On Jan. 8, Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU) hosted a vigil in solidarity with Palestine against Israel’s broken ceasefire and ongoing genocide. At 4:00 p.m., around 10 members of PAJU stationed themselves outside the turnstiles at Station Bonaventure, distributing flyers to commuters and pedestrians.
In an interview with The Tribune, PAJU representative Bill Sloan, informally known as Captain Boycott, highlighted Israel’s history of breaking ceasefires, and PAJU’s commitment to protesting Israel’s actions amid adverse political situations.
“Since 1948, Israel has never respected a truce or a ceasefire, never once,” Sloan said. “They have been and they continue to be permanently in a state of war, officially and legally [….] We will continue to be a pain in the neck […] [even when] cops tell [us] that [we’re] not allowed to [protest] here.”
He continued to mention how some pro-Israel citizens in Montreal have repeatedly attempted to shut down PAJU’s demonstrations.
Another attendee who wished to remain unnamed, who is a part of a trio of activists that protest alongside PAJU each week, explained to The Tribune that Canada and Quebec are just as complicit as the United States in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.
“People assume that Canada, which is far, far away, and it’s not America, [is] not involved, but we are highly involved with our tax dollars,” they said. “People simply refuse to make the connection [….] If people are out on the streets in large numbers, which they’re not, maybe something would happen, but as long as there’s this general indifference and sort of sleepwalkingness, it’s not going to get better.”
They also mentioned the urgency of advocating for Bill C-233 and the No More Loopholes Campaign. Currently, many Canadian-made weapons cross into the United States unchecked, where they are then integrated into larger weapon systems and exported to Israel. Bill C-233, sponsored by Member of Parliament Jenny Kwan in November 2025, aims to end Canada’s complicity in Israel’s genocide by requiring permits and human rights assessments for all Canadian exports of military goods, effectively closing the loopholes and gaps in Canadian arms export laws.
“To get rid of this loophole in Parliament [means Canada] would not be allowed to under the table, or even over the table, send weapons to Israel,” they said. “And that’s what we want. We want Canada to have nothing to do with this war on Gaza and not fund it in any way.”
Another member of the trio, who also wished to remain anonymous, explained in an interview with The Tribune that they have been protesting in solidarity with Palestine since 2024.
“We started to protest in front of Roddick Gates, and then a bunch of other people came, a wonderful group of people who just kept it alive with music and dancing and talking about Palestine,” they said. “We had lots and lots of computations, but we did it throughout the summer of 2024 and we continued into the fall, and then when it got cold [we started to] look for metro stations.”
They also talked about an apathy among the public that continues to overlook the lived realities in Palestine.
“We’re working against a very powerful culture, and people are encouraged by the culture to focus on themselves, their families, their homes, their clothes, and their job,” They said. “Their circle of consciousness doesn’t include Palestine or even Venezuela, now that they’ve been attacked. To break into that [circle] is very difficult, and we must be gentle too, because we don’t want to hurt people [in the process of protesting].”
Captain Boycott highlighted certain strategies to engage the general public.
“You try to make it, first of all, visually appealing,” Sloan said. “The first place you’re gonna catch [people] is with the visual [….] Try to smile, not shove it in their face, but offer it to them in their hands [.…] Once one person takes them […] all the people after him, or most of them, would take one, because when somebody’s taking one, why not?”
