Yves Engler first charged with harassment for criticising Israel propagandist, then again for making police feel harassed – echoes of UK police state
A Canadian man has been charged with harassing police for writing about charges brought against him by Montreal police for criticising a pro-Israel propagandist, in yet another example of the growing phenomenon of state assaults on free speech on Israel and Gaza.
Yves Engler said of the initial charge of ‘harassment and indecent communication’ against him that:
On Tuesday police investigator Crivello said they were charging me at the behest of anti-Palestinian activist Dahlia Kurtz. The police officer said I had described Kurtz as a “genocide” supporter and “fascist” on Twitter, which is true.
He described his reasons for this assessment:
Amidst this ever-worsening holocaust in Gaza, the media and politicians want us to believe Canadian Jews are the real victims. In an egregious example, the Winnipeg Sun just published “Dahlia Kurtz mobilizing pushback on Canada’s Jew-hate problem.” Palestinian suffering is omitted from the long profile of an unhinged Jewish supremacist. The article describes Kurtz combating “‘Free Palestine’ hatefests” and selecting Justin Trudeau “winner of my 2024 Jew-Hater of the Year Award.”
Over the past 15 months Kurtz has become a leader in Canada’s fascist movement, posting incessantly about purported Jewish victimhood and the anti-genocide “mob” who should be “deported”. A compulsive liar, Kurtz openly calls for state violence against those challenging Canadian complicity in genocide. On Friday she posted a video that appeared to show dark skinned teenagers fighting in Edmonton mockingly describing the incident as “a celebration of diversity”. A week earlier she posted a photo of neo-Nazis rallying with the statement “‘MASS DEPORTATIONS NOW’ banner at mall in London, Ontario. Who’s with them?”
A major paper profiling this fascist, Jewish supremacist, fifteen months into the holocaust in Gaza speaks volumes of the media climate.
Engler says Kurtz went to the police, via a lawyer with a track record of suing anti-genocide activists, after ‘he commented on her posts on ‘quote tweeting’ him on Twitter – a method of communication with no guarantee the ‘recipient’ will ever see it:
On July 5, 2024, Kurtz quote tweeted me with the statement: “Hello, @EnglerYves. I’m advising you in this one message only that you are harassing me. You’re threatening and you’re making me afraid for my safety. You must stop this harassment — and communication with me. Stop now.”
She quote tweeted a message I posted six days earlier noting “Racist Dahlia supports killing Palestinian children. 20,000 is not enough she wants even more Palestinian blood spilled.”
As an X user noted immediately and Kurtz surely knows, the platform has a mechanism for anyone who no longer wants to hear from another user. They can block that user. Kurtz has chosen not to block me but instead pursue criminal charges.
I’ve never met Kurtz. Nor have I messaged or emailed her. Nor have I threatened her. I don’t even follow her on X (Twitter’s algorithm puts her posts in my feed).
Apparently, the legal firm assisting Kurtz is that of Neil Oberman, who is running for the Conservative party in the upcoming federal election. Oberman has launched a slew of lawsuits in recent months against different institutions and individuals opposing genocide. On two occasions I’ve videoed myself questioning Oberman about his ‘lawfare’ at the service of Israel’s genocide.
Engler wrote an article on his blog about the police deciding to take the issue seriously and charge him, then posted on Twitter/X about what followed:
You can’t make this up. Initially the Montreal police accused me of harassing an anti-Palestinian media personality because I posted about Israel’s genocide. Now they are charging me for harassing the police for writing about the charges levelled against me.
At 9:30 AM tomorrow the Montreal police are set to arrest me. Today an officer told me they will detain me overnight or until I’m brought before a judge. On Tuesday police investigator Crivello said they were charging me at the behest of anti-Palestinian activist Dahlia Kurtz. The police officer said I had described Kurtz as a “genocide” supporter and “fascist” on Twitter, which is true. I promptly wrote about the charges and the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute organized an email letter campaign, which saw 2,500 outraged people call on the cops to drop the Kurtz-sponsored charges.
Angry at receiving emails and my article — the police were seeking release conditions barring me from discussing the charges levelled against me — the police are now claiming I’m victimizing them. Today a new investigator called to say investigator Crivello feels threatened by my writing about the charges levelled against me. The Montreal police will be charging me with intimidation, harassment, harassing communication and “entrave” (interference) towards Crivello. The police investigator also announced that they will be holding me overnight out of fear that I may “recidive” (relapse). In other words, I might once again write about the absurd charges levelled against me. Guilty as charged.
Over the past 24 hours I’ve received multiple messages about frivolous cases brought against others for opposing genocide. The abuse of police and legal system to target opponents of genocide is a greater problem than I realized. I’m trying to make sense of Kurtz’s bizarre bid not to block me on X but claim I am harassing her. Perhaps she is trying to monetize her status as a victim of hate. On her site Kurtz writes: “If you want to help save Canada from hate and extremism please donate by e-transfer to: [email]. After years of working for media outlets, I am now independent, so I can say the truth. This also means my personal security is under constant threat. You can make a difference. My work is funded solely by your support.”
