Winnipeg residents marked the first anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack while the war in Gaza continued. Jewish and Palestinian community members spoke from different experiences of grief, fear and injustice, but several returned to the same demand: civilians must be recognized as human beings entitled to safety and dignity.
A Winnipeg friend remembered Vivian Silver
Chana Thau kept a memorial candle burning in her home. She remembered her friend Vivian Silver, a Winnipeg-born Israeli-Canadian peace activist killed at Kibbutz Be’eri during the attack.
Silver had spent years building relationships between Israelis and Palestinians and co-founded Women Wage Peace after the 2014 Gaza war. Thau joined a Canadian support group and said Silver’s commitment to peaceful coexistence remained important even after her death.
The attack left lasting trauma
Hamas-led attackers killed about 1,200 people in Israel, most of them civilians, and abducted roughly 250. Families continued to seek the return of hostages one year later.
Belle Jarniewski of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada described sorrow over the dead and captives and alarm about antisemitism. Her parents had survived the Holocaust, shaping how she understood threats and dehumanizing language.
Palestinians mourned a devastating war
Israel’s military response had killed more than 41,000 Palestinians by the anniversary, according to Gaza health authorities, and displaced most of the territory’s population. The published total did not consistently separate civilians from combatants, but the enormous civilian toll and destruction were not in dispute.
Ramsey Zeid of the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba organized regular demonstrations and called for a ceasefire. He emphasized the lives of Palestinian women, children and other civilians who had futures beyond a casualty number.
Two griefs should not be made competitors
Remembering Israelis murdered or abducted does not justify collective blame against Palestinians. Mourning Palestinians killed in Gaza does not excuse the October 7 atrocities or antisemitism.
Public discussion often pressures people to prove compassion for one community by withholding it from another. That frame deepens division and obscures the legal protection owed to all civilians.
Language can protect or inflame
Hamas, the Israeli government, Israeli civilians, Palestinians in Gaza and diaspora communities are not interchangeable. Precise reporting identifies the actor responsible for a claim or action rather than assigning it to an ethnicity or religion.
Terms such as terrorism, occupation, self-defence and genocide carry legal and political weight. Journalists should attribute contested claims, explain relevant proceedings and avoid treating slogans as settled judgments.
Local communities carried overseas pain
Events thousands of kilometres away changed daily life in Winnipeg through vigils, protests, family anxiety and concerns about hate. Schools, religious institutions and police had to protect expression and public safety without criminalizing peaceful disagreement.
Antisemitic and anti-Palestinian or anti-Muslim harassment should be documented and addressed consistently. Security measures are most legitimate when based on specific threats rather than assumptions about a community.
Dialogue required listening without erasure
Jarniewski said dialogue needed willingness to listen and empathize. Thau held onto Silver’s peace work, while Zeid called for equal freedom and humanity. Their political conclusions were not identical, but each rejected a future built entirely through violence.
The anniversary was therefore more than a retrospective date. It was a test of whether grief could be acknowledged without hatred and whether calls for hostage release, ceasefire, humanitarian access and civilian protection could coexist. Winnipeg’s reflections showed how difficult that work was—and why it remained necessary.
