armoured police vehicle and heavily-armed members of the Vancouver Police Department’s Emergency Response Team outside the home near 1st Avenue and Victoria Drive.
“I saw what looked like a tank with guys in tactical gear outside aiming a tear gas gun at the house … I feel scared, just because I don’t know what is going on,” said neighbour Juniper, who Global News is not identifying out of concern for her safety.
Global News has identified the unit as the home of Charlotte Kates, the international co-ordinator of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, which was recently declared a terrorist entity.
Kates was arrested last spring after lauding Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel at a protest in Downtown Vancouver.
Vancouver police said they were executing a search warrant related to a hate crimes investigation, and said one person was arrested at the home and subsequently released. Police would not identify the person arrested, as they had not been charged.
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Neighbours Global News spoke with described a heavy police presence and smoke from a flashbang grenade, saying police broke windows in the unit they were searching. Some said the scale of the police operation was excessive.
“I think it was pretty over the top because these are just regular neighbourhood with regular citizens, and unless somebody is in immediate danger, like a hostage situation, I don’t think it is appropriate to use that much force,” Juniper said.
“I think given the level of force I was expecting there might have been possibly a gunfight or something, some level of high violence,” added neighbour Chris Alexander.
VPD spokesperson Steve Addison said it was not unusual for the department to use its emergency response team when serving search warrants.
“Our emergency response team is often used in the execution of search warrants when we believe there could be a risk to the public or a risk to the officers,” VPD spokesperson Sgt. Steve Addison said.
“In this case, when a risk assessment was done, it was determined the best case of action.”
No one answered when Global News knocked on Kates’ door Thursday afternoon. Global News has also reached out to her lawyer for comment.
Hate crime investigation
Vancouver police previously arrested Kates, 44, after she appeared at a pro-Palestinian demonstration at the Vancouver Art Gallery in April, where she called the Oct. 7 attack, which killed an estimated 1,200 people, “heroic and brave.”
Kates then led the crowd in a chant of “Long live October 7th,” and called for the delisting of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and several other groups as terrorist organizations, praising them as “heroes.”
In August, she travelled to Iran where she accepted a “human rights award” and again repeated her praise of the Oct. 7 attack.
Reached at her home by Global News that same month, Kates denied she was a security threat, saying, “The only security threat that is facing the world today is the Zionist genocide being carried out in Palestine against the Palestinian people that has slaughtered at least 40,000 Palestinians and that the Canadian government continues to support and that the United States continues to arm.”
In October, the federal government declared Samidoun as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code, following in the steps of Germany and the Netherlands.
In a news release, Public Safety Canada said the group had “close links with and advances the interests of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP),” which Canada, the U.S. and European Union also list as a terrorist entity.
“Violent extremism, acts of terrorism or terrorist financing have no place in Canadian society or abroad,” Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a statement at the time.
“The listing of Samidoun as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code sends a strong message that Canada will not tolerate this type of activity, and will do everything in its power to counter the ongoing threat to Canada’s national security and all people in Canada.”
— with files from Rumina Daya
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