Anti-NATO protesters gathered again in Montreal on Saturday to demand that Canada withdraw from the alliance, after a day of protests organized by different groups that led to arrests, burning of cars and windows.
About 80 people attended Saturday’s anti-NATO protest in the city center organized by Le Mouvement Québécois pour la Paix, holding signs reading “Canada out of NATO” and chanting “solidarity with Palestine.”
Several in attendance held flags of the Communist Party of Canada while others held Palestinian flags.
Jad Kabbanji, president of Le Mouvement Québécois pour la Paix, said Canada should refuse to meet NATO’s military spending targets.
He also said that despite calling itself a defensive alliance, NATO has weakened many regions around the world and created military conflicts, especially in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Kabbanji said Israel’s military campaign in Gaza would not have been successful without the weapons provided by NATO members such as the United States, and that the policy of increasingly welcoming former Soviet Union countries “pushed Russia to attack Ukraine.”
Politicians in the prime minister’s cabinet, opposition parties and Quebec leaders have called for violence during Friday’s anti-Semitic protests, but protesters deny the claim, saying they are showing resistance to “cooperation” among NATO member states. a war that has killed thousands of Palestinians.
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Police said protesters set off smoke bombs, threw metal barriers on the street and smashed windows of businesses and a convention center where NATO delegates were meeting.
Police spokesperson Véronique Dubuc said the police arrested three people for assaulting a police officer and “obstructing police work,” following a protest that began Friday afternoon. He said the man and the police officer received minor injuries.
Friday’s protest was organized by the group Divest for Palestine and the Convergence of Anti-Capitalist Struggles.
Benoît Allard, a member of Divest for Palestine, said that he and many other protesters were injured by the police and at least four protesters had to go to the hospital.
He said the purpose of the demonstration is to demonstrate against what he called “NATO’s cooperation with the Israeli army while committing massacres in Gaza, … war crimes in Lebanon, Syria” and that it “enforces the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.”
On Saturday afternoon, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Friday’s scenes “appalling.”
“Actions of religious intolerance, intimidation, and violence must be condemned wherever we see them,” he told X.
“There must be consequences, and the protesters must be held accountable.”
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre on X accused the prime minister of being “too busy condemning Hamas’ violent takeover of our streets.”
He then followed up with a lengthy statement saying Trudeau had turned Canada into a “playground for foreign interference.”
Quebec Premier François Legault also described the scenes as anti-Semitic.
“Burning cars and smashing windows is not sending a message but creating chaos. Such actions have no place in a peaceful society like Quebec,” he wrote.
However, Allard of Divest for Palestine has rejected allegations that he is anti-Semitic. He said the protests are against the actions of the state of Israel and not the Jewish people, adding that earlier this week the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On Thursday, the court said in a news release that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu committed “the war crime of starvation as a means of war; and crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other atrocities.”
Greg Beaune, the group’s vice president, said the group condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine but added that NATO had helped fuel the conflict in the region.
Group member Rana El Gharbie said she does not support violent protests but added that Canadians are increasingly frustrated with Canada’s support for Israel and the “lack of action” to protect the Palestinian people.
Delegates from NATO member states and allied countries are in Montreal this weekend to discuss issues including support for Ukraine, climate change and the future of the alliance.
—via files from The Canadian Press’ Sammy Hudes and Global News’ Nathaniel Dove
© 2024 The Canadian Press
