Palestine

Pro-Palestinian protesters continue demanding for a ceasefire

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Speakers commence the demonstration at Dorchester Square on March 24, 2024. Photo by Ellie Wand

Ellie Wand & Finn Tennyson Lean
Local Journalism Initiative

On March 23, hundreds of protesters gathered in Dorchester Square to protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

The demonstration was the first protest organized by la Coalition du Québec URGENCE Palestine, a newly formed coalition of pro-Palestinian organizations from Quebec. The coalition was supported by 228 organizations, including The Confédération des syndicats nationaux and the FTQ, as well as political parties such as Québec Solidaire and the Communist Party of Québec.

“We thought that it was important that we do something to express our ideas, to express our solidarity with the Palestinian people, and to protest against the action or inaction of our government,” said Diane Lamoureux, an administration committee member of the Ligue des droits et libertés, one of the member organizations of the coalition.

According to Gaza’s health ministry, over 32,000 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7, 2023. Humanitarian aid is still facing blockades and is unable to reach many Palestinians, despite funding from countries around the world, including Turkey, the U.A.E, and Egypt. Canada pledged $40 million in aid for Gaza in January 2024, shortly after pausing funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA. In February, the United Nations (UN) warned that a quarter of Gaza’s population is at risk of imminent famine.

The coalition’s focus at the protest was to call for an immediate ceasefire and the safe passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Ellen Gabriel, a Mohawk activist, spoke at the demonstration to urge Quebecers to stand for Palestine in the same way they should stand for Indigenous people. 

“As Indigenous people, we have always known there exists double standards,” said Gabriel. “We see the cracks that Gaza has revealed. When we see something as horrific as is happening in Gaza—the murder, the psychopaths with weapons killing innocent people and children and maiming them—to me, there are no more words to describe the evil that they have been unleashing against the Palestinians.”

Gabriel also spoke about the illegality of the situation in Gaza. “It’s really important for people to show up and call out the hypocrisy of Western states,” she Gabriel. “What they’re doing is not only against the Geneva Convention, but international human rights law, and I think they should be held to account not just by the people who are here.”

On March 23, the secretary-general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, visited Cairo, Egypt, where he restated the UN’s support for a ceasefire in Palestine. Despite international pressure, Israel rejected ceasefire terms proposed by Hamas in February.

On March 25, the UN Security Council voted in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza during Ramadan. 14 votes were cast in support, including Canada. The United States abstained. 

According to The Associated Press, around 80 per cent of people in Gaza have had to leave their homes since Oct. 7, 2023. Following military operations in the northern part of Gaza, people have fled south towards Egypt. 

Ghida, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Youth Movement, who did not wish to reveal her last name for safety reasons, has been organizing weekly protests in Montreal since October. She said that sustained pressure—in any form—is essential for change. “We should always be demanding more,” she said. “I would never underestimate any form of action. Everything is important because a movement needs different action to be a movement.”

Just two weeks ago, on March 9, protestors gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa for the National March for Gaza, which was said to have been one of the largest pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the city.

“You shouldn’t be an activist by yourself,” said Ghida. “Join a movement, join your local neighbourhood organization, because we can only put pressure as a collective.”

Hélène Denoncourt, who has been active in different forms of protests since she was a teenager, attended the demonstration with her friend, Johanne Laplante. While they both believe protests help to show solidarity and build community, they think politicians have the real power to affect change. 

“It’s to be together,” said Denocourt when asked why she was attending the protest. “It’s to feel that you’re not alone.”

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Montreal marches for Palestinian and Indigenous women

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Activists Marlene Hale (left) and Dolores Chew (right) stand before the crowd as another activist reads off their speech. Photo Julia Cieri

Hannah Scott-Talib
Local Journalism Initiative

Hundreds of Montreal residents gathered in Dorchester Square on March 8 to celebrate International Women’s Day and protest in solidarity with oppressed women worldwide.

The march, entitled “Women resist! War, colonialism, capitalism,” was initiated by the Women of Diverse Origins (WDO) group. It began with a pre-march gathering at the square at 5:30 p.m., where organizers later led the crowd into the road heading east along De Maisonneuve and Saint-Catherine street at around 6 p.m.


