Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered at Ottawa's Parliament Hill on Saturday to call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire in the war-stricken Gaza Strip, Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported on Saturday.

Organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians, Labour for Palestine and the International League of People's Struggle in Canada, the pro-Palestine rally marked the largest in Canadian history as it gathered an estimated 100,000 participants. 

Among the speakers were union leaders, pro-Palestine activists, politicians, and First Nation members, who all voiced their demand for an immediate and lasting ceasefire, as well as an end to Canadian complicity in Israeli war crimes. 

NOW: Thousands have made it to Ottawa for a national march at Parliament Hill. For as long as Canada continues to fund Israel’s decades long genocidal campaign on Palestine, we will continue to take to the streets!

🔴 Watch live on Youtube https://t.co/x1uejmsKCV pic.twitter.com/GJBHQJAKJa

— Palestinian Youth Movement (@palyouthmvmt) November 25, 2023

Jewish voices for Gaza

Speaking to Al Mayadeen, a member of Nuterei Karta, Yosef Rosenberg, said that Zionism and Judaism are completely distinct from one another and that the Jewish faith has been manipulated to fit the political agenda of Zionists.

"There was a time when Jews, Muslims and Christians once lived in harmony in Palestine. This all ended when Israel was established as a State and when zionists began occupying and murdering people," Rosenberg said. 

"Israel has been using the Jewish religion to commit massacres on the Palestinian people, to kill, to loot and do all things that are against the Ten Commandments," he pointed out, adding that the scriptures never allowed Jews to claim their own sovereignty. 

First Nations raise their voices

Flags of First Nations were seen flying among the crowd. As persecuted peoples themselves, they came to express their support for the Palestinian people. 

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Mohawk activist Ellen Gabriel told Al Mayadeen, "As an Indigenous person, where we suffered multi-generational trauma from genocide and colonization, we absolutely identify with the plight of the Palestinian people, because their fight is similar to ours."

Speaking in reference to world leaders who, by their silence, demonstrate that they are complicit in the genocide of Palestinian people, Gabriel explained, "We have to bring them to justice, because as we have been trying to bring those who have perpetrated genocidal acts against our own people, our own children, we also want the same for Palestinian children and their families. We want them to be able to get justice at the ICC [International Criminal Court]." 

Speaking on stage before demonstrators, Gabriel said, "We share the same history of being attacked for just being who we are by the same colonizer, the same oppressors, who want to attack our family unit by killing the children, as they did in the residential schools. Six to eight thousand children were murdered."

Read more: Canada discovers more unmarked graves at another site

Canada's politicians speak out

The first and only politician to have spoken out in defense of Gaza, MPP of Ontario Sarah Jama, told Al Mayadeen that she believes the state of Canadian democracy "is in shambles."

"People across Canada, Palestinians and non-Palestinians, are losing their jobs in droves for simply asking the Canadian government to name what is going on as a genocide while this country continues to export weapons en masse to Israel," she said.

"The myth of Canadian exceptionalism has long since been dead, and any other future platitudes around Canada promoting peace in any region around the world should be seen for what it is: empty and meaningless words and false promises," she added, noting, "We have become a land of false promises, and the thousands of Palestinians who have died by our weapons is a testament to that."

On October 10, 2023, Jama posted a statement under Ontario NDP letterhead, condemning "Israel's" actions in Gaza. This led to calls for her resignation from various leaders and Zionist organizations. After refusing to retract the statement, the legislature later voted 63-23 to censure her for alleged anti-Semitic comments, banning her from speaking until she apologizes and deletes the statement.

Union leaders voice support for Gaza

Flags of unions were also seen fluttering among the crowd, with many coming to speak out against Canadian complicity in funding Israeli war crimes in Palestine.

"It is shameful that Canadian political and ruling elites chose to fund a genocide instead of providing adequate funding for working people in Canada" Hassan Husseini, a member of Unifor and an organizer with Labour for Palestine-Canada, told Al Mayadeen.

In 2022, Canada's military exports to "Israel" totaled over $20 million. Meanwhile, the housing crisis and the drug crisis are continuing to cripple the Canadian social fabric and economy.

"We are ashamed but not surprised because Canada is not a neutral actor. As a settler colonial state, Canada supports another settler colonial state. Labour activists are slowly starting to take up the cause of Palestinian people like we did for South Africa in the past and as we stand with the indigenous people on Turtle Island," Husseini added.

PYM calls for an end to Canadian complicity

According to members of the Palestinian Youth Movement and organizers of the rally, Canadian complicity in Israeli war crimes includes the refusal of leaders to call for a ceasefire, as well as arms sales totaling up to $21 million per year.

Canada is also complicit in its role of providing diplomatic cover for the Israeli genocide, they say, but the voices of the masses will not allow this to persist any longer. 

Speaking to Al Mayadeen, PYM member and organizer Yara Shoufani said that Canada's refusal to call for a ceasefire shows that "Canada's entire rhetoric about democracy is completely false, because if it were true and if this were a democratic state, then the Canadian government would respond to the will of the masses."