Montreal rally draws thousands
Demonstrators slam premier as second protest in honour of Floyd takes over city streets
MONTREAL — Thousands hit Montreal streets again Sunday to speak out against racism, systemic discrimination and police brutality, following other Canadian communities that held marches this weekend.
Participants from different communities and of all ages crowded into a downtown Montreal square to listen to a cross-section of activists, community leaders, sports personalities and politicians before snaking peacefully through downtown Montreal to Dorchester Square, chanting “black lives matter” and “no justice, no peace” among other slogans.
They took a symbolic knee during the march — the second Sunday in a row the city has hosted one since the release of a video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of a black man, George Floyd, for nearly nine minutes.
Floyd fell still and died, the officer’s knee still on his neck.
His death has sparked demonstrations denouncing racism, violence and police impunity right across the globe and well-attended events were held Saturday in several Canadian cities, including Toronto, St. John’s, Calgary and London, Ont.
In Montreal, demonstrators called out Quebec Premier François Legault for his belief the province doesn’t have a systemic racism problem.
Legault acknowledged last week that discrimination does exist, but denied there was a “system of discrimination” and chalked it up to a small minority of people.
“The major issue we have here in Montreal is that our premier seems to think that we don’t have a systemic racism issue here,” said Svetlana Chernienko, a mental health advocate. “So Mr. Legault, I’m challenging you ... we do have an issue, black lives matter and we cannot have all lives matter without black lives.”
Chernienko, whose mother is Russian and father is Nigerian, is a mother of four. She recounted her own experiences with random police checks and stops as a teen.
She gives her children advice before they leave the house — don’t wear sagging pants, don’t wear a hoodie or keep the hood down, and keep your hands out of your pockets when with police.
“We need to continue to communicate these issues. We need to keep it peaceful, but we need to get loud.”
Former boxer Ali Nestor, a community leader and boxing trainer, said there’s little left to prove on systemic racism. “He (Legault) publicly denies it, but he is very aware of it,” Nestor said. “He is an intelligent man, he knows very well that there is systemic racism that exists in Quebec.”