Mississauga mayor’s history of anti-Israel statements revealed

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Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish — facing calls for an apology for comments seeming to defend Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar — has a long history of antagonism toward Israel, dating back to her time as a Liberal MP, a perch she lost after insulting George W. Bush and all Americans.

“At a recent City Council meeting, Mayor Parrish drew a deeply offensive comparison between Yahya Sinwar, the former Hamas terrorist leader responsible for the October 7 terrorist attacks and countless innocent lives lost, and Nelson Mandela, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate known worldwide for his fight for human rights and peace. That comparison was both despicable and telling,” the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), a leading Canadian Jewish group, said in a statement Tuesday.

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“We are calling on the Mississauga community and allies to reach out urgently to their Mississauga City Councillor and demand accountability for Mayor Carolyn Parrish’s divisive actions and statements.”

CIJA called on the city council to censure the mayor if she does not apologize by Friday.

The Jewish group also encouraged people to register a complaint with the integrity commissioner and shared that it had unearthed a 2015 social media post from Parrish that was published when she was a local city councillor.

“I don’t get into discussions with Zionists,” the January 2015 tweet says. “Have tried in past&found it (a) fruitless exercise. Been to Palestine. Know what’s up.”

CIJA urged Parrish to clarify if her views remain the same. “Is this why she has refused to apologize?” CIJA asked in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

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National Post did not hear back from the mayor’s office requesting comment on CIJA’s statement and on whether she stands by her comparison of terror leader Sinwar to Mandela.

Parrish has a history of getting in trouble for what she has said. In 2003, Canadian journalist David Frum chronicled her vocal opposition to Israel throughout her early political life. In 2002, when Parrish was a Liberal MP, she accompanied several MPs to the West Bank and Gaza. She reportedly thanked the trip organizers by telling them: “You got your money’s worth. You have nine members of Parliament who’ve come back completely and totally convinced that what’s going on over there is a crime against humanity.”

Parrish’s impression of Israel, according to Frum, was reinforced by Palestinian misinformation alleging that the Jewish state killed hundreds in the Jenin refugee camp in April 2002, following a Hamas suicide bombing during the Second Intifada, despite news reports to the contrary.

“Palestinian sources originally claimed there were 3,000 dead in the street fighting, later lowering the tally to 500. An independent report found the actual number to be around 50, more than half of whom were terrorists. Despite the clarification, the myth of a Jenin massacre persists,” researchers at the Foundations for the Defense of Democracies wrote in a 2023 report.

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Frum also summarized an interview Parrish gave to Al Ahram, an Egyptian outlet, in which she said concerns of antisemitism had been exaggerated in North America.

Parrish was ousted from the Liberal Party caucus in 2004 for calling Americans “bastards” and appearing on a sketch comedy show stomping on a doll of then-President George W. Bush. She sat as an Independent MP until January 2006. She did not run in the 2006 federal election and was elected as a Mississauga city councillor in November of that year.

“While initially it was shocking that Mayor Parrish continuously refused to acknowledge the harmful and divisive nature of a vigil to commemorate the architect of the Oct. 7 massacre, and then deeply troubling for her to compare that terrorist to Nelson Mandela, revelations of her decade-plus long history of anti-Zionist statements allows us to see these actions through a new lens — one of bias — that makes her disregard for the concerns of the Jewish community sadly unsurprising,” Michelle Stock, vice president of CIJA Ontario, told the Post in a statement.

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“A mayor’s duty is to her constituents — all her constituents. The events of the past 10 days have shown, however, that Mayor Parrish’s Jewish constituents are of little consequence to her,” Stock added. “Her bias will only serve to embolden those with antisemitic agendas who see her actions as endorsing their cause.”

Tensions have escalated in Mississauga after a planned vigil honouring Sinwar was scheduled for late November, with Parrish initially giving mixed signals about whether the event was happening. On Saturday, the organizer cancelled the commemoration, citing security concerns. The group has staunchly supported Parrish’s handling of the controversy and repeated her comparison of Sinwar and Mandela.

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Last Friday, Parrish responded to pushback from Canadian Jewish groups by underscoring that it was not within her purview to bar such demonstrations. “As a government, the City of Mississauga is committed to upholding the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees the right to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly,” she wrote in a statement posted to X on Nov. 15.

“Charter rights are not absolute and must be balanced with the rights of others. City Security Officers and Peel Police will be present at the event to manage the crowds and ensure that the event remains peaceful.”

Those limits were put to the test when anti-Israel protesters marched through Mississauga on Nov. 16. “Our purpose is Allah. Jihad is our path. Death in the way of Allah is our best aspiration. Allah is the greatest. Al-Quds, onwards, to Jerusalem, martyrs in our millions,” they chanted, according to the translation in a video shared by CIJA.

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Peel Police told the Post it was aware of the demonstration and that “11 Division Criminal Investigations Bureau is actively investigating the matter.”

“Peel Regional Police will not tolerate any acts of hate in our community. Resources have been allocated to manage the protests and investigate any related criminal acts, including hate crimes,” spokesman Richard Chin said in an emailed statement.

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