OTHER VIEWS Nonviolence is best way

‘Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it.”

It was Martin Luther King Jr. who said that during his 1964 speech at the University of Oslo entitled The Quest for Peace and Justice. King wasn’t alone in his fervent belief in non-violent protest. Mohandas Gandhi is often considered a founder of the nonviolence movement. It can work. And we need it today. On the weekend, far-right protesters in Quebec City had to be protected when a much larger group of counterdemonstrators tried to stop them from taking part in a march outside the National Assembly. Members of the anti-immigration, anti-Islam group La Meute (Wolf Pack) were penned inside a parking garage while police clashed with counter-protesters outside.

Both gatherings were legal, but the counter-protest was declared illegal when participants began throwing rocks, smoke bombs and bottles at police. Not the anti-immigrant protesters, mind you, but the other side. The ones who are supposed to be the good guys in the fight against racism, neo-Nazism and white nationalism.

Violent thuggery is just that, regardless of who is responsible.

As King pointed out a half-century ago, there is nobility in choosing nonviolence, while there is none in choosing violence.