Calling for an immediate ceasefire, thousands of people once again demonstrated for Palestine in the streets of downtown Montreal on Saturday.
Posted at 5:17 p.m.
The speakers warmed up the crowd, which gradually gathered in Dorchester Square, despite the cold weather, which was in contrast to recent days. The authorities expected around 10,000 people.
“We need to show our government that people continue to support Palestine,” said Rand, a health care worker of Palestinian descent who said she lost several members of her family in the gang’s bombings in Gaza.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Then, at around 3:30 p.m., the crowd poured into the street, first following Boulevard Renée-Lévesque, then Rue Sainte-Catherine, surrounded by numerous police officers on bicycles and horseback.
For many of them, Justin Trudeau’s position of not calling for a ceasefire is a source of motivation to demonstrate in Israel more than a month after the start of the conflict, explains a representative of the Palestinian Youth Movement, the association behind the organization of this event, Sarah Shamy.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
The latter is also pleased to note that the mobilization appears to be continuing. “It is not slowing down and we are seeing different forms of pressure,” she said, calling the blocking of the Jacques Cartier Bridge earlier this week “proof that we are ready to use any means to put pressure on our governments .” .”
The Palestinian youth movement is inviting its supporters to a major nationwide rally in Ottawa next Saturday, an event Sarah Shamy calls “the largest demonstration in support of Palestine in Canadian history.”