“We take [to] the street to keep the militant spirit of women’s struggle day alive. This is much needed in these dark and exhausting times that we are living through,” said one of the night’s speakers, WDO member Dolores Chew. 


Chew addressed the crowd before the march began, speaking on the oppression of women worldwide in relation to capitalism and colonialism, but particularly in relation to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. 


“Of the over 30,000 people who have been killed in Gaza and the 10,000 who are missing under rubble, two thirds are women and children. Many children who survive have been orphaned, and many survive with amputations. Meanwhile, famine looms,” said Chew in her speech. “The Palestinian resistance has galvanized peoples around the world in a global community of resistance.”


Her addressal of Palestine was later continued in a speech given by a representative of Montreal’s chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Sarah Shamy. 


“On this International Women’s Day, we uplift our women martyrs, the wives and mothers of martyrs, and the comrades sisters imprisoned in Zionist jails who remain steadfast in the face of oppression,” Shamy said. 

Another speaker, activist Marlene Hale of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, addressed the issue of women’s rights and Indigeneity, drawing from her family history as well as her role as an activist and filmmaker to delve into the importance of women’s rights.


“I’ve been mentored by my grandmother, by my great aunties, who have shown me their ways into being a woman and being an Indigenous person,” said Hale. “Today, they say to us: ‘Make sure you are using your voice, make sure you are heard, make sure that wherever you are standing in this world, you are never to be alone’.”


Throughout the march, protesters held up signs relating to various specific women’s rights issues worldwide, chanting lines such as, “To exist is to resist” and “The women united will never be defeated”. 

“I am here to raise my voice because in my country back home, we can’t, as women, go out and feel safe in the streets,” said one protester, Johanna Moreno from Mexico.

As hundreds rallied on this year’s International Women’s Day, Chew said that the event was both a protest and a celebration of women’s rights. 

“We shout in anger at the state of the world where human life has become so cheapened by greed, but we also celebrate the centuries of struggles of women, who have snatched and won many gains,” said Chew. “When women stop, the world stops.”

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Mosque hosts event for Palestinian youth activism

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Attendees listen to pro-Palestinian activists Bara Abu Hamed, Danna Noor, and Ali Salman. Photo Sarah-Maria Khoueiry

Sarah-Maria Khoueiry
Local Journalism Initiative

On March 7, Palestinian activists Bara Abu Hamed, Danna Noor, and Ali Salman took a seat behind a table draped with the Palestinian flag at Masjid Ahlillbait Mosque to speak for a youth activism event.

The event, organized by the mosque’s youth group, Muslim Youth of Montreal (MYM), was a collaboration between several pro-Palestine organizations in Montreal, including Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights Concordia (SPHR ConU), Montreal4Palestine, and Thaqalayn Muslim Students’ Association Concordia (TMA). 

According to Hassan Ridah, an organizer with the MYM, Muslim youth needs to be more involved in the movement, as he believes Muslims to be the biggest group affected by the war on Gaza.

“The genocide in Palestine is a humanitarian crisis, not a crisis towards one main group,” he said. “But the people being targeted are Muslim Arabs specifically, so we want to see a bigger proportion of Muslim Arabs [in protests]. To put [the event] in a mosque brings people more together and puts them in touch with their community through their origins, especially with the upcoming month of Ramadan.”

Sara, an attendee who asked to stay anonymous for safety reasons, says she was there to educate herself alongside people who share her values, and learn more about community organizing from the youth at the frontlines of the movement in Montreal.

“We can’t keep our eyes closed and do nothing,” she said. “It’s our duty to speak out.”

Each speaker at the event highlighted the importance of the youth’s energy in any movement, as young people are the ones who push forward and remind older generations that there is still hope.

“It has always been the young people who have reminded their parents that there is still the possibility of liberation,” said Noor, who is a member of SPHR ConU. “Youth have always been the catalysts. In every movement they bring the energy, they bring the light.… We’re setting ourselves up for our own futures.”

She believes that it is not only a responsibility, but a privilege, to actively advocate for Palestine, especially when she lives in the “centre of imperialism.” She says she has tools and opportunities Palestinians in Palestine don’t possess, and therefore considers it her duty to “[break] the status quo” upheld by complicit institutions in the West.

