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Anti-War Demo's
February 15th, 2003
Report From Ottawa
by Richard Fidler
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Eyewitness: Report From Ottawa [and others], Canada
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We had a large demo today in Ottawa, Canada's capital, about five or six
thousand at least I (and list lurker Marv Gandel) estimated, which is about
two thousand more than on January 18. The weather was bitterly cold, minus 20
degrees C (that's below 0 degrees F for you Americans), with a wind chill
factor that made it minus 37. So the turnout was impressive.
Speakers are not an issue on winter demos here; it's too cold to stand still
to listen! And certainly no issue (as in London) over the state of the
grass; we haven't seen grass since mid-November. There were good chants,
tho. Most of the signs were handlettered and individualistic; a lot of
messages that were quite original. If my fingers hadn't been frozen, I would
have written some down.
I thought the signs and slogans were a bit more political than in January, a
lot more in direct opposition to war on any terms, a lot more on
self-determination for Iraq. This may in part be explained by the presence
of a lot more Québécois on the march; they have no trouble understanding the
question of self-determination, hands off Iraq period, etc. There seemed to
be less churches presence, very few pro-UN inspections slogans, etc.
The march started on the Quebec side of the Ottawa river. I marched part of
the way with the contingent of the Union des forces progressistes, which had
a big banner and handed out a very professional looking four page brochure
featuring their program. We marched over a bridge across the river, then
around the U.S. Embassy, an imposing building in the centre of town.
At first the police tried to block the march past the Embassy; then, as the
march piled up along the street and threatened to break through the line of
cruisers, they suddenly put the cars in gear, backed off and allowed us to
surge through, chanting slogans, etc.
I'll post the figures on Canadian demos when I get them. Keep in mind that
Canada has one tenth the population of the U.S.A.
Later:
This is the best report I could find today on the Canadian demos on Feb. 15.
By far the largest was in Montreal; estimates of size range from 100,000 to
150,000 even in the mainstream media, ten times the number in Toronto, a
city of comparable size (2.5 million each).
As might be expected, the largest demos internationally tend to be in those
countries most directly and explicitly aligned with Bush - UK, Spain, Italy,
Australia, etc. In Canada, the demos were relatively small for the most
part, as Chrétien has managed so far (with the assistance of an amazingly
compliant media) to confuse people about his position on the war: feigning
caution and even gentle criticism of Bush while preparing the troops for a
ground war in Iraq, sending the navy to the Gulf, promising 2,000 troops for
Afghanistan to ease the "burden" on the U.S., etc.
The confusion is exemplified in the quotation by NDP federal leader Jack
Layton.
The qualitatively larger size of the demo in Montreal probably reflects the
huge distrust of Chrétien among many Québécois, which stems largely from his
visceral hostility to Quebec nationalism.
The 5-6,000 who marched in Ottawa yesterday was an impressive figure. This
town is largely a government and high-tech place, with no tradition of mass
demonstrations other than the occasional "national" action when thousands
come in from Montreal (200 km) and Toronto (400 km).
From the depth of the international mass opposition already to the war
preparations, I doubt this peace movement will simply fold its tents once
the big war begins. Anyway, we will soon know.
[report (from Indymedia site, but based on mainstream media) follows]
MONTREAL and TORONTO - Thousands of chanting and singing Canadians in
centres across the country took to the streets Saturday to protest a
U.S.-led war against Iraq.
Bitter temperatures didn't cool the tempers of more than 100,000 peace
activists in Montreal, who flocked to the city's core to get their message
across.
The huge march wound from Dorchester Square to Complexe Guy Favreau, the
city's main federal building.
For Deborah Lloyd, a native of Windsor, Ont., and mother of two, the
demonstration recalled the era of the Vietnam war.
"I protested in the border area of Windsor-Detroit 30 years ago to help
draft dodgers," she said.
"We're just going to have to keep doing this every 30 years or every 10
years until there's no more war. We can't have war in the 21st century."
In Toronto, about 10,000 people hit the pavement in a peaceful march that
snarled Saturday afternoon traffic.
"George Bush is a terrorist," the crowd shouted as a rapper kept the crowd's
spirits up with a song.
Jack Layton, the newly minted leader of the federal New Democrats, also
attended the Toronto rally. He said in an interview he hopes Ottawa hears
the cries of protest from millions of people around the globe.
"Surely, after the demonstrations this weekend, we're going to see a
stiffening of the spine and see our Canadian government issue a clarion call
for peace to [U.S. President George W. Bush] and to the United Nations
Security Council," Mr. Layton said as thousands of Torontonians gathered in
a downtown square.
The call for peace was echoed in about 70 other Canadian cities and hundreds
of others around the world on Saturday, called an international day of
action by peace organizers.
A march in Quebec City attracted approximately 3,000 people, according to
police.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe was among the Montreal marchers who
felt the United States cannot act alone against Iraq.
"The United States defence minister told us last week how it was unfortunate
they can't use chemical weapons, and that the use of atomic weapons was a
possibility," Mr. Duceppe said.
"My God, it makes no sense for people who are supposedly responsible to use
such language."
In Halifax, where temperatures dipped to minus 30 degrees with wind chill,
about 1,000 people marched through the city's downtown, chanting
"This war is not for missiles, it's for oil" as they stamped their feet to
anti-globalization rap songs sung by a man on a makeshift bike cart.
– Richard Fidler
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