The demonstrations were part of global calls for a ceasefire.
Protesters voicing support for residents of the Gaza Strip gathered at rallies in more than two dozen cities across Canada on Saturday, including Victoria and Nanaimo, calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict after war broke out last month.
About 1,300 people marched from the B.C. legislature down Government Street, Pandora Avenue and Johnson Street in Victoria on Saturday afternoon, many carrying Palestinian flags and chanting slogans such as “Ceasefire now” and “Stop genocide.” Kishawi, who has family ties to the Palestinian enclave, said it shouldn’t be normal for her to wake up everyday waiting to hear whether her friends and family in Gaza are still alive.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza reports more than 9,440 Palestinians have died in the war with Israel, which was triggered by the group’s incursion into that country on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,400 people and saw more than 200 taken back into Gaza as hostages. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said he fears the region is sinking further into “a sea of hatred that will define generations to come” without an immediate ceasefire.
Amer Marwan El-Samman, a spokesman for the Fredericton rally, said the main message of the protest was to call for a ceasefire and stop what he called the “indiscriminate killing” of civilians. Protester Bandar Darwazeh, who is Palestinian and lives in Canada, said he feels the pain of his relatives who live in the West Bank, where violence has also been on the rise amid the past month’s bloodshed in and around Gaza.“We are here to push the Canadian government to request a ceasefire and bring peace,” he said.
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