Montréal activist Yves Engler interrupted Harley Finkelstein’s Startupfest fireside chat about halfway through, filming from the stage side and asking why the Shopify president supported the “genocide in Gaza.”
Finkelstein, appearing with former UFC fighter Georges St-Pierre, told Engler he was “embarrassing yourself” before a staffer removed the protester as audience members booed and one shouted, “You’re ruining it!”
Engler later posted video of the confrontation and urged St-Pierre to support Palestinian rights; he has been a prominent critic of Canadian foreign policy and was sentenced to probation this spring in a separate harassment case.
The disruption was the second at Startupfest involving Finkelstein and the third in-person protest he has faced in as many years over his support for Israel, after a 2025 social-media boycott campaign also targeted him and Shopify.