Seven people were arrested by Montreal police on Thursday during a pro-Palestinian “sit-in” calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that took place at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s district office in the Villeray district north of Montreal.
Posted at 8:03 p.m.
The activity was organized at the initiative of the Montreal branch of the Palestinian Youth Movement (MPJ), which invited its members to show their solidarity with Palestine, particularly through its Instagram page.
“We demand that Canada use its tax dollars to send aid, food, water, shelter and everything the Palestinian people demand,” the group said on social media.
A spokesman for the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM), Agent Julien Lévesque, said in the evening that an operation had taken place at the scene.
“The property manager had to close at 6pm like every day and people stayed inside and refused to leave. They were therefore taken out of the building,” said Mr Lévesque.
Videos posted on Instagram by members of the organization also suggest that police wanted to “escort” protesters outside Justin Trudeau’s offices. Another video posted shortly before 8 p.m. showed protesters still in front of the building’s exit.
Police say they have arrested seven people for obstruction. However, there were no riots at the meeting, Mr. Lévesque said.
Additionally, the MPJ is inviting demonstrators this weekend to meet again in Dorchester Square at around 2 p.m. to “protest the ongoing genocide of our people in Gaza by the brutal Zionist occupation.” “Let us show Canada that we will continue to demonstrate until we get an immediate ceasefire, the lifting of the inhumane siege on Gaza and an end to any Canadian complicity in the Zionist occupation,” the panel argued.
High tensions
This all comes as Mr. Trudeau reiterated his calls for calm on Thursday amid rising tensions surrounding the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
On the night of Wednesday to Thursday, two Jewish schools in particular were targeted at in Montreal. The two facilities are located in the Côte-Des-Neiges – Notre-Dame-De-Grâce and Outremont.
The affair sparked a wave of condemnation across the political sphere, both in Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec. “It is a form of terrorism,” even argued Education Minister Bernard Drainville, while Prime Minister François Legault called on the police not to tolerate hateful attacks, deeming these events “totally unacceptable.”
A brawl also broke out at Concordia University on Wednesday, leaving three people injured when protesters resisted a group of Jewish students who had placed posters depicting Israelis taken hostage by Hamas on a table.