Protesters once again take to Montreal streets demanding ceasefire in Gaza

Mohammed-sharif Alghusain flew into Montreal Saturday with his wife and daughters after fleeing from Gaza.

He was forced to leave his sisters and parents behind who, unlike he and his daughters, are not Canadian citizens.

After Israel launched its airstrikes on Gaza, Alghusain left his home there with whatever he could carry to the south of the Palestinian territory, only to later find out his home had been destroyed by the strikes.

"I've lost a lot of friends, a lot of family members. They have pictures. They have names. They have histories. They had wishes," said Alghusain.

Now that Alghusain is safe in Montreal, he's urging the Canadian government to demand a ceasefire.

And he isn't alone.

A large group of protesters once again gathered in downtown Montreal to make that same demand on Sunday, this time at Dorchester Square. It's one of many protests that have taken place in the city and across the world since Israel began shelling Gaza just over a month ago.

Ghida Mawlawi was one of the people in attendance.

"What we're really looking for right now is for our MPs, for Justin Trudeau, for Mélanie Joly, to call for an explicit ceasefire and not simply humanitarian pauses," said Mawlawi, in reference to Israel this week to pause military operations in northern Gaza for four hours a day. 

"A call for humanitarian pause is just simply not enough because it's just implying that the genocide, the bombing can stop for a bit, but then people can continue to be butchered afterwards," she said.

Sarah Shamy, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, also attended the protest. Aside from getting a ceasefire and ending the blockade on Gaza, Shamy is looking for a boycott of companies with ties to arms manufacturers who supply Israel with weapons. The calls are part of a movement known as Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS).

"We have responsibilities as consumers to be responsible and look into where our money is going and to not support the funders of genocide," said Shamy.

She says the crowds protesters will continue to return to the streets until their demands are met.

A majority of Canadians want a full or temporary ceasefire, according to recent Angus Reid Institute and Mainstreet Research polls. 

Sunday's protest — one of several that have taken place in Montreal in a little more than a week — comes at a time of rising tensions in the city. Two Jewish schools were shot at this week. On Sunday morning, one of them was shot at for the second time. 

Between Oct. 7 and Nov.7, Montreal police tallied 73 reported hate crimes and hate incidents against the Jewish community and 25 against the Arab-Muslim community. 

Last year, Montreal police tallied 72 hate crimes and incidents against all groups for the entirety of 2022.

WATCH | Man who 'lost everything' escapes from Gaza: 

'We lost everything' says Canadian who escaped Gaza

1 year ago

Duration 0:47

Mohammed-sharif Alghusain and his family were able to leave Gaza and get to Egypt but have to deal with the aftermath of losing their home, car and Alghusain's business. He told CBC News he also lost his office assistant, who died along with roughly 15 family members.

Escalating violence

Since Oct.7 — the day Hamas militants broke out of the blockaded Gaza Strip and into nearby Israeli towns, killing around 1200 Israelis and kidnapping about 240 hostages — Israel has pummeled Gaza, killing more than 11,000 people in Gaza— half of whom are children — according to Palestinian health authorities.

"Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said earlier this week. "Hundreds of girls and boys are reportedly being killed or injured every day."

On Nov 2. the UN experts said "the Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide." 

The Israeli military says it's not targeting civilians but Hamas fighters, whom they say are using civilians as human shields. Israel says it won't agree to a ceasefire before Hamas releases the hostages. Hamas says it will not free them or stop fighting while Gaza is under attack.

Amnesty International has condemned Hamas, accusing the militant group of committing war crimes by indiscriminantly killing civilians and taking hostages. It has also called Israel's response a violation of humanitarian law "by failing to take feasible precautions to spare civilians, or by carrying out indiscriminate attacks that failed to distinguish between civilians and military objectives."

Generational shift

Rex Brynen, a political science professor at McGill University, says part of the reason Canada's streets are seeing so many protests — especially younger Canadians — comes down to a generational shift in attitudes.

"Canadians in the past perhaps felt emotionally and culturally or religiously attached to Israel or the Holy Land. So I think there was a kind of great reservoir of sympathy for Israel historically in Canada and we've seen that in policy," said Brynen. 

"I think that, increasingly, [for] the younger generations who've grown up only knowing Israeli occupation of Palestinians … They view it as an occupying power that is denying millions of people basic political rights," he said, adding that many liken it to the struggle against Apartheid South Africa, an accusation that has been echoed by several human rights organizations in recent years.