Close to two hundred people, including many Palestinian youths from Mississauga, rallied in front of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation headquarters in downtown Toronto on June 9 to protest CBC bias in its reporting on the situation in the West Bank, Jerusalem, Gaza and inside Israel's official borders.
Over 20 people responded to the call of the Greater Toronto for BDS Coalition on May 25 to protest the complicity of the Canadian government with the Israeli Apartheid state and its oppression of the Palestinian people. The information picket occurred in front of the building that houses the constituency office of University-Rosedale MP Chrystia Freeland, the Liberal Deputy Prime Minister and government Finance Minister.
Following a brief rain shower, thousands gathered at Toronto's Dundas Square to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian people. This was just hours after the Zionist war machine announced a cease-fire in the bombardment of Gaza, reflecting the global political isolation of the Israeli Apartheid state. Palestinians are united in their resolve to fight for freedom, for an end to the Occupation and other miseries inflicted on them daily, for generations, since the Nakba 73 years ago.
In great detail the unfolding Palestinian freedom struggle against the racist, Zionist, colonial, apartheid settler capitalist state of Israel has captured headlines worldwide and won the solidarity of humanity’s finest democratic and human rights fighters. That apartheid Israel receives $3.8 billion annually in U.S. military aid – exceeding all other countries – has been roundly condemned as has Israel’s role as the U.S. gendarme/imperial enforcer in the Middle East. I use the five adjectives – racist, Zionist, colonial, apartheid and settler – capitalist state advisedly, that is, to accurately describe the reality of Israel, yesterday and today. The horror of that reality, coupled with the heroic resistance to it by the beleaguered Palestinian people, has inspired tens and hundreds of thousands to mobilize in solidarity demonstrations around the world today. Several major U.S. cities have witnessed mobilizations of 10,000 or more, including New York and Los Angeles, with similar numbers in the streets in San Francisco, Chicago and elsewhere. 10,000 mobilized in Toronto; 20,000 in Montreal and thousands more across Canada. The mass protests in solidarity with the Palestinian people are not dissimilar to last summer’s anti-racist, anti-police brutality Black Lives Matter mobilizations. They have been markedly multi-racial and youthful. 100,000 took to the streets in London.
On Saturday, May 15, the Greater Toronto BDS Coalition hosted a cross-country online Day of Action for Palestine rally. It was initiated by Socialist Action, in partnership with many allies. So far, over 435 people have watched the online rally, either live, or subsequently on the SA YouTube channel. Saturday evening, against a backdrop of protests around the world against the Zionist campaign of terror and murder, close to 10,000 people rallied at Toronto City Hall Square to demand Freedom for Palestine.
