Police ride horses through crowd, injure several and arrest three on Saturday at rally much like the ones each weekend since October. Officers pinned some people to the ground to make arrests, including a bystander unaffiliated with the march.
Over a thousand people gathered in downtown Toronto to commemorate Land Day on Saturday.
Palestinians mark Land Day every year on March 30 to commemorate six unarmed Palestinians who were killed and more than 100 injured by the Israeli army during protests in 1976 against Israel’s expropriation of Palestinian land.
Demonstrators in Toronto were also demanding a ceasefire and an end to Israel’s attacks on Gaza, which have killed about 32,623 people since Oct. 7, 2023.
The demonstrators began at Yonge and Dundas at 2 p.m. and marched through the east side of the downtown core. Other than police blocking one route at the start, there were no problems.
When approaching the intersection of Parliament and Gerrard around 5 p.m., the crowd was met with a line of police officers and vehicles.
The protesters waited in front of the police barrier for more than 1.5 hours.
“They wanted to seize our truck,” Yara Shoufani with the Palestinian Youth Movement, one of the groups organizing the rally, tells The Grind. “For the last six months, we’ve been using trucks and protesting with the truck. The truck is a way for us to be able to generate sound, but it’s also a way for us to keep the crowd as safe as possible.” The truck usually leads the rally and a space around it is made so no one gets hurt.
At Parliament and Gerrard, police detained the driver and surrounded the truck, arguing with organizers and attendees. (more...)
Violent Crackdown at Land Day March
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