On the afternoon of December 11th, approximately 25 members of the Peterborough community gathered for a vigil outside the City Hall to demand that Mayor Jeff Leal and City Councillors call for an immediate ceasefire in the ongoing conflict in Palestine.

The vigil included emotional speeches, poetry readings, and a march around the block from City Hall to McDonnel Street, down Water Street, to Murray Street and back in what organizers hope will become a weekly event until such a time as a permanent ceasefire is achieved.  

“We ask that our City Council hear the cries of the Palestinian people, listen to the growing condemnation by leaders and ordinary people around the world and be counted among those who did our best to stop this,” organizer Stephanie Benn stated during her address.

Benn asked those in attendance to encourage other “like-minded residents” to join them in these actions.   

“We condemn the brutal attack by Hamas on October 7th, and give our support to the countless Israeli families who have lost loved ones,” said Benn. “We condemn all hate-motivated crimes and instead call for greater understanding and compassion for all people.”

Benn, who works as a teacher who sees the ways the ongoing conflict is affecting her students with connections to Palestine, felt obliged to organize this recurring action based on a call from the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM). 

The NCCM’s Municipal Ceasefire Call encourages citizens to organize locally to pressure their municipal governments to encourage the Federal Government to call for a ceasefire. Thus far, the site lists over 60 municipal leaders across Canada who have called for a ceasefire, including more than 50 in British Columbia alone as well as Brampton, London, Toronto, and Hamilton in Ontario.

When Benn saw that there was yet to be a campaign underway in Peterborough, she began organizing. Part of the work underway includes an online petition which at the time of publication has garnered over 200 signatures in four days.

Benn told Arthur that she had reached out to Peterborough Council, and had heard back from Councillors Alex Bierk and Joy Lachica. Lachica is among those in Peterborough who have signed their name to the petition.   

One attendee, Ferne Cristall, carried a sign which read “Not in My Name” and when asked by Arthur to explain the significance of this vigil for her as a Jewish person, she explained that there is a tendency in Canada to “claim that anything anti-Zionist is anti-Semitic.”

“I think most people in Canada are outraged,” Cristall continued.  

When asked about the rise in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic attacks since the beginning of the conflict, Cristall was candid in her remarks. 

“I would argue everybody, from academics and artists, and others who speak out are being censored and they’re not being censored because they’re speaking out for Israel, they’re being censored for speaking out for Palestine,” she said, claiming that she finds this upsetting both as a Jewish person and as someone deeply opposed to censorship of any kind. 

The vigil ended with Benn reading a December 4th statement from the International President of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Dr. Christos Christou, which urged the United Nations Security Council to “use their leverage and help stop the bloodshed being committed in Gaza.” 

“Despite Israel’s claims, its all-out assault is not being waged just on Hamas,” Dr. Christou writes. “It is being waged on all of Gaza and its people at any cost. Even wars have rules, but Israel is clearly trading them in for its own military strategy based on disproportionality.”

On December 8th, the United States used its veto power to vote down a resolution calling for a ceasefire – something which underscores MSF’s understanding that “world leaders, including permanent members of the Security Council, have been complicit” by failing to stand up to Israel to bring forward an end to “the relentless bloodshed and atrocities being committed in Gaza.”   

As an organization, MSF upholds values of neutrality and impartiality in all of its missions on the basis that “human beings are equally susceptible to suffering and no one should be deprived of the medical care they need.” 

Thus far, four MSF staff have been killed in the conflict. As Dr. Christou writes, “words fail us to describe the absolute horror being inflicted on Palestinian civilians by Israel as it carries out incessant and indiscriminate warfare in Gaza for all the world to see.”

“We are witnessing the fundamental principle of humanity being openly disgraced,” he states.

As these words were read outside of City Hall, Councillors were preparing for their last meeting of 2023. Up for discussion is the passage of the 2024 municipal budget. While Benn acknowledged this, she has meetings with Councillor Lachica scheduled for next week. 

The vigils will continue until they are no longer necessary, Benn assured those assembled and will take place on Mondays from 3:30-4:30 outside Peterborough City Hall.