No Letup in Steadfast Support for Heroic Resistance in Palestine

Montreal

November 2

November 3

November 9

Ottawa

November 3

Several hundred people gathered at the Human Rights Monument on November 9 and marched through the streets of Ottawa in a Children's March for Palestine and Lebanon.

The protest was dedicated to the children of Gaza, as November marks one year since a press conference was held by children outside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City which was under siege by the Israeli Occupation Forces. At that press conference, fifteen children appealed to the world: "Since October 7, we have been subjected to genocide, killing, displacement, and bombs falling on our heads in front of the whole world. They are lying to the world, saying that they are targeting Resistance fighters, but as children, we have escaped death more than once. We came to Al-Shifa Hospital as a safe place after we were repeatedly exposed to bombing. We were surprised that we were once again exposed to death after the occupation targeted Al-Shifa Hospital. The occupation starves us. For many days, we have no water or food, or even bread. We drink contaminated water. We came to shout as children, urging you all to protect us. Stop the death. We want life. We want peace. We want a trial for the killers. We want medicine. We want food. We want education. We want life."

Referring to that press conference, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Youth Movement said: "Those children spoke out for an entire generation caught up in a brutal genocide. One year later, here we are, still haunted by their cries. Gaza has paid an unfathomable price. The places where people should find refuge, such as hospitals and schools, were bombed and destroyed. And yet, those children did not give up. Even as bombs rained down, they remained a symbol of something that cannot be broken, the unyielding will to survive, to hope, to live. They remain even now a voice for all of us, calling for justice, for protection and for the chance to live without fear. We must stand together and demand that civilians, children's hospitals, the most vulnerable, be protected. We must hold those responsible for the suffering accountable."

She introduced three speakers, who were all children. A 15-year-old girl who arrived in Ottawa from Gaza six months ago spoke of the conditions her family went through, the displacements, the hunger, and the loss of friends and family. She said that her best friend was found under the rubble when her building was bombed. She was alive for three days but no one could save her, and her body is still under the rubble. The girl called out: "Please stop the war. Protect the children. I can't bring back those who died, but I speak for the 1.4 million children still in Gaza. Don't forget the children of Gaza. Keep talking about us. Use your voice to end this war."

November 9

Kingston

November 13

Toronto

November 2

November 9

Sarnia

November 9

Windsor

On October 29 doctors along with other health care professionals and their supporters demonstrated for over an hour in front of Windsor Regional Hospital's Ouellette Campus to protest Israel's systematic destruction of hospitals and killing of health care workers and patients in Northern Gaza and Lebanon. The demonstration, the first of its kind in Windsor, was organized in response to a call by Doctors Against Genocide for actions in solidarity with health care workers in Palestine and Lebanon who are putting their lives on the line to try and save their patients. Passing motorists showed their appreciation for the demonstrators by enthusiastically honking their horns and offering other gestures of support. The action ended with a vigil on the hospital lawn where two doctors spoke about the Geneva Conventions and other international laws that prohibit the targeting of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure, and demanded that they be upheld to put an end to the atrocities Israel is carrying out with impunity.