A lawyer is looking into pursuing legal action against Kurtz. But it’s the police that really need to be held accountable. The initial charges were an abuse of state authority and adding new charges for criticizing them is beyond absurd. The Montreal police apparently have no qualms about acting in service of Israel’s slaughter in Gaza. More than 100,000 have been killed and almost everyone has been displaced. About 70% of buildings are destroyed and most agricultural land damaged.
The police targeting opposition to Israel’s crimes is an embarrassment. The particular charges are ridiculous. The notion that someone can publicly attack Palestinians, repeatedly call Canada’s prime minister an antisemite and a supporter of terror, engage a Conservative Party candidate as a lawyer to convince police to lay charges and authorities go along with it — simply incredible. Then for the police to claim they are being victimized by emails critical of the ridiculous charges — I’m at a loss for words. What parallel universe have we slipped into? Please email the Montreal mayor and police chief to demand they drop the charges against Yves Engler.
The Canadian lawfare wave bears resemblances to the Starmer regime’s mass assault on anti-genocide free speech, but Starmer’s is even more sinister – misusing anti-terror laws to raid, arrest, confiscate the electronics of and prosecute anti-genocide activists and journalists with potential fourteen-year sentences and holding victims in prison for a year or more pending trial.
Similar tactics are also being used in Switzerland, Austria and other European nations as the western Establishment seeks to limit awareness of Israel’s genocide of more than two hundred thousand Palestinians in Gaza – and as many as half a million, according to lawyer and former US presidential candidate Ralph Nader and to statements by US president Donald Trump – and its ongoing war crimes in the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria.
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Just, when you think Zionists, and their lickspittle authorities, can’t get much more bizarre, in their treatment of those opposing genocide, up pops another one to prove you wrong.
Where will it end – execution by guillotine, for anti-Semitic thought word and deed, according to the discredited IHRA? Or would that be the end? Is there more?
Meanwhile, I see Amesbury copped a jail sentence.
So let’s use their own shithouse tricks against them.
The next time the mps start shrieking about ‘abuse’ just remember and remind them that we – their employers – could do with protecting from them just as much.
To add…
And when these mps make their ‘suggestions’ , for example, about the disabled & unemployed – report them for inciting harassment.
If you fall under those categories, tell the old bill you feel you have been subjected to sufficient ‘distress and alarm’ by their (snide & shithouse) comments.
Let’s just recap.
Across the Collective Worst you can be arrested, harassed, departed, charged as a terrorist, have your electronic communications equipment confiscated, have your bank account shut down, lose your employment, be expelled from political parties, smeared, slandered, physically attacked, sued, and prevented from organising or protesting for expressing, articulating or thinking against The Official Narrative (TON).
However,
Meanwhile, bad as this is, at present those of us living in this Malice in Blunderland dystopia do not face mass extermination. In Israel, you can even be refused entry into the country for pointing out the proven lies about October 7th 2023, its aftermath, and for supporting Palestinians.
Worse, de facto if not de jure, you can be kidnaped, tortured and murdered in a myriad of ways, have your homes and communities destroyed, and expelled from your own land and property simply for being an Arab rather than one of the self-appointed and self-defining “chosen people”.
If you stand your ground, you had it coming – up to and including genocide. The same if you simply do nothing. Any kind of opposition engenders the same response from the majority of the colonialist population, who have stolen your land and the lives of hundreds of thousands of your community for nearly a century.
Being reasonable does not work. Talking does not work. The people engaging in this behaviour don’t just want you out of their sight, they want you physically exterminated and extinguished from history. Along with anyone who helps or supports you.
And whilst nowhere near the same scale, this does not represent the only current conflict in which being the wrong sort of human being, speaking the wrong language, following the wrong religion, occupying land and resources coveted by others will get you the same kind of treatment supported unconditionally ‘for as long as it takes’ by the same outside forces.
It is very easy from the comfort of an armchair to sit at a keyboard and bemoan how those facing such stresses over a long period of time react to those threats.
It’s easy to say from the safety of distance that “they should not have done this or that”; or reacted in a particular way. A far more useful approach would be to come up with practical suggestions and solutions as to how such situations should or could have been handled.
If non are forthcoming then it is perhaps better to save any advice until such solutions can be offered?
“Perhaps she [Dahlia Kurtz] is trying to monetize her status as a victim of hate. On her site Kurtz writes: “If you want to help save Canada from hate and extremism please donate by e-transfer to: [email]. After years of working for media outlets, I am now independent, so I can say the truth. This also means my personal security is under constant threat. You can make a difference. My work is funded solely by your support.”
Confess I hadn’t heard of this person before but there are striking similarities with a UK ‘television personality’ (who thankfully I haven’t heard of for quite a while) who used lawfare to target anti zionists… Neither would know the truth if they fell over it.
The ‘charges’ against Yves Engler are truly bizarre – an individual ‘harassing the police’ when the police hold all the power of the state??