{"id":121022,"date":"2021-05-02T14:01:44","date_gmt":"2021-05-02T06:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=121022"},"modified":"2021-05-02T14:01:46","modified_gmt":"2021-05-02T06:01:46","slug":"covid-19-thousands-march-in-montreal-against-virus-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=121022","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19: Thousands march in Montreal against virus restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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MONTREAL, May 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Tens of thousands of protesters marched at Montreal\u2019s Olympic Stadium, rallying against restrictions imposed by the government to stem a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some demonstrators were arrested at the start of the march with signs in the crowd expressing opposition to masks, curfew and health passports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A heavy police presence was on hand, although the event proceeded largely in a festive atmosphere to the rhythm of drums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police refused to provide a crowd estimate, but Canadian media said the turnout was about 30,000, making it the largest rally against Covid restrictions in Quebec in recent months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protesters, mostly unmasked and ignoring social distancing rules, said restrictions imposed by the Quebec government were \u201cunjustified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They criticized compulsory mask-wearing for outdoor gatherings and a provincial curfew that was imposed at the beginning of January \u2014 a move not seen on a provincial scale in Canada since the Spanish flu outbreak a century ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to slowing rates of infection, the Quebec government said that starting Monday, the start of the curfew in Montreal would be pushed back to 9:30 pm, from 8 pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are simply asking for an end to the health measures,\u201d said Daniel Pilon, who said he was an organizer of the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe collateral damage (of the health measures) is much greater than the collateral damage created by the Covid,\u201d he added, saying there have been increases in suicides and bankruptcies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the protest \u201cdeeply disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe irony here is that by gathering, people are putting each other at risk, spreading further cases of Covid-19, and extending the time in which we will have to be faced with restrictions and public health measures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Montreal\u2019s Olympic Stadium is one of the country\u2019s biggest vaccination sites, and had to be shut down on Saturday due to the demonstration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada has recorded more than 1.2 million cases of coronavirus and 24,200 deaths, more than half of them in Ontario and Quebec. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL, May 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Tens of thousands of protesters marched at Montreal\u2019s Olympic Stadium, rallying against restrictions imposed by the government to stem a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Canada. Some demonstrators were arrested at the start of the march with signs in the crowd expressing opposition to masks, curfew and health […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":121024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121022"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/121024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}