As well, Salman, also part of SPHR ConU, brought up the complicity of universities and CEGEPs in funding Israel.

“My main point here is to urge people as much as I can, students especially, to mobilize and to find out what these universities and CEGEPs and institutions that you’re a part of [do], and… use your energy in the right way,” stated Salman.

They then opened the ground for questions, which ranged from asking about how to find reliable sources for donations, and how to reconcile being part of complicit institutions and fight from within, to the relevancy of certain chants in protests. The topic that was brought up the most, however, was the place of religion in the movement.

While most acknowledged the need for Muslims to show a unified front, both Abu Hamed and Noor emphasized the problem with framing the Palestinian cause solely as a religious one.

Noor says this furthers the colonial narrative when activists should be more focused on gathering people standing against a certain ideology rather than working alongside institutions.

“There’s a lot of danger in saying let’s unite religious groups,” she affirmed. “At the end of the day, it’s about Indigenous people’s relationship with imperialism and settler-colonialism.… It shouldn’t be a question of Jews and Christians are joining the Muslims for the Palestinian cause. It should be that the Palestinians are leading the people who are against settler colonialism towards collective liberation.”

Among messages of strength and solidarity, still, a heavy sense of grief remained. Some shared stories about family members in Gaza, and others tackled the impossibility of implementing change from Western countries.

“You funded genocide,” Abu Hamed said with tears in his eyes. “I funded genocide. 151 days is too much. Every day that passes by—I can’t see people live normally. This is not why we came to Canada.”

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Pro-Palestinian protesters barricade IDF reserve soldiers’ event

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Photo Hannah Bell

Maria Cholakova
Local Journalism Initiative

On March 4, over 150 pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the entrance of the Federation CJA building, to protest three Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers speaking at a StartUp Nation hosted event. 

The original event was set to occur on Concordia University’s campus. Due to backlash, the event was cancelled but was later moved to CJA.

Although CJA didn’t release the address of the event until 6 p.m. on March 4, a half hour before the start of the talk, the address was leaked on social media. 

The Link had a ticket and a media pass, and had confirmed our attendance by phone, yet was not allowed to enter the CJA building.

Along with Solidarity for Human Rights Concordia (SPHRConU) and Montreal4Palestine, Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) Concordia joined the protesters to stand in solidarity with Palestine. 

During a speech by IJV members, the speakers condemned the event being hosted in front of the Holocaust Museum. 

“To hold an event like this, at a space that commemorates one of the worst acts of humanity, is an insult to the victims of the Holocaust our ancestors and the Jewish people,” said the speaker. “Being an anti-zionist Jew often means standing against our own communities, which we were once a part of, and taking a critical look at the institutions we were once connected to, but refuse to anymore.” 

Several times during the night, Israeli on-lookers agitated pro-Palestinian protesters, flashing them the middle finger, calling them names and becoming increasingly violent. At around 7 p.m., a woman shoved a pro-Palestinian protester and hit their camera. 

During the protest, several speakers took turns to speak to the crowd. Palestinian activists encouraged protesters to stay calm, keep blocking the doors and not get agitated by on-lookers. 

The protest was monitored heavily by police, with over six police cars surrounding the building and streets. 

Demonstrators blocked all three entrances and demanded that IDF soldiers not be let into Montreal.

According to a protester, who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons, IDF soldiers shouldn’t be allowed in Montreal. “We are talking about soldiers that only a few weeks back were killing children, civilians, conducting war crimes, [yet] they are just invited to an event like they are guests,” said the protester. They continued to urge the Canadian government to sanction and stop their support for Israel. 

The sentiment was echoed by other participants. According to Laith Barghouthi, SPHRConU “[Organizers] are still brainwashed thinking that IDF soldiers… are heroes of some sort. They are genocide enablers, they are killing children… they are doing all sorts of evil crimes,” Barghouthi said.

Montreal4Palestine, SPHRConU and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) all released statements about the event by the night’s end. 

In a statement released after the event, Montreal4Palestine accused the SPVM of being hostile and threatening towards protesters. “This behaviour is not an isolated case. It is part of a broader context of police brutality and systemic racism against racialized people in Montreal,” read the statement.

