Victoria Marches for Palestine, Take Fifty-Seven

While morale remains high among regular protesters even after a year of weekly demonstrations against the Israeli regime, the scene could use so fresh developments—which happen to be coming.

155 Palestine supporters rallied at the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in Victoria, for the fifty-seventh weekend in a row, to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and accountability for Israel’s war crimes.

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Still holding the line after fifty-seven weeks. I’ve noticed that while the turnout remains roughly constant, new faces show up every week. Maybe the key to increasing turnout is to have more regulars commit to showing up every week instead of once in a while.

While this topic actually didn’t come up, it raises the valid question of when it becomes acceptable to beat up Zionists. When it does come to that, count me in.

Today’s iteration was routine, even as the organisers and participants struggled to counter the nihilistic normalisation of Israel’s atrocities in the region, culminating with the shocking reelection of Donald Trump as president of the United States and the threat of Pierre Poilievre following suit as Prime Minister of Canada next year. The movement could indeed use fresh developments and battles on new fronts.

Nice, but déjà vu. I miss real protests!

Well, a new front is indeed forming, as a coalition of advocates led by the Legal Centre for Palestine announced a lawsuit against the federal government for failure to uphold its obligations under the Genocide Convention and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The plaintiffs are making a novel argument under Article 7 of the latter, claiming the Canadian government discriminated against them by denying the evacuation of their relatives to Canada under special measures for the extended families of Gaza residents on spurious grounds.

No amount of smearing can break the protesters’ spirit.

The marchers once again walked across town attempting to win over bystanders, but the atmosphere among the crowd was as morose as the weather. There were multiple hostile incidents to sour the mood even further, starting of course with the regular pack of Zionists under the lead of Stephen Weatherbe and his newfound friends among addicted freedom convoyers and election denialists, but extending to some boorish individuals met along the way, whose petulance nowadays reaches mind-boggling levels of inanity. That being said, one validly pointed out police officers such as the ones chaperoning the march trained with the very Israel Defence Forces (IDF) we were denouncing.

Acute Islamophobe Stephen Weatherbe keeps making an ass of himself, and scrapes the bottom of the barrel for supporters after the last of his loyal followers deserted him months ago.

While the election denialists were giving us thumbs down, their buddy at the front actually said something sensible. I happen not to like cops either.

Those looking for something different than the usual formula may be pleased to learn there will be another march next Saturday at 9am, organised by Independent Jewish Voices Victoria and led by Coast Salish Matriarch Grandma Losah. The march is to start at the Johnson Street Bridge on Wharf Street and end at the Esquimalt office of Lockheed Martin, as part of a national day of action against parts suppliers to the F-35 fighter jet, known to be instrumental in bombing Gaza to oblivion and part of the complaint raised by the Legal Centre for Palestine against the Canadian government.