Canadians are once again showing that they’ve lost the courage to do the right thing. The Toronto International Film Festival has abruptly withdrawn The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, a documentary chronicling retired Israeli General Noam Tibon’s harrowing October 7, 2023, mission to save his family and others during Hamas’s attack on Israel. TIFF cited the filmmakers’ failure to secure “legal clearance” for footage shot by Hamas terrorists and livestreamed during the massacre, along with unmet insurance and indemnification requirements. The decision, however, has triggered a storm of criticism from filmmakers, Jewish organizations, and public figures who say the festival caved to political pressure under the guise of legal caution, writes The New York Post.
The festival claims the movie, called “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,” did not meet certain requirements to screen at the prestigious September event, widely attended by Hollywood stars and bigwigs, including not securing so-called “legal clearance” to use Hamas’ livestreamed video of the rape, murder and kidnapping of Jews.
The stunned filmmakers, including Canadian director Barry Avrich, slammed the decision, telling Deadline that TIFF has “defied its mission and censored its own programming by refusing this film.”
Indeed, TIFF states on its website, “we will defend artistic excellence and artistic freedom.”
While TIFF alleges it required permission from Hamas to use the footage, the documentary’s line producer, Talia Harris Ram, told the Times of Israel that the rationale was ridiculous.
“The topic of creators’ rights is something I work with regularly,” she said. “There’s no legal problem with showing these clips, which were already streamed live on October 7. From an intellectual property standpoint, they are clearly in the public domain.”
Directed by Canadian filmmaker Barry Avrich, the film follows Tibon as he races to rescue his son, daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters from Kibbutz Nahal Oz, then aids survivors fleeing the Nova music festival. Critics of TIFF’s move say the festival’s rationale effectively demands permission from Hamas — a group designated as a terrorist organization in Canada — to show evidence of its own crimes. Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar likened the logic to “seeking Hitler’s consent for Auschwitz footage.” Tibon himself called the cancellation “absurd and outrageous,” insisting the story is “human, not political,” and accusing TIFF of bowing to anti-Israel activism.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs condemned the withdrawal as a message that Toronto’s Jewish community, a longtime supporter of the festival, “is no longer welcome.” The filmmakers, calling themselves “shocked and saddened,” accused TIFF of betraying its mission and “censoring its own programming,” vowing to screen the film independently in Toronto during the festival with support from the local Jewish community.
Behind TIFF’s official explanation, industry sources suggest fear of protests loomed larger than copyright concerns. The festival has faced mounting activist disruptions in recent years — pro-Palestinian groups disrupted screenings of Israeli films in 2024, while a Russian military documentary was briefly pulled after Ukrainian backlash. With this year’s festival running September 4–14, organizers may have calculated that “The Road Between Us” posed a risk they weren’t willing to take.
The Great White North would rather live in fear, it seems.
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The only way for Canadians to regain their freedom from Liberal Communism is to take it by force. The voting majority is located in the provinces east of the Great Lakes. That is where all of the liberals live. That is less than 1/3 of total Canadian territory. The western provinces are 2/3 of the territory but only 1/4 of the necessary voters. That isn’t a republic that is a criminal conspiracy. Canada needs some political reform to even out representation or secede from the union. What is going on there is wrong.