This event may have been necessary to terrorize me (someone not at those protests) into believing - whether true or false - that if I say "Palestine" or "two-state solution" (among other phrases) on the public record, in Canada, that I will be unsafe.

In recent Canadian news we've heard of an MPP, an art director at the AGO, and a medical resident at U Ottawa disciplined to varying extents for expressing concerns about what's happening to the people in Gaza. We also know that Bell Media has forbidden all broadcast outlets for mentioning "Palestine" and provided other instructions for how to present relevant news coverage.

But this... Toronto Police raids in the middle of the night (as used for armed gangs) for the alleged crimes of vandalism with water soluble paint and protests that haven't contained any true antisemitism from what I've read so far and by my interpretation is legitimately terrorizing. It is for sending a message - that there is a penalty for questioning the mainstream narrative around a geopolitical conflict/crisis halfway across the world.

Forgive me for venting. I feel so unsettled by this. Intersectionally, I'm pretty removed from the issue: I have pale white skin, Western European ethnicity, was born in Canada, am a citizen, and I'm agnostic. Yet I feel very impacted by the mainstream narrative around what's happening in Gaza and the surrounding policing of that narrative. Maybe that's because I am a critical thinker, and that feels very much under attack right now. This intended-to-intimidate police raid really undermines my sense of free speech in this country. Also, I could imagine that some Canadians who are non-citizens, Arabic, or Muslim or Jewish might feel even more threatened by this stuff than me