Counter-protest against hate set for legislature

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This article was published 30/08/2017 (2971 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rather than tiki torches and hate, organizers are planning a rally with picnic baskets against hate.

The Winnipeg Diversity Rally Against Hate is set for 2 p.m. on Sept. 9 at the Manitoba legislature.

“It’s a family affair — come with your picnic basket,” said co-organizer Shahina Siddiqui, president of the Islamic Social Services Association.

The rally was planned after the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam Canada announced it was holding an “anti-immigration” rally in Winnipeg on Sept. 9. The group announced the Winnipeg rally in the days after riots in Charlottesville, Va., where white nationalists paraded with tiki torches the day before counter-demonstrator Heather Heyer after a vehicle allegedly driven by a white nationalist rammed the crowd.

In Winnipeg, the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam Canada’s rally is reportedly being held at 11 a.m. in front of the CBC building on Portage Avenue with anti-fascist demonstrators expected to be there.

The Winnipeg Diversity Rally Against Hate, later that Saturday on the legislature grounds, will be a celebration of solidarity, Siddiqui said.

Members of the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Christian faiths are planning to attend, as well as members of the Indigenous community, university students and faculty members and labour organizations. Depending on the weather, there could be more than 1,000 attendees, Siddiqui said.

There will be music and speakers — and, just in case there’s trouble, police and volunteers trained in de-escalating confrontation, she said.

“If anarchists decide to show up, they will be drowned out in positive messages,” Siddiqui said.

In the United States on Sunday, peaceful anti-hate protests turned violent in Berkeley, Calif., where more than a dozen protesters were arrested.

There, a “Rally Against Hate” was organized to protest a planned right-wing, anti-Marxist gathering. Even though the original rally was cancelled, thousands of protesters from both the left and the right showed up, CNN reported. The crowd was orderly but robust, with protesters chanting “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA.” Skirmishes occurred when “several dozen left-wing protesters surrounded and shouted at a handful of right-wing demonstrators,” CNN affiliate KPIX reported.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca