The group CanLit Responds announced the decision at a news conference in front of a Scotiabank branch in Toronto on Friday, more than a year after protesters disrupted the literary prize by denouncing the bank – then sponsor principal – for its investment in Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems. Scotiabank remains Giller’s sponsor, although his name no longer appears in the award title.
“As a Palestinian writer and organizer, I know that this act of protest is the bare minimum of what we can do when bunker bombs fall on our families back home,” said Maysam Abu Khreibeh, 26. , who was arrested that night.
She said the decision to drop the charges was delayed for several months, leaving her and her fellow protesters in legal limbo for longer than necessary.
“I’m relieved to hear that the courts are finally recognizing that what we did is not something that should be criminalized, that the charges have been dropped,” she said after the press conference.
Ms Abu Khreibeh was one of three people arrested the night of the ceremony and charged with criminal mischief and using a false document to gain access to the ceremony, CanLit Responds said two others were arrested later.
Back to events
The protest took place just over a month after the start of the war, when Hamas-led soldiers stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 others hostage.
In response, Israel launched an attack on Gaza that left at least 44,500 Palestinians dead, more than half of whom were women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. This does not specify how many of the dead were combatants. Israel claims to have killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
This week, Amnesty International called Israel’s actions genocidal and said the October 7 attacks did not justify it. Israel rejects these allegations.
Ms. Abu Khreibeh’s lawyer, Riaz Sayani, said in a written statement that the Giller Prize protesters should never have been charged.
“The Crown has correctly withdrawn the charges. It was not in the public interest to proceed, given the nature of this protest. In my view there was also no reasonable prospect of conviction, he said. Wrongly characterizing this type of demonstration as a criminal act has a deterrent effect and undermines everyone’s right to freedom of expression.”
In an email, Toronto police spokesperson Stephanie Sayer said the Crown’s decision to drop the charges “does not negate the reasonable grounds on which the charges were laid or the validity of the charges.” .
CanLit Responds said charges against the fifth protester are still before the court. Toronto police said charges were laid against her in May and she was arrested in September 2024.
The fight continues
Ms. Abu Khreibeh said she did not expect the Canadian literary community to rally around the protesters, as many of them did. The day after her arrest, when she was still feeling paranoid and anxious, thousands of writers signed a letter calling for charges against the protesters to be dropped.
-Since then, dozens of authors have withdrawn their books from competition for the prize and many have pledged to boycott it.
They are calling on the Giller Foundation to sever its ties with Scotiabank and for the financial institution’s subsidiary to divest from Elbit Systems.
The prize organizers have not ended any of these sponsorships, but have removed Scotiabank from the prize name. Giller Foundation Executive Director Elana Rabinovitch said the board made the change to maintain the focus on writers.
Representatives for Scotiabank did not respond to requests for comment.
Asked to comment on the charges being dropped, Ms. Rabinovitch said the literary nonprofit “fully and unequivocally supports freedom of speech, expression, dissent and the right to protest.”
Fatima Hussain, who was also arrested last November, said the last year had been overwhelming.
The 24-year-old was unable to travel to the United States to visit a sick grandparent. She was also not allowed to speak to her co-accused while the charges were before the courts. She still cannot communicate with the last protester who was arrested.
She says she still does not regret getting involved in the demonstration.
That kind of action is ingrained in her, she said. Born in Iraq in the years between the Gulf War and the Iraq War, she noted that one of her earliest memories was of protesting against the war.
So while the arrests may have had a deterrent effect on some, this is not the case for her.
“We continue to fight because the genocide does not stop,” said Ms. Hussain. People keep dying. We continue.”
