Thousands flocked to Yonge-Dundas Square on Saturday, Jan. 23, waving signs denouncing Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to suspend Parliament until March 3. The rally organized by the Facebook group Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament drew an estimated 3,000 in Toronto. Protests took place in over 50 Canadian cities and towns, with expats carrying out protests in New York, Dallas, San Francisco, and London, England.
Advertised as a “non-partisan, family-friendly” event, the crowd included a mix of ages, with families marching alongside students, seniors, and at least one puppy in a jacket and hat.
“I don’t want [my] new country to become like my old country,” said comedian Martha Chaves, who emceed the event. Chaves is from Nicaragua, which she said had become a dictatorship.
“I have been an activist for over 40 years, and I have never seen a spontaneous protest that built like this,” said activist Judy Rebick, one of the featured speakers. Other speakers included Marie Kelley, secretary-treasurer from the Ontario Federation of Labour, and Duff Conacher from Democracy Watch.
Notable performers included the Raging Grannies and the Wolf Woman Singers.
“When you have Mohawk grandmothers at Yonge-Dundas Square in the middle of winter, you better be afraid, Harper,” said one singer.
At 2 p.m. protestors shut down traffic as they marched down Yonge Street, turning on Queen West, Bay, and College streets to loop back to the square.
“A lot of media pundits thought you can’t organize a protest using Facebook. We proved them wrong,” said Walied Khogali, protest organizer and U of T student, to a cheering crowd. A commitment on Facebook does not always translate to commitment on the ground. The recent protest against the college strike had hundreds RSVP on Facebook, but only a handful of students showed up.
“This started out as small, involved group in the first week of January. Our first meeting was at Old City Hall on January 8 and it snowballed from there,” said Jonathan Allan, spokesperson for the Toronto chapter of CAPP.
Over 200 volunteers helped plan the Toronto protest, passing out leaflets, making signs, and booking space for the rally. Justin Arjoon, a second-year student studying molecular plant biology at U of T, was one of the first to get involved and became the head organizer for the Toronto rally. “There will be future protests. That is a certainty,” said Arjoon.
Plans include more rallies across major Canadian cities and an Olympic-style torch run across Canada.
