Protesters from Simcoe County 4 Palestine made their voices heard in Coldwater on Saturday morning.
During the peaceful protest, about 20 people rallied in front of the Royal Canadian Legion branch, where Simcoe North MPP Jill Dunlop was hosting a free pancake breakfast for her supporters and volunteers in partnership with the Simcoe North PC Riding Association.
Protesters took aim at Dunlop, who is minister of colleges and universities, after she publicly named and shamed members of student unions and other groups she felt were supporting Hamas in the conflict with Israel.
Monica Chaudhuri, an organizer with Simcoe County 4 Palestine, said Friday afternoon that Dunlop took the statements of professors and students out of context.
"She called them hate speech," Chaudhuri said. "She said they were glorifying rape, massacres and atrocities."
Chaudhuri, who didn't appear to be at Saturday's protest, says Dunlop's actions put students and professors in harm’s way and at risk of being violently attacked.
"She put their professional lives at risk by essentially silencing them," she said. "This type of behaviour, where you are naming people, shaming them and slandering them just for supporting an oppressed group of people, is wrong."
Chaudhuri hopes Dunlop heard the message of Simcoe County 4 Palestine and its supporters Saturday.
"She did something that was not right. She was called upon to apologize for her statements and retract them, but she has not done so," she said.
Chaudhuri, an Orillia resident, says a member of the provincial government should never call on people to be punished for speaking their opinions.
"It's unethical," she said. "It's not right for the government to tell us how to think."
She hopes Saturday's protest creates more awareness about the Israel-Hamas conflict.
"There are very few international journalists, if any, in Gaza," she said. "All of the journalists are young people who are still there. Many journalists have either been killed or evacuated."
Chaudhuri hopes her group can inform people about the conflict through information sheets, conversation and social media.
"Our first goal is to let people know more about what's going on," she said. "Our second goal is to let Jill Dunlop know that what she did was not right, and she (should) consider retracting her statements and submitting an apology."
Dunlop says she never picked sides in the conflict and instead was condemning terrorism.
“As the minister, my position is to ensure campuses are safe for all students, regardless of their religion, race or background,” she said. “In my statement, I also had said that there is concern for the well-being of Palestinian students that are here who are having to deal with the stress of having family at home dealing with this crisis.”
She says she supports all students who are on campuses in Ontario.
“Unfortunately, in some cases, we were seeing free speech cross that line into hatred,” she said. “Again, it's my job to ensure all campuses are safe and to provide a safe learning environment for all students, staff and faculty."
Sam Leclair, who made the trip from Barrie to be part of Saturday's protest, says Dunlop has a "double standard" support for Israel as opposed to Palestine.
"She called out students in front of the legislature," they said. "She supported Israel and tried to cover up the actions of genocide."
Leclair says it's important for them to support the people of Palestine.
"They have been under siege," they said. "Gaza is starving and they aren't getting enough aid."
Leclair says Simcoe County 4 Palestine will continue to follow Dunlop to "hold her accountable."
Following Dunlop's pancake breakfast, she attended an Ontario Trillium Foundation celebration event at the Coldwater District Curling Club located nearby.
Protesters followed Dunlop and became more intense, huddling around the front door of the curling club. Some protesters were displaying their signs in the front window and yelling in a challenging manner at a security guard while filming with their cell phone.
Two protesters managed to get by police and security who were guarding the front door to interrupt Dunlop during her speech to members of the curling club, demanding an apology for her previous statements. They were asked to leave the private property by the security guard and they abided.
There were two uniformed OPP officers observing the protest outside the pancake breakfast Saturday. They declined to comment for this article.
