Montrealers are planning to take to the streets this Sunday, June 7 after organizers from the Busta John Foundation created an event on Facebook. The event currently has thousands pledging to attend the peaceful gathering at Place Emilie-Gamelin next to the Berri-UQAM metro station at 11am to protest against police brutality towards black communities.
Montrealers attending the rally are encouraged to practice safe social distancing, wearing a mask and consider drumming rather than shouting to limit the possible spread of COVID-19.
The event follows last week's march for the same cause on May 31 which brought 50,000 attendees out into the streets. That event drew the attention of many, including the Quebec premier François Legault, whose comments following the event flared anger: "There's no systemic discrimination," Legault said during a press conference, "no system in Quebec of discrimination." The premier also denounced a splinter group of looters unassociated with May 31's formal rally smashed windows and looted stores.
Since those comments, the Montréal-Nord organization Hoodstock which is centered on "generating spaces for dialogue and mobilizing initiatives to eliminate systemic inequalities" has since released the following video to clarify the narrative surrounding the protests and the looting which ensued:
Meanwhile the Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante condemned the actions of "the looters who ransacked the shops" on June 1 in a tweet, she noted that they "have nothing to do with this peaceful protest," and that the rally itself was both noble and necessary.
Montreal joins cities across North America that have reacted to the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis last week from cardiac arrest during the application of a white police officer's knee on his neck during arrest; it was excessive force that has since been charged with second-degree murder, while the three other officers on scene at the time of Floyd's death have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.
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