A Solidarity Demonstration Is Happening In Montreal Today
A solidarity demonstration for all "victims of police impunity," including Regis Korchinski-Paquet in Toronto and George Floyd in Minneapolis, is happening in downtown Montreal today. Protests have already taken place in Minneapolis and Toronto, and continue to take place across North America. On May 31 at 5 p.m., Montreal will be holding its own protest.
The title of the Facebook event is for the demonstration is "MTL: Justice for George Floyd & ALL victims of police racism."
Its description reads "we encourage you, if you can, to attend this solidarity demonstration in large numbers this coming Sunday, to declare together #BlackLivesMatter and to denounce police violence and impunity against everyone."
The event will be held at 1441, rue St-Urbain, where the Montreal Police Headquarters are located.
This initiative is being organized three groups, namely Justice for Victims of Police Killings, a Facebook community, Hoodstock, a non-profit organization, and Tout Le Hood En Parle, a media company.
All protestors are being asked to practice social distancing all throughout the demonstration.
"We ask that participants maintain 2 meters physical distance between each other, and have chosen a demonstration location where we can take up a lot of space," the organizers wrote.
Below is a link to the Facebook event for the protest.
Before the protest begins at 5 p.m., there is an event organized called "Holding Space 4 Black Life (On ZOOM)," which is a time set aside for black folks, exclusively, "to grieve, share & to hold one another."
The event organizers said, "as we denounce recent police killings in the USA, we also denounce police killings of Black Lives here in Montreal, from Anthony Griffin in NDG in 1987 to BonyJean-Pierre in Montréal-Nord (2016), Pierre Coriolan in Centre-Sud (2017) and Nicholas Gibbs in NDG (2018)."
Two of the victims that this protest is in solidarity for have passed away in the last week.
On May 25, Minneapolis resident George Floyd was killed by police officer Derek Chauvin after being pinned to the pavement for over eight minutes, which caused him to stop breathing.
Officer Chauvin has since been arrested and charged with third-degree murder.
Two days later, on May 27, Regis Korchinski-Paquet was reportedly "shoved off her balcony" by police in Toronto.
Regis' mother has said that it was cops who killed her daughter.
An ongoing investigation of Toronto Police continues in regards to this incident, by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU).
Several donation campaigns have been set up to help support the families of both Floyd and Korchinski-Paquet.
A GoFundMe was started by George's young sister, which can be found here.
The Minnesota Freedom Fund is helping Floyd's family deal with the legal bills.
A "Justice For Regis" GoFundMe has also recently started, which you can read about here.
This cover photo was used for illustrative purposes only.
