Saturday’s rally drew more counter-protesters than protesters.
A replay of last month’s “1 Million March 4 Children” failed to materialize Saturday in Ottawa under steady rainfall and as the movement is reportedly fragmenting.
Protests urging the elimination of “the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity curriculum, pronouns, gender ideology and mixed bathrooms in schools” drew hundreds of protesters and counter-protesters to downtown Ottawa on Sept. 20.
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Counter-protesters had girded themselves for a similar scenario on Saturday. Ottawa police were also on alert for disruptions downtown.
In a statement release Thursday night, police warned there would be zero tolerance for unlawful behaviour and vehicle-based demonstrations. “Hate speech and hate symbols, as recently seen on graffiti in Ottawa or on flags in other cities, will not be tolerated. We will have resources, logistics, traffic, towing and staffing plans in place to address any scenario.”
It appeared that police were indeed prepared for unrest downtown on Saturday. Cruisers lined Elgin Street from City Hall to Wellington Street, officers directed traffic, and about a dozen unmarked police SUVs and trucks were parked near the National War Memorial.
But Saturday’s rally drew more counter-protesters than protesters.
A group of about 200 counter-protesters chanting “trans rights are human rights” and “Hey hey, Ho ho, transphobia has got to go” marched on Elgin Street and swung west to Parliament Hill, where they were met with a disparate group of about 50 protesters armed with placards with messages such as “Leave the kids alone” and “Protect parental rights in schools.”
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Counter-protesters said the “gender ideology” protest movement shifted after Kamel El-Cheikh, chair of Hands Off Our Kids, cancelled Saturday’s march in Ottawa.
“We will be relentless and unapologetic in our role as Canada’s most powerful movement, which has swept the nation and won the hearts of all parents and children. Together, we are truly one nation under God,” El-Cheikh said in a statement posted on the Hands Off Our Kids website.
Skyler MacLeod, a trans community member who monitors the protest movement, said another group called Save the Children Convoy took over protest organizing in Ottawa, but there had been a lot of infighting.
“Right now, on their side, they’re very much in disarray. I think the movement as a whole is building steam. It might have fallen apart in Ottawa, but in many other cities there’s a lot of protests planned.”
Emily Quaile, a member of Community Solidarity Ottawa, a coalition that includes community groups and unions, said counter-protesters remained ready.
“We have to show up to make sure we continually remind remind them that they are outnumbered and we have more solidarity than they do,” Quaile said. “And we are also here to keep the community safe, even if there are only five or 10 people there.”
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Tanya King, a trans woman and drag performer, was at the September counter-protest and returned in drag to march in front of the rainbow phalanx on Saturday.
“It’s to make a statement that the movement is not just a fleeting movement where, as soon as it gets hard or you get cold, you go away,” she said. “That’s not what activism is about. You have to be present even when the weather is not nice, even when things are hard. That’s just the spirit of activism.”
King said some people on the right who were otherwise silent had been emboldened by politicians such as Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, whose government passed a “parents’ bill of rights” on Friday, making parental consent a requirement before students under 16 can use different gender-related names or pronouns at school.
“There are some policies being decided today that will affect children for years or decades down the line,” King said. “Children who otherwise could have access to life-saving health care and legal protections now could be adversely affected.”
On Saturday, Haelie Zersch stood on the sidewalk on Wellington Street wearing an “I (heart) TERFs” T-shirt. TERF is an acronym for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist,” a movement that argues that biological sex is real and immutable.
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“These people are in direct opposition to my existence because they want people like me to transition,” said Zersch, who is a lesbian. “Transition in this country now is just the new form of homophobia.”
Zersch describes her politics as centrist. Asked if she felt comfortable with other people in the “gender ideology” movement, Zersch said she didn’t have to agree with everyone about everything.
“You’re going to have to get comfortable with the idea that you’re going to have some uncomfortable allies,” she said.
Matthew Burley, a father of three children under age five, said he wanted transparency for parents and was concerned that school policies might encourage secrecy.
“Teachers are not mental health workers or social workers. They are not psychiatrists or psychologists,” he said.
Burley said he had nothing against the LGBTQIA+ community and he would support his children whatever they decided in life.
“I just came early to have conversations with people. I want to get their perspectives and listen because we grow as people when we listen to each other’s stories.”
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Another protest organized by the Association of Palestinian Arab Canada at the Human rights Monument on Elgin Street is expected to snarl downtown traffic Sunday starting around 2 p.m. Environment Canada is calling for rain and winds gusting up to 50 km/h.
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WINNIPEG – The federal New Democrats have kept a longtime stronghold in the Elmwood-Transcona riding in Winnipeg.
