Hours after ketchup protest charges dropped, Dr. Tarek Loubani returns to London MP's office

Hours after mischief charges were dropped against a London, Ont., doctor who protested the Liberal government's Israel policy by squirting ketchup at a member of Parliament's constituency office, Dr. Tarek Loubani repeated the protest. 

"I always have to be talking about what's going on, advocating for those who are less fortunate than myself, those who are being killed and those who are being harmed," said Loubani on Tuesday afternoon in front of London North Centre Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos's office, which had been splattered with ketchup and defaced with red handprints. 

"I did it. I sprayed ketchup on Fragiskatos's office. The ketchup is a totem, a representation of the blood that is on Fragiskatos' hands," Loubani said. 

"Fragiskatos is not just a random person. He is a member of Parliament in the governing part of this country. He has not said anything to condemn what Israel has been doing." 

A handful of protesters stood with Loubani at the constituency office, several half-empty ketchup bottles littered on the front porch. A Palestinian flag was hung from a flag pole and signs condemning Israel's war in Gaza were mounted around the office building by protesters. 

Loubani was charged last year after a group of people gathered outside of the Fragiskatos's office 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 London court Tuesday 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. 

The Ministry of the Attorney General said Crowns have a duty to assess the strength of a case throughout a prosecution and withdraw charges if there is no reasonable prospect of conviction or if it is not in the public interest to proceed.

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 said it was "ridiculous" that he got charged for protesting using ketchup. "It was ridiculous then and it would be ridiculous uf the police decide to do anything now," he said. 

Affected MP frustrated

Fragiskatos believes Loubani's actions exceed simple protest, although he said he respects the court's decision to withdraw the doctor's charges.

"I fail to see how something like this is representative in any way of free speech. I understand the passion that exists ... I think that in a democracy like ours, we have to be able to engage one another respectfully," he said.

Fragiskatos said his stance has been clear, and has included calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

"Where I've been disappointed in protesters is that they have focused almost exclusively on Israel without calling Hamas to account," Fragiskatos said, adding his belief that both sides of the war need to be held accountable.

Despite expressing a desire to have constructive dialogue with constituents who have concerns over his government's policies, Fragiskatos said that dialogue won't be open to those who promote or carry out vandalism, especially when incidents like these cause security concerns, he added.

"I know it's easy to dismiss what I'm saying because the incident involves ketchup, right? But we're talking about an office that has been vandalized many times in the past in different ways and staff that have been harassed regularly," Fragiskatos said. 

"One could argue that when one runs for office, you sign up for this, but staff certainly do not sign up for that."

Police 'heavy-handed,' lawyers say

On Tuesday morning, 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 said he would not stop protesting.

"We were told as children that we can never witness an injustice without saying anything. We were told that crimes committed against people in decades past included not just people doing the killing but also the people who stayed silent and allowed it to happen. I will not stay silent," Loubani said.