Montrealers rally against U.S. immigration crackdown

Demonstrators gathered in Montreal on Sunday to protest the controversial crackdown by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, calling out ICE tactics as well as Canadian “complicity” in them.

Under crisp blue skies, scores of protesters assembled outside the U.S. Consulate downtown amid widespread outrage over the killing of two American citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis in the past few weeks.

“I want to send the message to the world that fascism will not be tolerated anywhere I want to send the message that we want ICE out of the states we want to abolish the organization we want to prosecute the killer ICE officials,” said Montreal resident since 2016 and lead organizer of the protest, Michael Lipset, who is originally from Minnesota.

“As somebody who wanted to partake in the actions going on on the ground in the Twin Cities, but who is not in the Twin Cities at the moment I was looking for something myself and didn’t see anything so I took it upon myself to organize this,” Lipset said.

“The violence ICE is bringing upon people within the United States will not be tolerated anywhere,” said Lipset.

He also pointed to Canadian companies with commercial ties to ICE, including Vancouver-based social media management platform Hootsuite, Ontario defence manufacturer Roshel and Montreal-based security giant GardaWorld.

“We will not tolerate Quebec’s complicity and Canada’s complicity in that violence by way of corporate contracts with ICE,” said Lipset.

Equipped with winter boots and bullhorns, demonstrators paraded in front of the U.S. consular building on Ste-Catherine Street in the early afternoon before walking to Dorchester Park.

Protesters chanted, “From Minnesota to Montreal, we won’t stop until ICE falls.” They carried signs reading, “I like my ICE crushed,” and “No faux-king way!” depicting a golden crown overlaid by a red X.

Americans living in Montreal and other immigrant rights groups like Indivisible Québec, Democrats at McGill and the Immigrant Workers Centre took part in denouncing the Trump administration’s action.

“When government basically gives their Gestapo the opportunity to shoot people at point-blank range on TV so for the whole world to see when a government takes children into custody and splits them away from their family we believe that this is a crime against humanity and so we need to start denouncing that and that’s what we’re here,” said Dave Hamelin-Shuilenburg, lead organizer, Indivisible Québec.

Democrats at McGill represents the thousands of students who are American who are studying at McGill

“We may be watching from afar in Canada, but we are not powerless,” said Jacob Wesoky, president of Democrats at McGill.

“As an American in Canada, it feels like I’m standing on my neighbor’s lawn watching my house burn down and it’s really difficult to watch all of this chaos happening,” Wesoky added.

Another banner appealed to Christian charity and tolerance, quoting the Gospel of Matthew: “I was a stranger and you invited me in.”

Lynn Worrell said she was there to show her solidarity with Americans resisting the immigration enforcement tactics deployed in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago and other cities that President Donald Trump has alleged are overwhelmed by undocumented criminals.

“Minneapolis, we see you,” Worrell said.

She argued that Canada should bar exporting military equipment to U.S. agencies if those shipments could be used to facilitate human rights violations.

“We are complicit in supporting ICE,” she said.

Worrell noted that Roshel-made armoured vehicles appeared to be on site at the killing of Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse who was shot multiple times after he used his cellphone to record U.S. Border Patrol officers conducting an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. ICE has earmarked millions of dollars for a bulk order for 20 Senator armoured personnel carriers vehicles from the Brampton, Ont.-based company.

Last year, a D.C.-area subsidiary of Montreal’s GardaWorld was shortlisted to bid up to US$138 million on contracts with the ICE, government records show. The company also holds a US$8-million contract to provide staffing at a notorious Florida detention site known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” 

Sunday’s rally capped off a weekend of demonstrations across the continent.

On Friday afternoon, protesters in Vancouver gathered outside Hootsuite headquarters to demand the tech company end a contract tied to ICE. A U.S. procurement site shows the contract to provide social media services, which was first reported by Business in Vancouver, is worth up to US$2.8 million.

The same day, protesters across the U.S. held “no work, no school, no shopping” strikes to oppose the Trump administration’s immigration measures.

The demonstrations took place amid a visceral backlash to the Jan. 24 killing of Pretti, as well as the Jan. 7 death of Renée Good, who was fatally shot behind the wheel of her vehicle by an ICE officer.

Hootsuite, Roshel and GardaWorld did not respond immediately to questions about their commercial links to ICE and Homeland Security.

Back in Montreal, some called on the tens of thousands of dual citizens to make their voice heard in the upcoming November midterm elections in the U.S.

Manuel Salamanca Cardona, a community organizer with the Immigrant Workers Centre, criticized ICE as an “organ of repression.”

“But I’m seeing people who are not immigrants, and I’m seeing people that are immigrants, and my heart is glowing,” he said.

“I’m excited because this resistance is growing everywhere.”

This death has heightened scrutiny of the administration’s tactics following the Jan. 7 death of Renee Good, who was shot and killed while driving her vehicle by an ICE agent.

— With files from The Associated Press