Jewish protesters were left stranded in a parking lot Monday morning after the transportation company that was supposed to shuttle them to a rally against antisemitism in Ottawa failed to send the buses they had reserved.
In preparation for Monday’s Ottawa rally against antisemitism, United Jewish Appeal (UJA) Federation of Greater Toronto reserved 72 buses, 17 of which never arrived, with no explanation from the company.
Sara Lefton, Chief Development Officer at the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, told National Review that she and the rest of her team have been met with radio silence since the buses failed to arrive Monday morning.
“We had more than 70 buses booked and confirmed to leave Toronto this morning at 7 A.M. and 17 of those buses didn’t show up, did not communicate with us,” Lefton said. “We still haven’t heard from them. We were working with a contractor who has been very helpful, and he was working with subcontractors to get us the buses . . . that one subcontractor had charged in full, had been paid in full, committed that the buses would be there, and has not been in communication at all — zero — since charging.”
She stressed that the subcontractor — Prestige Worldwide Transportation Network, LLC, run by a man named Mohammed Ashfaq, according to Lefton — contributed to an already taxing environment for the Jewish people in her community.
“They will not speak with us, they will not speak with the contractor, and there were hundreds and hundreds of members of the Jewish community, including young students who are already scared, stranded in a parking lot in the dark,” Lefton told NR. “Now they understand that there’s a possibility that they were not picked up because they are Jews. Think about what it would be like for other vulnerable communities. If you play it out, what would that look like?”
Lefton said the subcontractor ordeal only reinforces the necessity of coming together to fight antisemitism.
“The rally is about bringing Canadians together from coast to coast to come and fight and stand up against Jew-hatred; it’s about us coming together to support the Jewish community — Jews and allies coming together to support the Jewish people in a very, very difficult time for our community,” she told NR. “Antisemitism [in Canada] is at an all-time high, hate crimes against us across every major city across the country are at an all-time high, and that’s the context.”
Hundreds of Jewish Americans were stranded on the tarmac at Dulles International Airport for nearly eleven hours after bus drivers coordinated a “mass sick out” day to prevent their passengers from attending the March for Israel in Washington, D.C. Three hundred of 900 people flown in by the Jewish Federation of Detroit ultimately missed the entire rally after a “significant number” of drivers called in sick when they learned they were meant to take Jews to the march.
Prestige Worldwide Transportation Network had not responded to NR’s request for comment by press time.