At noon, people holding placards were already streaming off buses used to ferry them to the event, which began at 1:15 p.m. and then wound its way through the downtown core from three different starting points — Place du Canada, Lafontaine Park and Complexe Guy-Favreau. The groups then united and formed one large crowd at Place des Festivals, where a concert was planned.
FTQ Construction, which helped organize the demonstration, confirmed through its official Twitter account that Montreal police have been provided with a protest route in accordance with municipal bylaw P-6.
“The (demonstration) will be peaceful and familial,” the union’s tweet promised.
As of 4 p.m., there were no reports of violence or injuries. One person was arrested for obstructing police.
MPs from all three federal opposition parties were in attendance, as were Parti Québécois MNA Daniel Breton and former Québec solidaire candidate Manon Massé.
Changes to the federal insurance scheme include a requirement for regularly unemployed workers to accept a 30-per-cent cut in salary and to travel 100 kilometres for a new job. Opponents of the plan say the provisions would affect not only seasonal workers in Quebec and the Maritimes, where forestry workers and fishermen have long supplemented their seasonal work with insurance benefits, but Canadians in general.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: The Gazette
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