London doctor charged again with mischief involving MP’s office

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A London doctor who returned this week to demonstrate at an MP’s office after a mischief charge against him over a 2023 protest at the office was withdrawn faces a second mischief charge.

Tarek Loubani, 43, is one of two Londoners charged after ketchup was sprayed on the constituency office of London North Centre Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos on Tuesday, London police said Friday.

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A 58-year-old London man also was charged with mischief under $5,000, and police said they are seeking to identify other people who also sprayed ketchup and made handprints on the front of the office.

“Police continue to work to identify the remaining suspects, and are appealing to the public for any photos, video or information in relation to this incident,” London police said in a news release Friday evening.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call London police at (519) 661-5670.

Loubani was among four people identified by London police as suspects in an incident on Oct. 22, 2023, when one person was seen removing a bottle of ketchup from a backpack and squirting it on Fragiskatos’s office before handing bottles to three others to do the same.

The group was demanding Fragiskatos take a position on the Israel-Hamas war that has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians. Israel invaded Gaza after a Hamas attack on Oct. 6, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed more than 250 taken hostage.

Loubani, was arrested and charged on Nov. 15, 2023, almost a month after the incident, and held in custody overnight before he was released. He was charged with mischief valued at less than $5,000.

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Loubani was taken into custody by London police and kept overnight when he would not agree to a condition that he not protest, a lawyer representing him said. 

Three of the people identified chose to enter a court diversion program, in which charges are set aside for minor offences on the condition they complete a rehabilitative program.

But Loubani was ready to go to trial and six days of court time were set aside starting in January.

But Assistant Crown attorney Heather Donkers told Justice Wendy Harris Bentley in the Ontario Court of Justice on Tuesday the prosecution decided to withdraw the charge against Loubani “having considered a number of factors unique to this case including the circumstances of the accused, the specific nature and circumstances of this particular charge and the pressures on the criminal justice system currently.”

“The Crown has determined that there is no public interest in pursuing this matter to trial, so I would ask that the charge be marked withdrawn,” Donkers said.

Three hours after leaving court on Tuesday, Tarek Loubani was in front Fragiskatos’s office. 

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“We were ready to fight, we were ready to fight to the end because those charges were, are and always will be bulls—,” the outspoken activist said to a group of about 20 fellow pro-Palestinian protestors who gathered to support him.

An associate professor at Western University and longtime humanitarian, Loubani said spraying ketchup is part of a protest and constitutionally protected free speech.

Loubani said on Tuesday he wasn’t concerned about any more charges. “People are dying and so it does not concern me what the police do to me right now. What concerns me is that we do everything we can to slow down and stop this genocide,” he said.

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