IN PHOTOS: Montrealers march to highlight global gender inequalities on International Women’s Day
Posted March 8, 2023 9:25 pm.
Last Updated March 9, 2023 6:04 pm.
Feminist groups, along with hundreds of Montrealers, took the streets of Downtown Montreal to denounce longstanding class and gender inequality issues in Canada, as well as the extreme violence against women around the world on International Women’s day.
“This is a day for us to make our voices heard and our concerns heard,” said Dolores Chew, one of the organizers of the march. Chew is part of the South Asian Women’s Community Center, one of the many women’s organizations represented by Women of Diverse Origins (WDO), an alliance of women’s groups in Montreal.
The protest began in front of McGill University’s Roddick Gates, along with another human rights protest in support of women and girls in Iran. The rally later turned into a march with Quebec Premier François Legault’s office as the first stop.
“Our group got together 22 years ago because in the past there had been a very militant Women’s Day march in Montreal. Then, it kind of died out,” said Chew. “We wanted to recapture that spirit and bring issues that were of concern to us as women in our daily lives and women coming from literally diverse origins, either geographically or in terms of socio-economic class or age.”
Patriarchy, capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, racism: these are some of the factors leading to gender inequalities in Canada according to Chew. This year’s march aims to bring out all of these issues to passersby of the march and politicians in the city. It is also to demonstrate solidarity to the women in countries like Iran where their basic human rights continue to be violated by the state.
“All issues are women’s issues,” said Marie Boti, spokesperson for WDO. “We can’t just act in a vacuum and just take care of our own little backyard. We have to look out and we have to join with women everywhere and learn from them and be strong together.
“All of our struggles, all of our resistance to the world as it exists today, to the whole mess of capitalism, imperialism, wars, and environmental destruction. In order to put forward the need for a better world and the need for women to get active and get involved and to fight for it.”
Although the rally’s main purpose is to highlight these issues, it is also an opportunity for grassroot women organizations in Montreal to come together and celebrate womanhood.
“It’s also a joyous day where we get together,” said Chew. “We take the street and put it out there that we have answers, we can make a difference and our voices must be heard. We cannot wait. It’s time for action now.”