The NDP’s Leila Dance won a close battle over Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds, and says the community has spoken in favour of priorities such as health care and the cost of living.
Elmwood-Transcona has elected a New Democrat in every election except one since the riding was formed in 1988.
The seat became open after three-term member of Parliament Daniel Blaikie resigned in March to take a job with the Manitoba government.
A political analyst the NDP is likely relieved to have kept the seat in what has been one of their strongest urban areas.
Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba, says NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh worked hard to keep the seat in a tight race.
“He made a number of visits to Winnipeg, so if they had lost this riding it would have been disastrous for the NDP,” Adams said.
The strong Conservative showing should put wind in that party’s sails, Adams added, as their percentage of the popular vote in Elmwood-Transcona jumped sharply from the 2021 election.
“Even though the Conservatives lost this (byelection), they should walk away from it feeling pretty good.”
Dance told reporters Monday night she wants to focus on issues such as the cost of living while working in Ottawa.
“We used to be able to buy a cart of groceries for a hundred dollars and now it’s two small bags. That is something that will affect everyone in this riding,” Dance said.
Liberal candidate Ian MacIntyre placed a distant third,
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say the Liberals have “all sorts of reflections” to make after losing a second stronghold in a byelection in Montreal Monday night.
His comments come as the Liberal cabinet gathers for its first regularly scheduled meeting of the fall sitting of Parliament, which began Monday.
Trudeau’s Liberals were hopeful they could retain the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, but those hopes were dashed after the Bloc Québécois won it in an extremely tight three-way race with the NDP.
Louis-Philippe Sauvé, an administrator at the Institute for Research in Contemporary Economics, beat Liberal candidate Laura Palestini by less than 250 votes. The NDP finished about 600 votes back of the winner.
It is the second time in three months that Trudeau’s party lost a stronghold in a byelection. In June, the Conservatives defeated the Liberals narrowly in Toronto-St. Paul’s.
The Liberals won every seat in Toronto and almost every seat on the Island of Montreal in the last election, and losing a seat in both places has laid bare just how low the party has fallen in the polls.
“Obviously, it would have been nicer to be able to win and hold (the Montreal riding), but there’s more work to do and we’re going to stay focused on doing it,” Trudeau told reporters ahead of this morning’s cabinet meeting.
When asked what went wrong for his party, Trudeau responded “I think there’s all sorts of reflections to take on that.”
In French, he would not say if this result puts his leadership in question, instead saying his team has lots of work to do.
Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet will hold a press conference this morning, but has already said the results are significant for his party.
“The victory is historic and all of Quebec will speak with a stronger voice in Ottawa,” Blanchet wrote on X, shortly after the winner was declared.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party had hoped to ride to a win in Montreal on the popularity of their candidate, city councillor Craig Sauvé, and use it to further their goal of replacing the Liberals as the chief alternative to the Conservatives.
The NDP did hold on to a seat in Winnipeg in a tight race with the Conservatives, but the results in Elmwood-Transcona Monday were far tighter than in the last several elections. NDP candidate Leila Dance defeated Conservative Colin Reynolds by about 1,200 votes.
Singh called it a “big victory.”
“Our movement is growing — and we’re going to keep working for Canadians and building that movement to stop Conservative cuts before they start,” he said on social media.
“Big corporations have had their governments. It’s the people’s time.”
New Democrats recently pulled out of their political pact with the government in a bid to distance themselves from the Liberals, making the prospects of a snap election far more likely.
Trudeau attempted to calm his caucus at their fall retreat in Nanaimo, B.C, last week, and brought former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney on as an economic adviser in a bid to shore up some credibility with voters.
The latest byelection loss will put more pressure on him as leader, with many polls suggesting voter anger is more directed at Trudeau himself than at Liberal policies.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
The New Democrats have declared a federal byelection victory in their Winnipeg stronghold riding of Elmwood—Transcona.
The NDP candidate Leila Dance told supporters in a tearful speech that even though the final results weren’t in, she expected she would see them in Ottawa.
With several polls still to be counted, Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds conceded defeat and told his volunteers that they should be proud of what the Conservatives accomplished in the campaign.
Political watchers had a keen eye on the results to see if the Tories could sway traditionally NDP voters on issues related to labour and affordability.
Meanwhile in the byelection race in the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun the NDP, Liberals and Bloc Québécois remained locked in an extremely tight three-way race as the results trickled in slowly.
The Liberal stronghold riding had a record 91 names on the ballot, and the results aren’t expected until the early hours of the morning.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Canadanewsmedia news September 17, 2024: Bloc wins Montreal Liberal stronghold