In addition, SPHRConU condemned the location of the IDF event, stating, “Hosting soldiers under investigation for genocide by the International Court of Justice in a place of rememberance for genocide victims is a new low, even for the Zionist entity.”

During the protest, CIJA also released their statement, calling the pro-Palestinian protesters an “aggressive and physically intimidating mob.” The statement further demanded the SPVM to make arrests, citing that calling for “intifada,” which translates to ‘uprising’ in Arabic, is terrorism against civilians and not a peaceful protest. 

With files from Julissa Hurtado, Hannah Bell and Nadia Liboneye

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Vigil remembering those lost in 2017 Quebec Mosque shooting

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A speaker addresses the crowd at the vigil in remembrance of those who lost their lives. Photo Solène de Bar

Julia Cieri
Local Journalism Initiative

On Jan. 29, dozens gathered in the cold at Parc metro station in remembrance of the lost lives of Azzeddine Soufiane, Aboubaker Thabti, Khaled Belkacemi, Abdelkrim Hassane, Ibrahima Barry and Mamadou Tanou Barry. They were killed in the 2017 Islamic Cultural Centre shooting.

Organized by the Muslim Awareness Week association (MAW), the vigil commemorated the seventh anniversary of the massacre.

Organizers spoke in front of six posters of the victims whose lives were brutally taken. The organizers spoke out against Islamophobia in the province, the remembrance of lost Muslim lives, and solidarity with Palestinians and Arab diasporas.

“We are not here to victimize ourselves,” Samia Laouni, co-founder of MAW explains. “We are here for duty of memory towards the lost lives of the six Muslims, towards the people who were left handicapped until the end of their lives because of it, and towards the orphans that were left without a father simply because he was Muslim.” 

On Jan. 29, 2017, Quebec bore witness to one of the deadliest mass shootings in Canadian history; along with the six Muslim men who were killed, five men were critically injured by gunman Alexandre Bissonnette at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City. 

The gunman entered the mosque after evening prayers had ended, shot the men with his pistol, fled in a car and turned himself in 20 minutes later. He pleaded guilty in 2018 with six counts of first-degree murder and six counts of attempted murder, but was not charged with terrorism-related offenses. 

Religious tension in Quebec has always been contentious, particularly the visibility of religious symbols within the province. Since the early 2000s, provincial governments have implemented bills seeking to “regulate” them.

Laouni believes that the federal government does not do enough to incite concrete change against the problem of Islamophobia within the country. “I get the feeling that whatever they’ve done is a mask, and their words do not follow their actions.”

Mayada Elmousawi and Zainab Ridha, a mother and daughter who attended the vigil also expressed their disappointment with the government. “We need their collaboration and we need their help,” they said. “We ask for a lot more work to be done to help fight Islamophobia.” 

In 2019, Bill 21, an act “respecting the laicity [secularism] of the State”, was enforced through the use of the notwithstanding clause, officially prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols in public service. The provincial legislature of Quebec decided that State laicity was of fundamental importance.

Research has shown that controversial secular laws such as Bill 21 are connected to the increase in hate crimes throughout the province. Ontario and Quebec are provinces in Canada with the greatest number of Islamophobic crimes. Most muslims in the country live in these provinces. According to Angus Reid, Islamophobia is most intense in Quebec. 

Ridha perceives this bill as a form of Islamophobia and finds it impedes on her freedom of religion. “They’re trying to limit what we can do, if I wanna follow my religion, I think I should be able to do it freely,” she expressed. “I’m not harming anyone, I’m not disturbing anyone.”

Reporting has shown that job applicants whose family names suggest an Arab background are up to two times less likely to be hired.
Since the events of Oct. 7, 2023, hate crimes and Islamophobic acts have skyrocketed, exceeding levels seen after 9/11. There has been a 1,300 per cent increase in Islamophobic incidents since Oct. 7, according to the National Council of Canadian Muslims.

“Our community has suffered a lot and continues to suffer with the current crisis in the Middle East,” said Salam El-Mousawi, another co-founder of MAW. “We think it’s important to shed light on the root cause of these issues and hope that everyone comes together to fight against injustices of all people.”

