This past weekend, dozens of activists from Quebec social movements erected Canada's first pro-Palestine encampment on public property. Until now, all Canadian encampments have been erected on university campuses.
The activists chose as the site of their encampment Square Victoria, which is named in honour of a former British monarch. Over a decade ago, this same square was taken over by protesters of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Square Victoria is steps away from the Montreal offices of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) CDPQ is an institutional investor that manages several public pension plans and insurance programs in Quebec. The CDPQ has assets of C$434 billion and is one of the world's largest institutional investors. It also has C$14.2 billion of investments in companies that are complicit in Israel's genocide.
On June 25, 2024, Dimitri Lascaris attended a press conference held by the organizers of the encampment at Square Victoria. He also spoke to one of them, former NDP candidate, Zahia El-Masri. El-Masri is Palestinian-Canadian. She explained to Lascaris the objectives of the encampment, and talked about the failure of the Quebec government of Francois Legault to take any meaningful steps to address Israel's genocide in occupied Palestine.
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