August 23, 2025 | by Barry Weisleder
Several leftist organizations held a news conference on August 22 outside the Ontario Superior Courthouse on Armoury Street in Toronto to protest political repression.
Earlier that day a judge found Canadian Union of Public Employees’ member Tynan Liebert innocent of one charge, but guilty of another in connection with a non-violent incident at a fund-raising event for Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland held in 2024. The federal Liberal minority government recently was caught lying when it denied sending weapons and munitions to the Zionist state. This makes the Liberal regime complicit in the genocide being perpetrated against the Palestinian people of Gaza and the West Bank, which was the reason for the protest at Freeland’s venue.
According to the judge, in the absence of any evidence of assault presented by the Crown, the crime of the accused was simply being present and making a facial gesture that urged disruption of the Liberal event.
At the rally outside the courthouse, Julius Arscott, President of OPSEU Local 532, spoke on behalf of Socialist Action. The text of his remarks are below.
The sentencing of Tynan Liebert will occur on October 21. If there is any justice, the conviction will be overturned. In any case, no penalty ought to be imposed.
An injury to one is an injury to all. The struggle continues!
Text of the remarks of Julius Arscott, presented on behalf of Socialist Action, at the August 22 news conference:
“Pro-Palestinian opinion is under attack. International solidarity is under attack. Workers are under attack — though airline attendants and postal workers are standing up for justice. Civil liberties and human rights are under attack. Tenants and consumers are under attack. So, what should we do? Act up. Fight back.
One tool of the boss class is Project Resolute. It is a program of the Toronto Police designed to smear, silence and persecute supporters of Palestinian liberation. In the face of an utterly horrendous genocide in Gaza, in the face of a brutal onslaught against Palestinians on the West Bank, it’s difficult to imagine a more despicable deployment of police power. Are the authorities here trying to follow the example of what Trump did in Los Angeles and Washington D.C.
Police harassment of hundreds of protests here resulted in 94 arrests. One targeted event was a protest at a Liberal Party fundraiser for Chrystia Freeland. The former deputy Prime Minister is complicit in the Palestinian genocide, along with other crimes against nature and humanity.
The arrest of union activist and Communist Workers’ Circle member Tynan Liebert should be seen in this light. It is plainly absurd, and frankly a huge threat to the right to strike. How are workers supposed to have an effective picket line when they can be convicted with assault just for telling scabs not to cross a picket line.
Tynan committed no act of violence, no misdemeanor. He should be praised, not punished, for protesting Liberal government complicity with genocide. The charges leveled against him should have been dropped long ago, and Project Resolute should be consigned to the dustbin of history.
Unfortunately, there are more evil works to be undone. The bubble zones should be burst that ban pro-Palestinian solidarity, free assembly and free speech.
Shame on Mayor Olivia Chow for voting in favour of the bubble zones that can extend to some 3,000 properties in Toronto. Down with Mark Carney’s plan to extend such a barrier to free speech across the entire country. High school students who wear kaffiehs should not have their image obscured in their school yearbook. And the firing of Katherine G., a member of CUPE Local 4900, for speaking out for Palestinians on her own time, off the work site, should be reversed. Full compensation for the interruption of Katherine’s free speech rights is overdue.
The pattern of repression is directly linked to the agenda of the rulers of the Canadian state. Canada is a prison house of nations, an imperialist junior partner of the American empire, now in an advanced state of decline. Mark Carney and company aim to make workers pay for the trade war now underway.
International solidarity of the working class is at odds with a tariffs conflict steeped in regressive nationalism. Solidarity is at odds with the pillaging of the natural environment and the violation of Indigenous rights. The goal of working class unity goes against Carney’s stunning increase in war spending and the contribution of more blood money for the NATO war machine.
Socialist Action says “No War but Class War”. Canada Out of NATO. Smash Project Resolute. Long live the liberation of Palestine. No to the fraud known as the two-state solution. For a Democratic Secular Palestine – From the River to the Sea. Drop the charges against all victims of police harassment. An injury to one is an injury to all!”