Clash of protesters at anti-Islam rally ends with no arrests
Despite some heated moments, no arrests were made at an antiIslam rally at city hall on Sunday afternoon.
The anti-Islam protest was originally scheduled for Saturday but the group organizing it, the World Coalition Against Islam (WCAI), had its permit pulled by the city. But they continued with their demonstration on Sunday.
Calgary Anti-Fascist Action along with other smaller groups and individuals met the WCAI as they marched down Macleod Trail with a police escort.
An estimated 40 uniformed police officers maintained a line separating the two groups at city hall, with some using their bicycles as a barricade between the WCAI and its allies and the Calgary AntiFascist Action.
There were some tense yelling matches between the two sides, especially with those who held megaphones, and a few minor shoving matches and scuffles. But no one was arrested, police said.
“We’re here to counter their message and to show they’re not going to go through our streets unopposed,” said Jason Devine, leader of Calgary Anti-Fascist Action.
The protest at city hall was smaller than one held June 3, with only around 30 demonstrators marching with the WCAI, and the absence of the more militarized Sons of Odin and the III%ers.
Calgary Anti-Fascist Action and other counter-protesters, some of whom were dressed all in black and covered their faces with scarves, outnumbered those who came to decry Islam about three to one.
The fact that some people who turned up had their faces covered caused some heated exchanges between the counter-protesters themselves.
No one from the anti-Islam rally was willing to speak with the media.
It was the last in a weekend of controversial rallies, with the International Day of al Quds, a rally of Palestinian solidarity that attracted counter-protesters with the Jewish Defense League on Friday, and the We Stand United in One Love Canada rally on Saturday.
At the end of Sunday’s rally, which lasted about an hour and a half, police escorted the WCAI demonstrators through city hall, where they took a group photo, and were then ushered onto a waiting city bus to be safely whisked away.