It was a rather heterogeneous crowd that gathered Sunday afternoon in Montreal on the occasion of International Workers’ Day. The few thousand people present began their journey on Sainte-Catherine Street in an effervescent atmosphere, chanting slogans such as “So-so-so-solidarity” or “Workers and workers, together for a better world”.
Flags as varied as the communist flag, those of the major Quebec labor unions, political parties or even Cuba were waved in the crowd made up of people of all ages. The executive director of the Union of Professional and Office Employees (SEPB), Pierrick Choinière-Lapointe, was on hand to demand “quality public services”. “We want a universal insurance plan and a minimum wage of $18 an hour,” he told the To have to, on this day when the minimum wage has just been raised to $14.25 in Quebec. “Any increase is welcome,” he said, without however being fully satisfied.
Not far from the stage where a few dynamic speakers took turns, Samuel, an activist from the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Quebec, meanwhile came to “meet the people on the ground” holding an orange flag bearing the image of the left. “We came to show our sympathy for the workers’ movement,” he said, adding that the increase in the minimum wage is “a step in the right direction, but it’s far from enough.”
The demonstration in the city center brought together people of all origins, as evidenced by the presence of Julia Salles, who came to brandish a long red banner anti-Jair Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil. “We have a far-right president in power in Brazil, the situation for workers is really difficult,” she lamented, speaking on behalf of the Popular Committee for the Struggle for Brazilians in Canada, a group that she recently co-founded.
The procession began its march from Cabot Square around 2 p.m.
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