A four-day pause of Israel’s latest genocidal bombing campaign on Gaza failed to slow protests on what is typically North America’s busiest shopping weekend of the year.
People from all across the country took to Parliament Hill, saying that they wouldn’t be fooled by the temporary pause, or by the propaganda disseminated by Canadian media. One protester said: “We know that there have been prohibitions in Canadian media, including places like CBC, on even using the word Palestine in reporting.”
Desmond Cole, a Canadian writer and journalist, said: “There have been memos that have been leaked around of directions to journalists not to interview people talking about ceasefire or to use that language. There are so many prohibitions on people in just the journalism class being able to speak out.”
Young organizers of the historic march through Ottawa say that the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is all too confident that the protests will soon subside, thus, international support for Palestinians is more crucial now than ever.
Sarah Shamy, of the Palestinian Youth Movement, said: “The Canadian officials think that with this humanitarian pause for four days that our demands are going to stop or that, somehow, they have answered our demands, but they have not. The real question is what will happen after these four days? Gaza will continue to be under siege, as it has been for the past 16 years. And so the real question now is how many more people must die before our officials call for a permanent ceasefire and an end to the siege on Gaza and an end to this occupation?”
