Community March Against Racism
Channel: NoOneIsIllegalVan
Date: 2012-03-21

"We Need to Fight Back!": Community March Against Racism takes to Vancouver streets
by SANDRA CUFFE (article from the Vancouver Media Coop)

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Vancouver yesterday for a Community March Against Racism, marking the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (March 21st). The march, organized by No One is Illegal, began at Commercial Drive and 14th Avenue and made its way along the Drive to Grandview Park.

Along the way, stops were made to gather for songs and speakers. After Coast Salish drumming and singing in the middle of the busy intersection of East Broadway and Commercial, Kat Norris of the Indigenous Action Movement asked for a moment of silence: "For all of our people on the street, for all of our people incarcerated, for all of our people suffering in their homes..."

Further along the Drive, the march paused once again. "There was a man that was lit on fire on this street by neo-Nazis, and very little was done about it," explained rally emcee Harjap Grewal.

Robertson De Chazal and Alastair Miller, both reportedly members of neo-Nazi group Blood and Honour, have been charged for the 2009 attack against a Filipino man, who had been sleeping on a couch. The attack was one of several in recent years, targeting people of colour.

"Feeling safe to walk these streets should not be just a Canadian fiction," a group from the Kalayaan Centre recited in a collective poem. "So-called progressive Van city, silencing histories."

Grewal of No One is Illegal highlighted the fact that in the early 1900s there were race riots in the city and racist legislation, and that today there are also both racist attacks and legislation: "We need to see how these things are linked, and we need to fight back."

"Aqui estamos y no nos vamos," - We are here and we're not going anywhere! - local activist Richard emphasized. "We can't rely on the cops, the courts, and the legislators. We gotta rely on the people's movement."

Check out more photos from the Community March Against Racism, and stay tuned for more VMC coverage!
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/photo/we-need-fight-back-community-march-against-racism-takes-vancouver-streets/10273