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100,000 protesters rally in Ottawa for Palestine

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Photo Dorothy Mombrun

Iness Rifay & Hannah Vogan
Local Journalism Initiative

In his eight years of bus driving, Mourae Mouassine feels he has never taken a more important contract than the drive from Montreal to Ottawa on Nov. 25.

“This is more than work,” he said, seated in the school bus driver’s seat with a keffiyeh hanging from his shoulders. “I am proud to be here to support humanity.”

Mouassine was one of the bus drivers who volunteered with Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) to mobilize protesters from across Canada to Parliament Hill. Nine sold-out PYM-affiliated buses departed from Place du Canada around 9:30 a.m., all of which carried about 50 participants per busload.

Mouassine keeps a folder on his phone filled with pictures of the children who have died since the attacks on Gaza started. Between Oct. 7 and Nov. 26, over 6,000 Palestinian children have been killed. Following the collapse of Gaza’s health system, the Health Ministry has been unable to keep a regular count of the casualties, but it believes the toll continues to rise sharply.

“I have four kids,” he said. “Every time I see this murder, I can’t sleep. Imagine if it was my child, my friend’s child, my neighbour’s child; I cannot accept this.”

Upon arriving in Ottawa, Mouassine stood on Parliament Hill alongside his family who drove from Montreal to attend with him. They joined over 100,000 protesters gathered from all around the country in what organizer PYM considers the largest pro-Palestinian protest in Canadian history. 
 
“We are not standing on the hills of Parliament because we think we can convince or appeal to Justin Trudeau or the Canadian government’s morality,” said Yara Shoufani, a PYM member. “We are standing here because we know that by building a movement of the masses, we can force the Canadian government to change its direction.”

Speeches began echoing against the walls of Parliament around 1 p.m., delivered by a variety of speakers. Among them were independent Hamilton Centre member of provincial parliament Sarah Jama, who was removed from the Ontario New Democratic Party caucus; Dr. Tarek Loubani, a medic who worked in Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital; Montreal Mohawk activist Ellen Gabriel and journalist Desmond Cole. 

“We will never be bullied or intimidated into silence while Justin Trudeau and his partners in crime continue to support the genocidal Israeli regime in the slaughter of more than 14,000 people,” Jama said. 

On Nov. 24, Israel granted a four-day ceasefire in Gaza to exchange 50 of the 240 Israeli hostages held by Hamas with 150 Palestinian women and teenagers in Israeli detention. For Loubani, this isn’t enough. 

Loubani shared his experiences with protesters of “sewing up children’s heads” in Gaza without anesthesia prior to the events of Oct. 7. 

“Ceasefire is not my only demand,” Loubani shared with the crowd. “I will not go back to treating patients without tools. I will not go back to making up for the failures of the world to treat our Palestinian brothers, sisters and siblings.”

Protesters began marching through Ottawa at 3:40 p.m., with the demonstration looping back to reestablish its place on Parliament Hill around 5 p.m. Palestinian flags and signs of all sizes waved in the dry, chilly wind. The signs read “stop killing children” and “end the genocide in Gaza.”

Janine—a Palestinian protester who wished to keep her last name anonymous for safety reasons—has witnessed the Israeli occupation first hand. She feels that what is happening in Palestine is unjust, and deserves nothing less than demonstrators to dedicate their Saturday to solidarity. 

“[Our politicians] are the ones who are in control of this situation, they are the ones who are murdering the children—maybe not first hand—but they are not calling for the ceasefire,” said Janine. “For us to be such a huge number in the capital of our country puts a lot of pressure on Justin Trudeau who is complicit.”

English, Arabic, and French chants were loudly, and diligently, repeated throughout the protest. “The people united, will never be defeated,” “From Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime,” and “Ceasefire now” were among the chants cried out in unison by the masses.

Jina —who wished to keep her last name anonymous for safety reasons— is another Palestinian protester who wore face paint that read “Free Palestine” on her cheek. Jina partook in the protest because Palestinians “deserve to have a land, and deserve to live in it.” 

Jina recalled how when she was little, she would bear jealousy, as her classmates who weren’t from Canada would share about going home for the summer, while she had to stay. “I couldn’t go home, there’s no such thing for me. I just know that’s a feeling that a lot of other [Palestianians] feel,” expressed Jina. “I don’t think that is a feeling that anyone should feel.”

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