Hundreds march for peace in Flemingdon, Thorncliffe Park
Posted November 20, 2015 1:33 pm.
Last Updated November 20, 2015 10:28 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Hundreds of people gathered together on Friday to march for peace and stand up against racism after a number of attacks on Muslim women across the GTA.
Holding signs which read ‘Love Knows No Colour,’ ‘Stop Discrimination’ and ‘Respect is a Canadian value’ the group marched through Flemingdon Park and Thorncliffe Park before ending at Grenoble Public School, where a mother wearing a hijab was attacked on Monday while on her way to pick her son.
“We came here to show that we are not alone. This city has a value and it is a Canadian value which is based around tolerance and living together,” Ahmed Hussein, the executive director of Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office, explained.
The march comes one day after two women wearing hijabs were allegedly assaulted and called terrorists at Sherbourne subway station, and an offensive comment aimed at Muslim women was written on a GO train.
“(Toronto) is one of the few places in the world where so many diverse people live together in harmony,” Hussein said. “What happened in the last couple of days … this is not our city. This is individualists who are criminals.”
The group also honoured the victims of the Paris attacks as well as those killed in Lebanon, Turkey and the 224 people who died when a Russian airliner was bombed over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula last month, with a minute of silence.
City councillor Jon Burnside thanked those who had joined the march from neighbourhoods across the GTA, as well as Toronto police officers working to find those responsible for these recent attacks.
“We’ve seen shootings, bombings, killing and right here in our own community, beatings. Why? Because of ignorance and hate. Hate begets hate. Violence begets violence. But compassion, tolerance and understanding, those are the shared virtues that will end the cycle of hurt and loss,” Burnside said.
