Ottawa activist threatened with arrest for asking Members of Parliament their position on arms sales to Israel

Ottawa-based activist Jonathan Machado has posted on his Instagram account: “The Canadian Parliament Hill Parliamentary Protective Service threatens to arrest me for asking Canadian politicians to stop Canadian weapons manufacturers’ from selling weapons to war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu.”
In the video, the Parliamentary Protective Service (PPS) officer says: “I’ve been informed that you are harassing Members of Parliament, we got a complaint, so if you do it again you will be under arrest.”
Thirteen MPs asked
On Machado’s Instagram page, there are clips of him over the past six weeks asking questions about arms sales and the situation in Gaza to Heather McPherson (NDP), Ken McDonald (Liberal), Blake Richards (Conservative), Francis Drouin (Liberal), Ben Lobb (Conservative), Darrell Samson (Liberal), Martin Shields (Conservative), an unidentified Member of Parliament (Liberal), Anthony Housefather (Liberal), Glen Motz (Conservative), Ali Ehsassi (Liberal), Bob Zimmer (Conservative), Ryan Turnbull (Liberal), Alexandre Boulerice (NDP), Andrew Scheer (Conservative), Jasraj Hallan (Conservative).
While Machado poses his questions respectfully, many of the Members of Parliament appear rude and disrespectful to him. And while there is a concern about the reported increased harassment of Members of Parliament, none of the videos suggest anything more than Machado asking MPs their position on a key public policy issue.
Arms Embargo Day of Action, June 13
Additionally, ArmsEmbargoNow.ca website notes: “On June 13th we’re taking action at MP offices across the country to demand they sign onto the call for a full and immediate arms embargo on Israel.”
Activists will be asking 30 more Members of Parliament to sign on to this statement in support of an arms embargo.
To date these 42 MPs have signed the statement.
We continue to follow this.
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