No long ago a private motion M-103 was proposed by a Muslim MP, attempting to stop, probably eventually criminalize criticism to Islam. Many people believe that this is a threat to freedom of speech. An organization called Canadian Coalition of Concerned Citizens organizes rallies in 66 Canadian cities at noon of Saturday March 4. Also there are lots of people, maybe more people, believe that M-103 is to protect Muslim. They would hold counter-rallies at the same time in the same place.
It was a Saturday. I had nothing more important than freedom of speech. Therefore I decided to go to see who are supporting and who are against M-103.
In Toronto, both the rally and counter-rally would be held at the City Hall Square. Where I arrived at 11:30, there were already many people, probably several hundred people, gathering around the stage on the square. There were speeches, applauding and drumming. It sounded very energetic. I walked around and found that all placards were supporting M-103. About half of them were to show affection to Muslim, such as refuge welcome, Muslim refuge welcome, fight Islamophobia, Love, No Hatred, Muslims are our brother, Islam is a peaceful religion, etc. Another half of placards were about fighting for Muslims. Below are pictures of some placards.
Before I arrived, I was expecting to see lots of Muslims, black people and other minority race groups as M-103 supporters. To the contrast, most of the M-103 supporters at the square are white people, young white guys and girls! Among them there were many young white girls by themselves. I focused too much on the placards and somehow forgot to take pictures of the people. What I could found in my photos were only this one:
I continued to walk around in the crowd. Interestingly I found a young guy showing his support to Donald Trump:
It was almost 12pm, the scheduled time of the Anti-M-103 rally. But besides this young Trump supporter, I hadn't found any other people against M-103.
Were they terrified already? Did they change the location? I checked their website from my phone, trying to figure out. Then I heard the sound of loud speakers from a corner of the square. Almost immediately, the crowd surrounding the stage turned and rushed towards that corner, shouting "Fascist".
The anti-M-103 rally started right on time. The M-103 supporters also started to assault on time. Before I reached that corner, I already saw M-103 supporters beating M-103 protesters. The police arrested two young white guys right away. Later there were a few more assaults, all by those M-103 supporters.
Also on the square, there were a number of people wearing black and having their face covered. They appeared to be ready to assault other people. Several policemen had been monitoring them alertly.
(In the evening I watched TV news from two separate channels. Both mentioned the assaults, but neither channel mentioned that which side assaulted which side.)
When I got close to the anti-M-103 rally, the police had already set up a barrier with police bikes, the M-103 protesters were surrounded. Seeing my Chinese face, the police let me go through the barrier without any question. Probably they knew that I would not make any trouble no matter which side I was with, they even let me getting in and out many times. But other people, white and black, were not allowed to get in. A white guy was obviously angry about that and argued with the police.
Below are photos I took inside the "Inner Circle". There were only about 30 people.
The M-103 protesters started their rally with the Canadian anthem. They also displayed Canadian flags. I noticed that although the other side, the M-103 supporters, were of hundreds of people, none of them displayed the Canadian flag.
Following the anthem were the speeches. To my surprise, all speakers, all anti-M-103 speakers, were Muslim. There were no white people giving a speech!
In this photo, the lady in front of the red hat was a Muslim. She was speaking about the truth of Islam.
In the photo below, this face-covered Muslim lady was giving a speech. Don't assume that she was recommending Islam for being peaceful or tolerating or loving. She was accusing! She was accusing that she was forced to marry at a very young age, by Islamic law, to marry a man she never knew or met before; She was accusing that she had been beaten simply because she once refused to wear the robe and cover her face. To show her sarcasm she put on the full-cover dress today. Ironically, on the side of M-103 supporters, none of them wore a Muslim full-cover dress like her.
One of my favourite slogan: Truth: the new hate speech.
To my surprise again, among those who support freedom of speech and against M-103, there were East Indians. There were a few in the rally. Below is one of them.
This photo was taken when I was outside the barrier. Another Indian was debating with a white. It's quite shocking to hear a white accusing an Indian being fascist and racist. It also sounded creative!
Another surprise to me is an old Chinese granny. She surported freedom of speech. In the photo she was debating with a few young white people. What's on her placard was also my favourite: Free to Criticize.
Outside the barrier, those shouting slogans and debating with M-103 protesters were basically young white people, while those M-103 supporters who were of minority races stayed behind them, drumming to support those young white people.
However in the TV news, on the side of M-103 supporters, the reporters only interviewed minority races people; while on the side of M-103 protesters, the interviews were only with white people. In the TV news you cannot see those Muslims, Indians, and the Chinese granny who were protesting and calling for freedom of speech, let alone the Muslim lady giving speech accusing Islam. If you only watch TV news, you would see only minority races M-103 supporters protesting against white people. However, the reality was exactly on the contrary!
Kudos to the police, who effectively protected the right of peaceful assembly of those M-103 protesters. The other side, the M-103 supporters, were of at least 10 times more people. They had nothing to worry about.
Besides policemen on foot and on bike, there were also two groups of mounted police. It was really effective. The big horses were able to calm down the chaos immediately.
At the end, the police escorted M-103 protesters leaving the square and made sure they were not traced. After the protesters left, all M-103 protesting placards were destroyed by the young white guys from the other side.
In this photo, the policemen were protecting the last few protesters.
Personally I regard this anti-M-103 rally a big success. They didn't use any so-called extreme slogan at all. None of the speakers were white people. Obviously the media have been trying to label this rally as anti-muslim or anti-immigration, they were not able to do so to this rally.
Being at the scene, I deeply felt those young white people who labelled themselves as "Love, Not Hatred", actually showed tremendous hatred towards "fascists, nazi, racists and far righties". Hoever, even if all M-103 protesters were "fascists, nazi, racists and far righties", Have they thought about the follow questions:
Was the September 11 attack in New York, which killed 2996 and injured another 6000+ innocent people, done by someone who believed in Fascism?
Were the November 2015 Paris attacks, which killed 130 and injured 368 people, done by racists?
Were the mass sexual assaults in four German cities in the 2016 new year's eve, with nearly 2000 female victims, done by people believed in Nazism?
...
It's so unbelievable that so many people are supporting M-103, which would lead to prohibition of criticism to Islam. It's not only an IQ issue or a mental issue. It's also an educational issue. Because,
Anything not criticizable must be evil.
You may find the Facebook page of CanadianCCC for more articles, photos and videos of protests across Canada.