Charges dropped against London doctor who protested MP's Israel stance with ketchup

Mischief charges were dropped Tuesday against a London, Ont., doctor who protested the Liberal government's Israel policy by throwing ketchup at a member of parliament's constituency office.

Dr. Tarek Loubani was charged last year after a group of people gathered outside of the office of London North Centre MP Peter Fragiskatos in October 2023.

Police at the time said Loubani took a bottle of ketchup from a backpack, squirted it on the building's door and exterior, and then handed bottles to three other men and encouraged them to also deface the building. 

"We have maintained since Dr. Loubani's arrest that his protest against MP Fragiskatos was not a crime. Members of the public have the constitutional right to protest against their elected officials," Loubani's lawyers wrote in a statement Tuesday morning. 

Loubani was in court and his lawyers attended the hearing virtually. The Crown withdrew the charges because they were not seen in the public interest, said Riaz Sayani, one of Loubani's lawyers. 

"Dr. Loubani is an internationally renowned physician and humanitarian. He has done aid work throughout the world in places like Ukraine and Palestine, doesn't have a criminal record, and is the kind of pro-social individual who contributes to the community in so many different ways," Sayani said. 

CBC News has reached out to the Ministry of the Attorney General, which oversees Crown prosecutors, for comment. 

The case is a legal matter and it wouldn't be appropriate to comment on the process, Fragiskatos said. 

"That being said, over the past several years our office and staff have experienced various acts of vandalism, threats and hostility. That will always be unacceptable," he added. 

Loubani's legal team called the London police "heavy-handed" in their approach to political protest. 

Officers told Loubani when he was arrested he would be released from custody if he agreed to not protest Fragiskatos again, Sayani said. "Dr. Loubani correctly said he was not going to agree to a condition that prohibits him from protesting his MP, and he went to jail for a night and was ultimately released without conditions the next day," he said. 

Sayani said that charging people for expressing their charter-protected right to protest could have a "huge chilling effect" on protests across the country.  

Loubani will not stop protesting "until there is an end to Israel's genocide, apartheid and occupation," he said.