CANADIAN CITIES JOIN GUN-CONTROL MARCHES
Parkland survivors lead rallies in U.S.
More than a dozen Canadian cities hosted marches Saturday to call for stricter gun control laws in both Canada and the United States, adding their voices to a global movement calling for change in the wake of a high school shooting that left 17 people dead in Parkland, Fla.
The March For Our Lives, one of the biggest demonstrations in the U.S. capital since the Vietnam War era, was led by survivors of last month’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
From a stage near Congress, Alex Wind, 17, a Parkland student, told a huge crowd: “They say the young are insignificant. Well, Joan of Arc fought back English forces when she was 17 years old. Mozart was eight when he wrote his first symphony.”
Fellow student Delaney Tarr, 17, said: “If they continue to ignore us we will take action until they cannot ignore us any more. Today, we fight. Today, we roar.”
Yolanda Renee King, the nine-year-old granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr., echoed his most famous speech. She told the crowd: “My grandfather had a dream that his four little children would not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by their character. I have a dream that enough is enough, and that this should be a gun-free world.”
In both Montreal and Toronto, several hundred people joined local events in support of the massive Washington rally, which was organized by American students pushing for stricter gun-control legislation in the wake of the tragedy.
In one of Montreal’s two marches, hundreds of protesters swayed together, singing to the tune of Glory, Hallelujah, before setting off toward the city’s U.S. Consulate.
They also seized the opportunity to ask Ottawa to ban assault weapons such as the AR-15 — the rifle allegedly used in the deadly Florida shooting on Feb. 14.
Ellen Gozansky Malka, a Montrealer now living in Parkland, told the crowd that two of her children were at the school during the shooting and saw things no child should see.
“Our children should never fear going to school, and they should never jump at the sound of a book falling on the floor,” she said.
A few blocks away, a slightly smaller event was organized by 11-year-old elementary school student Lexington Vickery, who led about 150 cheering classmates and supporters on a raucous march in support of American students.
“It’s about making them feel better, and making them feel more supported and working to help them so they can have more courage to go to the government and get their gun legislation,” the sixth-grader said before the march.
In Toronto, marchers carried signs protesting both gun violence in the United States and recent shootings that have plagued the city as they marched from a downtown square to the U.S. Consulate.
Joan Howard, whose son Kempton was shot to death in 2003, said that while Canada doesn’t experience mass shootings on the same scale as the U.S., it’s hardly immune.
She pointed to several high-profile Toronto shootings, including one where two people were shot and killed outside of a bowling alley — one of the victims was allegedly targeted, and the other was described by police as a bystander.
“Look how much shooting we have of innocent people, (such as) those near the bowling alley,” said Howard, who calls herself a member of the zero gun violence movement.
“These are innocent people. My colleagues are innocent, my son, all these kids are innocent.”
Bodil Geyer, who organized the march in Vancouver, said hundreds of people showed up despite a fake Facebook event showing the wrong time.
“We had a great turnout, all things considered,” she said.
Geyer said the real event page was also peppered with pro-gun comments she believed were generated by bots or international users, because the grammar was often incorrect and some messages were threatening.
OUR CHILDREN SHOULD NEVER FEAR GOING TO SCHOOL.