Hundreds of Montrealers took to the streets of the downtown core this morning to show their support for stricter gun laws south of the border.
The march was one of around 800 put on around the world in solidarity with the March for Our Lives movement, which is seeing enormous crowds in major U.S. cities demanding action after 17 students were murdered at a high school in Parkland, Fla. last month. As many as half a million were expected in the American capital, with millions more expected in cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Marches were also being held today in Dublin, London and Toronto.
The Montreal #MarchForOurLives has detoured by the @SPVM onto René-Lévesque to get around the Bishop Street fire. Hundreds are continuing the march to the U.S. consulate. #CJAD pic.twitter.com/3oyE0QlkiS
— Benson H. Cook (@bensonhcook) March 24, 2018
Here in Montreal, at its height the march stretched a full city block. Among those in attendance were several students who had attended the high school that was the site of the mass shooting on Valentine's Day. Bella Pittinger, a first-year political science student at McGill University, grew up in Parkland and told CJAD 800 News that she "knew many students at that school [where the shooting took place]," adding that she knows how hard the past month has been for them.
Demonstrators were originally supposed to march from Cabot Square down Sainte-Catherine Street, but were diverted by Montreal police to avoid the fire on Bishop that had shut down the street from MacKay to Crescent. From MacKay, they continued down René-Lévesque Boulevard until they reached Saint-Alexandre Street, the location of the United States Consulate.
Organizers lauded local police for cooperating with them and being flexible with the last-minute need to change the march's route through the downtown core. The front and rear of the protest was given a police escort, and authorities allowed the demonstration to pause on Saint-Alexandre once it reached the American government's offices downtown.
One of the local march's organizers, Sophie Seidmeyer, says she hopes that the march can show the U.S. that the world is watching, by putting "international pressure" on the U.S. government to toughen its notoriously weak firearm laws.
Though she concedes that Canada can always make further improvements to its own gun laws, she says that this country is a "model" for American lawmakers looking for policy solutions to stop the frightening number of mass shootings south of the border.