MONTREAL -- For the second Sunday in a row, thousands of protesters snaked through downtown Montreal today, marching against racism and police violence.
This weekend’s protest, however, had some differences from last week’s. For one thing, it appeared to be bigger, and it was attended by some prominent Quebec politicians and other high-profile people.
It was also quieter than last weekend’s, which ended in tear-gassing, then looting and arrests. Today’s event began at about 10 a.m. and continued relatively quietly for eight hours.
Organizers declared their involvement officially over in mid-afternoon. A smaller group continued marching, and police unleashed tear gas for the first time around 6 p.m. before dispersing the last group of roughly 150 people by 6:45.
This week’s protest was also just one of several happening simultaneously—a very different kind of event was also held in NDG, alongside others across Quebec. A parallel gathering took place at the Place de la Gare de Sherbrooke and in Quebec City, opposite the National Assembly.
Events were held Saturday in several Canadian cities including Toronto, St. John's and London, Ont.
These rallies, like countless others across the U.S., were sparked by the release of a video on May 25 showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of a Black man, George Floyd, for nearly nine minutes.
Floyd fell still and died, the officer's knee still on him.
MARCHING DOWNTOWN
In Montreal, demonstrators gathered by the hundreds at Place Émilie-Gamelin at 10 a.m. before setting off for Dorchester Square.
Quebec Liberal leader Dominique Anglade was at the protest, as was the Federal Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages, Melanie Joly.
At the gathering point, organizers took the floor to underline "the plurality of their views" and, by the same token, their approaches.
One speaker criticized Premier François Legault for advancing a wrong definition of systemic racism.
Legault said this week that that systemic discrimination does not exist in Quebec because racist people in the province are a “small minority.”
“We have this discussion quite often,” he said. “Discrimination exists in Quebec, but there is no systemic discrimination; there is no system of discrimination in Quebec.”
Legault’s statement drew an immediate rebuke from the official opposition, which said systemic racism is not as Legault described it, and it is a problem here.
“Of course it is,” said Quebec Liberal leader Dominique Anglade. “We’ve been saying this for a long time. People have been talking about this since the 1980s.”
A MOMENT OF SILENCE IN NDG
As the protests wound their way downtown, a few kilometres west, a different kind of demonstration was unfolding.
Hundreds gathered in Loyola Park to fight back with silence: they kneeled and prayed about how to fight discrimination close to home.
“I really wanted to do something where we could take a minute to just calm down, be zen for a second, listen to our inner voice, reflect on what’s really happening around us and how we can make a difference,” said Denburk Reid, the director of Montreal Community Cares.
Organizers wanted to offer a calmer, safer alternative to the downtown march. They simply asked them to kneel en masse, think and pray about what they personally can do to create a more equitable world.