Rasha Zaid finishes second in Ward 4 after protest videos drew wide scrutiny
Rasha Zaid finished second in Windsor's Ward 4 council race, after videos of her protest speeches drew coverage during the campaign. Chris Holt won the seat with 55.5 per cent, unofficial results show. Zaid gave Windsor News a statement on Oct. 28.
Topics: Election 2026Council and City Hall
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Rasha Zaid finished second in Windsor's Ward 4 council race on Oct. 26, after a campaign in which videos of her protest speeches drew coverage in Canada and abroad.
Chris Holt won the seat with 3,657 votes (55.5 per cent). Zaid had 1,232 (18.7 per cent), ahead of Mike Burton with 1,134, according to the City of Windsor's results (City, AMO). Results are unofficial until the clerk declares them.
An anonymous X account called Leviathan posted the clips on June 5 (post; Jerusalem Post). In one clip, Zaid says on a microphone: "Every person that announces they are Zionist must be locked up. They should all be locked up," as CBC News transcribed it. The Windsor Star's transcript adds, "They're terrorists." In another clip, she calls Zionists "serial killers on the loose, and they must be held accountable." In a third, she leads the chant "All the Zionists are the terrorists, all the Zionists are racist" (CBC; Jerusalem Post). CBC reported the clips come from Windsor demonstrations "in recent years."
The Jerusalem Post reported on the videos Sept. 7. The Windsor Star followed on Sept. 10, CBC Windsor on Sept. 11 and Radio-Canada on Oct. 1.
Zaid, a founder of Windsor4Palestine, stood by her position. "I am vocally anti-Zionist," she told CBC. "Being anti-Zionist does not make you anti-Semitic." She told the Star the video was a short excerpt of a much longer speech. "When somebody takes bits and pieces of an entire speech to only fit a certain narrative, that is not honest journalism," she said. She told the Jerusalem Post: "I am not calling for someone to be imprisoned simply for identifying as a Zionist."
She told CBC and Radio-Canada that she got death threats by email, phone and social media after the video surfaced, that her accounts were hacked, and that she reported this to Windsor police. Windsor News has not independently confirmed a police report.
The Windsor Jewish Federation and Community Centre told the Star that comments "directed broadly at 'Zionists' can have a significant impact on members of the Jewish community." Interim executive director Miriam Cedroni told CBC: "It is understandable to feel unsettled by hostile or exclusionary rhetoric. I feel unsettled too, but we should not give that rhetoric more power than it deserves." She told Radio-Canada the federation condemns the threats made against Zaid.
Rivals responded to CBC. Xsander Moisenko said "every candidate has a right to say what they think," but he didn't "think it helps this campaign or this city." Catherine Gariepy-Schulze said the comments showed a "type of divisiveness" that is "not what the residents of Ward 4 need." Mike Burton asked whether Zaid wanted the seat to "extend her reach" for her political beliefs. Holt did not respond to CBC.
In answers to a Windsor News candidate questionnaire, Zaid said she would keep property tax increases as low as possible and review the City's spending on external consultants. She also proposed a public inventory of City-owned land for affordable housing partnerships, safer pedestrian crossings along Ypres Avenue and near schools, and plain-language public reporting after closed council meetings.
Windsor News asked Zaid for comment on Oct. 28 and sent her four questions about the clips. She replied the same day with an on-the-record statement. She said anti-Zionism and antisemitism "must not be conflated," and that "Zionism is a political ideology, not a religion." She said Palestinian Canadian constituents in Ward 4 "exist, too" and deserve equal consideration, and that she is one of them. "I unequivocally oppose antisemitism, anti-Palestinian racism, Islamophobia, and all forms of hatred and discrimination. My humanity is not selective," she wrote. "I welcome fair scrutiny and meaningful questions."
Zaid did not answer the four questions one by one; her statement above is her response.
