Why I Risked Arrest to Protest the Giller Prize’s Blood Money
"It’s not enough to sign a letter or boycott once. We must see this through to the end."
On November 13th 2023, a little over month into Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, the Giller Prize held its annual televised gala to award Canada’s biggest fiction prize. The broadcast was disrupted twice by protestors who entered the room to spotlight the prize’s main sponsor, Scotiabank, and its $500 million stake in Elbit Systems, Israeli’s largest weapons company. In the aftermath of this disruption, five people were charged by the police.
That night catalyzed CanLit Responds, an authors’ initiative that ultimately led to the Giller Boycott, which has drawn over 450 Canadian authors and publishing workers as signatories. The campaign, which is part of No Arms in the Arts, pushed the Giller to part ways with Scotiabank in January, but the prize retains two sponsors invested in Israel’s military and real estate sectors: Indigo Books, whose CEO Heather Reisman is the founder of HESEG, a foundation providing incentives to join the Israeli Defense Forces; and the Azrieli Foundation, a real estate empire with holdings in illegal West Bank settlements. The boycott is set to continue until all sponsors enabling and profiting from the occupation of Palestine are dropped. Writers Against the War On Gaza (WAWOG) Toronto released this explainer, which also describes personal attacks on boycotting authors made by the prize’s director, Elana Rabinovitch.
The Giller Prize continues to operate as normal, despite the fact that the prize’s integrity has been severely compromised: four jurors in total withdrew from the 2024 and 2025 juries in solidarity with the boycott, and many authors who publicly withdrew their books from consideration have gone on to be nominated for and win other national and international literary prizes. The 2025 Giller Prize longlist was announced earlier this month. A few days prior to the announcement, the final Giller arrestee, Rachelle Friesen, finally had her charges in connection with the 2023 gala disruption dropped.
Below, Friesen describes the months of police harassment she experienced after the Giller Foundation pressured law enforcement to pursue charges against the protestors.
–CanLit Responds
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In November 2023, I was grabbing coffee in Kensington Market when a friend in Gaza (and father of two) texted me. Israeli bombs were dropping all around and he had no idea how to keep his family safe. Over and over he texted “I am scared. I don’t know where to go.” I stood there, frozen and helpless. All I could do was assure him I was praying for him. I spent 2010-14 living in Palestine, doing peace and advocacy work with a humanitarian aid organization. I visited Gaza nine times, witnessing and writing about the siege decimating the lives of its inhabitants. I built friendships that taught me the importance of solidarity and taking action.
So when I heard that the Giller Prize—whose sponsor Scotiabank invests in Elbit Systems, an arms manufacturer which supplies the IDF with the weaponry it uses to carry out the Gaza genocide—would be televised live, nationwide. It felt like a moment to educate everyone about the genocide and about Canada’s complicity.
In the immediate aftermath 2023 gala protest, three disrupters never returned, and we feared they had been arrested. A couple of us went back to the venue to find our friends, and were met by angry gala guests. One said that if a police officer were not present, she would attack us. Another gala attendee told us to kill ourselves. Our three friends had been arrested and charged. Six months later, another person would be charged, and my arrest came ten months after the gala.
Following the night of the gala, Canadian authors rushed to write a statement of support for the initial arrestees and began a massive campaign for divestment. While authors were organizing, we would find out that Elana Rabinovitch and Giller staff had pressured the Toronto Police to press charges against the initial three, and had provided detectives with photos and videos which led to further arrests, including mine.
In May of 2024, as four others were faced charges, I returned to my home to find Toronto Police had executed a search warrant. They turned my bedroom upside down, confiscating my shoes, a vest, purse, and kuffiyeh. But when my lawyer followed up, they conceded that they did not have an arrest warrant. On June 30th, my arrest warrant would finally be issued, albeit not enforced. It is not that the police couldn’t find me. It’s that they chose instead to embark on a harassment campaign. Toronto Police yelled my name when they saw me, at protests or otherwise. I was followed by two uniformed officers who took my picture as I went for a walk in a public park. On September 30th, I went to Pearson airport to fly to the US for 48 hours to visit a friend. At US Customs, I was informed there was a warrant out for my arrest. I was denied entry and handed over to the Toronto Police. I would spend the night in jail, and be released on bail 24 hours later. Upon my release, I received everything except my passport, which I was told was at 53 Division for safe keeping. When I went to retrieve my passport from 53 Division, I was informed that the Hate Crimes Unit had confiscated it. A judge had labeled me a flight risk. While the judge overturned the decision, because I had a roundtrip ticket, TPS held on to my passport, to the confusion of Passport Canada. After two months’ back and forth between Passport Canada and TPS, Passport Canada advised me to submit a ‘lost/stolen passport’ form and apply for a new one—which could be picked up in December.
While my co-accuseds’ charges were dropped in December 2024, mine was not. No reason was given. I remained charged until September 11, 2025.
For almost two years now, I have been following interviews from authors and organizers around divestment and boycott of the Giller Prize. I have heard media outlets question whether the Giller was targeted because Elana Rabinovitch is Jewish, a suggestion which I find to be outrageous. I had no idea who Elana Rabinovitch was, never mind what religion she practiced, until after the 2023 Giller protest. My sole motive was love of friends in Gaza who are trying to survive a genocide being carried out be the Israeli military with the support of the Canadian government and Canadian corporations. That Elana Rabinovitch and the Giller board consider themselves victims—while Palestinians are being bombed, starved, and used as target practice—is a level of narcissism that I can scarcely comprehend.
The disruption will not end until Giller cuts ties with Azrieli and Indigo. I celebrate the organizing win that was Giller cutting ties with Scotiabank, but Giller retains sponsors invested in apartheid and genocide. It’s not enough to sign a letter or boycott once. We must see this through to the end. To the authors continuing to boycott, I am honored to share space with you. To the authors refusing to boycott: is the chance at $100,000 enough to quiet your conscience?
It has been two years of a brutal genocide in Gaza. Too many have returned to business as usual, shying away from the necessary risks required to make a material difference. We have been drawn into comfort-yelling “Free Palestine” on social media platforms. To put it simply, this is not enough. Omar El-Akkad, an author who boycotted the Giller, wrote, “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.” Many find comfort in the belief that someday, in the far-off future, this genocide will be condemned by all. To hasten the arrival of that day, we have a responsibility to act now. Fear is normal, but fear cannot hold us back. With Palestine as our compass, we must take action.
