Rally against hate
Hundreds gather to honour victims in Charlottesville, Va.
With signs declaring “Tolerating racism is racism” and “Rise up against HATE,” more than 300 people stood together Wednesday night in St. Catharines.
The gathering in front of city hall drew a diverse crowd of all ages, races and backgrounds with a common purpose — to honour the victims in Charlottesville over the weekend and to speak out against extremism, fascism and white supremacy.
“This matters a lot. It’s way too easy to do nothing,” said St. Catharines resident Alysha Braun, whose 12-year-old son Owen and nine-year-old daughter Annika came with their handmade signs.
She said the family had to come to the event.
“I wanted them to say, ‘I didn’t sit back. I was part of it’.”
The clashes in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend between white supremacists and those protesting against them has led to similar anti-racism rallies across the U.S. and Canada. The violence culminated in the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injured 19 other anti-racist demonstrators hit by a car that drove into the crowd.
“I think today of Heather Heyer,” said Lennox Farrell of Niagara Falls, who spoke at the event in St. Catharines and asked those gathered to give a round of applause to her parents.
Farrell, a founding member of the Black Action Defence Committee, said racism is not about name calling. That’s just bad manners.
“The heart of the beast is that racism is an abuse of power. Period.”
Colleen McTigue of St. Catharines told the crowd that as a transgender person, she has felt what it’s like to be oppressed. But she said being white has meant her oppression is a small thing compared to that faced by people of colour on a daily basis.
A U.S. citizen by birth and a Canadian by choice, McTigue said what’s happening in the United States is not confined to the U.S.
“We have to fight against it, and we have to be against it.”
Nicola Hasmatali of Fort Erie urged the crowd to educate their children and their friends.
Hasmatali, who came to Canada at age nine from Trinidad, said she has seen how her bi-racial children, a black son and white daughter, are treated differently.
She said her son is labelled in a negative way that her daughter is not.
“In Niagara, there aren’t crazy protests, but we are still experiencing racism on another level,” she said. “It’s pushed under a rug.”
The peaceful event in St. Catharines lasted just under two hours and included Indigenous music and a candlelight vigil. There was sign making station, but many came with their own, including one child with a “Smash white supremacy” message with a picture of The Hulk.
“I’m extremely proud to see the turnout,” said Zanab Jafry, one of the organizers of the rally, which was announced to the public only two days before.
Jafry noted the crowd was from all walks of life and said she thought people were coming out because they recognized through social media that there is a growing white supremacy presence in the city.