Every week, local activists have been organizing peaceful rallies at the BC legislature in order to advocate for a permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
This Saturday, December 16th, will mark the 10th consecutive rally for peace in the strife stricken region of Gaza. The rally will take place between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
On Wednesday, December 13th, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau put out a joint statement along with Australia and New Zealand’s prime ministers to call for a ceasefire—an action that activists have been demanding of Trudeau for 67 days.
According to Victoria to Palestine, a local group who have played a huge role in organizing the weekly rallies, this call for a ceasefire was not sufficient.
“This past week, our government has finally listened to what millions of Canadians have been calling for across the country, and joined the rest of the world in demanding a ceasefire,” said a Victoria to Palestine spokesperson.
“It is not enough.”
“We will continue exercising our civil rights to protest peacefully, until the killing of civilians stop, and Palestine is free.”
The following day, on Thursday, December 14th, Canada was among the vast majority of United Nations members who voted in favour of an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
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Thus far, Israel has killed over 23,000 Palestinians in attacks that have deliberately targeted civilians. These lives have been lost due to Israel retaliating from the 1,200 deaths at the hands of Hamas’ tragic and egregious October 7th attacks.
“We will continue, despite an alarming rise in Islamophobia, and violent attacks against those who are standing up for Palestine,” said Victoria to Palestine.
“We will continue, even though two weeks ago, a man drove into a volunteer at our rally, and hurled racist, xenophobic and Islamophobic slurs at us.”
“We will continue until our local leaders come out to stand with us in a show of solidarity and support, as they have done for other communities who are hurting, and scared, and targeted,” they said, referring to local leaders standing up for Ukraine during a Russian invasion, but not for Palestine.
VicPD say they will be out on Saturday to keep the peace and control traffic during the activists march through downtown.
