Anti-NATO protesters in Montreal demand Canada withdraws from alliance

Anti-NATO protesters gathered again in Montreal on Saturday to demand Canada withdraw from the alliance, a day after a demonstration organized by different groups resulted in arrests, burned cars and shattered windows.

About 80 people attended Saturday’s anti-NATO protest in the city’s downtown area organized by Le Mouvement Québécois pour la Paix, holding signs that read “Canada out of NATO” and chanting “solidarity with Palestine.”

Several in attendance held Communist Party of Canada flags while others held Palestinian flags.

Jad Kabbanji, president of Le Mouvement Québécois pour la Paix, said Canada should refuse to meet NATO military spending targets.

He also said that despite calling itself a defensive alliance, NATO has destabilized multiple regions across the globe and created military conflicts, notably in the Middle East and eastern Europe.

Kabbanji said Israel’s military campaign in Gaza would not be possible without the arms provided by NATO members like the United States, and that a policy of increasingly accepting countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union “pushed Russia to invade Ukraine.”