MONTREAL – Thousands gathered yesterday in the streets here to protest against Quebec province’s Covid-19 vaccine passport, which will go into effect early next month.
Holding signs reading “Freedom!” and “We are not laboratory rats”, the demonstrators, many of whom came with their families, paraded peacefully under a blazing sun in the downtown area.
Quebecers wanting to eat at a restaurant, go to a bar, exercise at the gym, or attend a festival will need to present proof of vaccination against the coronavirus beginning September 1, under a measure introduced by the province earlier this week.
“It should be the choice of each person whether to be vaccinated. With the passports, it is a means of forcing us” to get the jab, said Veronique Whalen, a 31-year-old who came with her family and said she does not normally attend protests.
“I’m here for my children, I’m afraid for them. It’s discrimination.”
Other signs in the crowd read “Dictatorship”, “The vaccine scam”, and “Health apartheid”, and were seen dotting the crowd alongside a number of Quebec flags.
Several women held posters reading “My body, my choice”, using the popular feminist slogan that is also associated with the abortion rights movement.
Some protesters also wore a yellow star on their chest with “unvaccinated” written across it, in the fashion of the Star of David that Jewish people were forced to wear during the Holocaust.
Vaccination rates in the French-speaking province are high – 84% of Quebecers have received a first dose and 70% are fully vaccinated. – AFP, August 15, 2021
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