Thousands march in downtown Guelph for Black Lives Matter
GUELPH — The streets of downtown Guelph were filled with thousands of people Saturday, calling for an end to racism and police violence.
“That was probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen happen in Guelph. Period,” Kayla Gerber, better known as Kween, said after the afternoon protest.
“I grew up in Guelph, I’ve been an active community member in Guelph, and although my voice is tired and I’m tired, my heart and spirit are so full.”
The mostly peaceful protest — there were a few reports of people antagonizing protesters — saw the crowd of thousands march through much of the downtown core, including a stop in front of the Guelph Police Service headquarters on Fountain Street.
The protesters stopped on Fountain, in part, because the end of the march was still making its way south down Wyndham Street.
“We had to change our route up part way because there were so many people,” Kween said.
Prior to the march, the large crowd spilled off Carden Street as people listened to a number of speakers, including Kween and Marva Wisdom, the past and founding president of the Guelph Black Heritage Society, which helped organize the march.
“Guelph, we have never seen this before. Guelph, we never want to see this again,” she said of the event.
The vast majority of those in attendance wore face masks, with hand sanitizer being handed out throughout the day, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier in the week, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph
Public Health advised those taking part to self-monitor for 14 days. Kween previously said organizers had been in touch with Public Health leading up to the protest.
Saturday’s march in support of the Black Lives Matter movement joins hundreds of others from around the world. The protests came after George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed.