On October 15th, a rally against white supremacy was held in downtown Toronto, hosted in part by Walied Khogali, the former University of Toronto Mississauga Student Union executive director.
The rally was originally organized as a counter-protest to the proposed White Nationalist Rally that was rumoured to take place on September 14th. Sunday’s rally featured speakers from the Coalition Against White Supremacy and Islamophobia including Jeewan Chanicka.
“It is not okay for white supremacists to keep showing up and making themselves seen like they are the norm and they are speaking for all of Canadians and using words and phrases like ‘Canadian values’ because they do not speak for us,” Chanicka stated in a live stream video on his Facebook. “Our presence is our resistance.”
“They will not shut us down, they will not silence us, we will continue to be here because this is our home,” he continued.
The rally was then followed by a march that led through Queen’s Park to the TTC’s Museum Station.
The group marched to chants of “Refugees, they’re welcome here,” and “Immigrants, they matter here.”
The rally ran from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. and the march continued later into the afternoon.
