Spontaneous march in Ottawa to protest Israel's actions in Gaza.

[JohnyCanuck]

Finally, a free and spontaneous pro-Palestinian public education march through Ottawa's busiest streets!

Oh what a time it was!

Today's non-rally for Gaza on the Hill turned into a rogue march on some of Ottawa's busiest streets, against the wishes of an authoritative, but ultimately ineffective man from the Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians (APAC) who finally located us after about an hour and tried to take away the bullhorn, telling us, "This is not our plan."

We'll never know what the plan was, given that after a half hour of speeches on the Hill it was announced unexpectedly that there would be no march today.

The dismay was palpable among the students, and I had gone specifically because I had been assured at the Chapters picket the day before, by Abla, a vibrant young Palestinian activist, that there would be a march in places where the public would see and where flyers could be handed out. I was on the verge of getting angry all over again.

I heard a female student say, "Hey, I didn't come here to do nothing!" She was very ticked off, and I replied that I hadn't either. People are dying, and we're supposed to listen to a couple of speeches and go home?

Then I saw the glint in Abla's eye. "Who's with me for a march on Chapters Bookstore," she said. Well, she had two people at least.

Do we walk on the sidewalk or the road, Abla wondered. If we walk on the road all the police can do is tell us to get off it, I said. So out into the busy street we went. I stayed on one side of the road and Abla on the other, and when the police pulled up beside us in their cruisers to ask where we were going, we both answered pretty much the same thing: "Just stay with us."

Continued here: http://www.yayacanada.com/019-18.html