Anti-NATO demonstrators gathered again in Montreal on Saturday to demand Canada withdraw from the alliance, a day after a demonstration organized by various groups led to arrests, burning cars and smashing windows.
About 80 people attended an anti-NATO protest Saturday in the downtown area organized by Le Movement Québécois pour la Paix, carrying signs reading “Canada is out of NATO” and chanting “Solidarity with Palestine.”
Many attendees carried flags of the Communist Party of Canada, while others carried Palestinian flags.
Jad Kabanji, president of the Quebec Movement for Peace, said Canada should refuse to meet NATO’s military spending targets.
He also said that although NATO calls itself a defensive alliance, it has destabilized multiple regions around the world and created military conflicts, particularly in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Kabanji said that the Israeli military campaign in Gaza would not be possible without weapons provided by NATO members such as the United States, and that the policy of increasing acceptance of countries that were previously part of the Soviet Union “led Russia to invade Ukraine.”
Politicians in the Prime Minister’s government and opposition parties, as well as Quebec leaders, described the violence during Friday’s anti-NATO demonstration as anti-Semitic acts, but demonstrators deny the allegation, saying they demonstrated against the “complicity” of NATO member states in the war that claimed lives. Thousands of Palestinians.
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Police said demonstrators fired smoke bombs and threw metal barricades in the street and smashed the windows of businesses and in the conference center where NATO delegates were meeting.
Police spokeswoman Veronique Dubuque said officers arrested three people on charges of assaulting an officer and “obstructing police work” after a demonstration that began late Friday afternoon. She added that a civilian and an officer were slightly injured.
Friday’s protests were organized by the groups “Withdrawal for Palestine” and “Confluence of Anti-Capitalist Struggles.”
Benoit Allard, a member of Divest for the Philippines, said he and several other protesters were injured by police and at least four protesters had to go to the hospital.
He said the purpose of the protest was to demonstrate against what he called “NATO’s complicity with the Israeli army as it carries out genocide in Gaza, … war crimes in Lebanon and Syria” and that it “imposes an illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.”
On Saturday afternoon, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described Friday’s scenes as “horrific.”
“Acts of anti-Semitism, intimidation and violence must be condemned wherever we see them,” he said on the X programme.
There must be consequences, and rioters held accountable.”
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre on Channel X accused the prime minister of being “too busy to condemn Hamas’ violent takeover of our streets.”
He then followed that up with a lengthy statement saying Trudeau had turned Canada into a “playground for foreign intervention.”
Quebec Premier François Legault also described the scenes as anti-Semitic.
“Burning cars and smashing windows is not about sending a message, it is about causing chaos. Such actions have no place in a peaceful society like Quebec,” he wrote.
However, Allard rejected accusations of anti-Semitism from Palestine. He said the protests were against the actions of the State of Israel and not against the Jewish people, adding that earlier this week the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On Thursday, the court said in a press release that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu committed “the war crime of starvation as a method of war; And crimes against humanity represented by murder, persecution and other inhumane acts.”
Greg Boone, the group’s vice president, said the group condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but added that NATO helped spark conflict in the region.
Group member Rana Al-Gharbi said she does not support violent protests, but added that Canadians are increasingly frustrated with Canada’s support for Israel and “lack of action” to protect Palestinians.
Delegates from NATO member states and partner nations are in Montreal this weekend to discuss issues including support for Ukraine, climate change and the future of the alliance.
– With files from Sammy Hodes of The Canadian Press and Nathaniel Dove of Global News
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
