DOUBLE FEATURE: Activists Rally at BC Legislature for Migrant Spring, Palestine Counterprotest

Dozens of activists gathered at the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in Victoria, first to promote the rights of migrants, then to counter a Zionist rally.

Since the events occurred at the same location in the same afternoon and their respective attendances largely overlapped, I shall document them as a single feature. Indeed their messages had a lot in common, and I even saw a sign used at both events without losing its relevance.

Migrant Spring

First came a rally named the Migrant Spring, organised by a coalition including the Migrant Rights Network and the Worker Solidarity Network, and part of a national campaign of events held over the weekend.

I’ve reported about such a protest last September, which had attracted about fifty people. This time the count was over sixty, and comprised an even broader audience than previously, not just migrants and workers but also environmentalists, peace activists, and this time Palestine supporters, while some in attendance seemed to be curious onlookers who joined in because they liked what they heard.

Once again the message revolved around holding Prime Minister Trudeau accountable for never honouring his vain promise of regularising all migrants. Such a proposal has been floated back in December, but no details are forthcoming; at this rate it may end up as yet another electoral promise for next year, targeted at people who don’t have the right to vote.

While there can be no accurate count of undocumented migrants in a given country, estimates reach as high as half a million people deprived of the most basic civil rights, starting with health insurance, but also extending to the right to vote and protest, to say nothing of economic precariousness and acute marginalisation. Simply put, they aren’t even second-class citizens.

This time more emphasis was put on the West’s foreign policy causing displacement in the name of corporate interests, chiefly resource extraction in undeveloped lands and sponsoring civil wars for the purpose of keeping governments corrupt and impotent. Its immigration policy has also been decried as deeply racist, highlighting the sharp contrast between the treatment offered to Ukrainians as opposed to that of the Palestinian or Sudanese.

Last time I complained that the speakers had a hard time staying on message. Today I left the precincts more satisfied by the organisers’ performance, and only disappointed by its relatively low turnout given how wide its target audience is; this event deserved a few hundred people to hear its message and more mainstream media coverage.

Palestine Counterprotest

Not an hour later, I was back at the Legislature to document a counterprotest held by the Tzedek Collective, which has been keeping me busy lately. It is the second such counterprotest, the first which took place last month.

As before, the sit-in was held in conjunction with a Zionist rally not fifty metres away, organised by the Jewish Federation. Turnout was lower on both ends: ours was about 75, while theirs was roughly 100, down from about 125 each last time. Quite a few people who attended the Migrant Spring rally bolstered our numbers. Unlike last time, I did not observe any mainstream media presence.

On the Zionist end, the message was a predictable torrent of fear and self-pity, by speakers playing the victim card, portraying Israel as a bastion of virtue surrounded by cruel enemies, complaining about relentless bullying on university grounds (I may have to concede this one with a grin), and of course ever flashing the spectre of the Holocaust, however distant it may be. None of the horrors of the military intervention in Gaza made it through, of course.

Organisers on this side of the aisle naturally saw the picture a bit differently. Jewish speakers in particular took pride in forming a diaspora, making their home in whatever land welcomes them rather than fighting for a country that grabs the lands of Muslims and persecutes its people in an apartheid regime.

Although there were less sparks than last time, factions could of course not be hermetically contained, and there were a few heckling incidents, mostly started by one of our own whose temper got the better of him. And then there was of course Charles Bodi, who as usual just couldn’t help himself, but nobody really took the bait.

Frankly, the only letdown was that the organisers did not bring a speaker with them, which means no music and dancing, while speeches had to be amplified with a megaphone, which is far from ideal. Had I known, I would have brought my modest Bluetooth speaker and microphone, which would have been a huge improvement.

So who won? Well, there were kids playing soccer between the factions, and by the end of the events they were chanting “Free Palestine!” with the rest of us. Likewise, tourists were far more likely to take pictures of us than of the Zionists. I see this as a clear sign that we’re prevailing in the court of public opinion. Let’s keep it up!