Toronto and Vancouver — Tens of thousands of Canadians left for work and school Monday with a sense of empowerment they didn't enjoy before the weekend.
Despite the stinging cold, they turned out Saturday in startling numbers, young, old, urban, rural, in cities and towns from coast to coast to protest against the impending U.S.-led war on Iraq.
And because they were not alone, because on this one day, the people of Truro, N.S., felt some kinship with the protesters in Tokyo, and those marching in Vancouver echoed the sentiments of strangers in Vienna, they believe momentum is on their side -- and the power to make politicians fight for peace within their grasp.
The weekend's protests, drawing 10 million people worldwide, have not only captured public opinion; they may well change public policy, said Josh Matlow, a 27-year-old campaign organizer for the Toronto-based Canadian Peace Alliance.
Gary Durant was one of about 400 people who braved the cold to march through the streets of Charlottetown to protest the threatened war with Iraq. Photo: Brian McInnis/CP
"We do have more power than a lot of people think we do," Mr. Matlow said Sunday. "If you phone your MP's office 20 times, the assistant is going to let him know. . . . If there are 1,000 calls, it's going to make it into the Prime Minister's briefing binder."
Spearheaded in Canada by local and national groups, the peace movement has already had an impact, namely the cautionary speech Prime Minister Jean Chrétien delivered in Chicago last week, Mr. Matlow said.
More than that, organizers and the protesters themselves have been overwhelmed by the turnout.
In Toronto, protests in November against war drew an estimated 5,000; in January, 18,000. Estimates this weekend suggest more than 80,000 demonstrators paraded peacefully from downtown past the U.S. consulate.
The story was the same in Montreal, where close to 150,000 braved the frigid temperatures.
"Frankly, we expected that the 25,000 or so who turned out [for a previous demonstration Jan. 18] would show up with a few others," said Raymond Legault, a spokesman for Collectif échec à la guerre, which represents about 125 Quebec peace organizations.
In Regina, where 275 people protested against the war on Jan. 18, organizers expected 600 would turn out this weekend. More than 1,000 people showed up.
"People are taking this situation extremely seriously," said Catherine Verrall, co-chairwoman of the Regina Peace Action Coalition. "We had three people in wheelchairs, and all races and backgrounds. We had people who had never done this kind of thing."
Mrs. Verrall, a 72-year-old retired teacher, had carried a placard through Regina's Cornwall Centre mall to spread word of the protest, but the turnout, she said, "was way beyond expectations."
Regina resident Thelma Huntley heard about the planned rally through the Unitarian services she attends. In her 74 years, the only protest Mrs. Huntley had ever joined took place 14 years ago outside a downtown shop that sold fur coats. But the prospect of another world war sent her to the streets Saturday to brave February's bitter temperatures.
"I experienced the Second World War, and I'm so afraid that we could end up with a Third World War, and that's why I had to go," Mrs. Huntley said. "We don't really know what we could get ourselves into; I'm sure it's about oil. I really don't think Mr. Bush is about saving the people from Saddam Hussein; that's hogwash."
Jef Keighley is no stranger to organizing peace protests. During the height of the Cold War, he helped plan antinuclear marches in British Columbia that swelled to 115,000. Theose took months to plan.
By contrast, Mr. Keighley said Saturday's peace marches were a snap to organize. In Vancouver, more than 30,000 people clogged rain-soaked downtown streets, many of them families with young children in tow.
He said there is a groundswell of antiwar sentiment in Vancouver that grows daily. He said it didn't take much effort to get thousands of people into the streets.
One was protester Susan Lambert, a teacher-librarian from the Vancouver suburb of Port Coquitlam.
"There is no basis of integrity for this war," Ms. Lambert said. She said she has two draft-age sons, which she said fuelled her opposition to a U.S.-led war to disarm Iraq.
"There's a whiff of something being trumped up, some exercise in hegemony, or another agenda at play," Ms. Lambert continued, adding she has heard no argument so far that persuades her that war is necessary.
"One would think in this day and age, with the level of communications available . . . that aggression seems to be the least wise approach," she said.
Mr. Keighley said Ms. Lambert's sentiments are widely shared. Over the past three months, peace coalitions across Canada have been inundated with volunteers anxious to donate their time to the peace movement.
"What we've got is energy," said Mr. Keighley, a national representative with the Canadian Auto Workers. He said people are volunteering up to 30 hours a week to publicize past and future protests.
"You can't buy that kind of human energy. It's been amazing."
Mr. Keighley and other protest organizers were basking Sunday in the success of the global protests, buoyed that the marches had appeared to dampen the drive for war.
"People have said . . . 'I think we can make a difference' and they're seeing that we are making a difference," Mr. Keighley said. "And it's an empowering thing and it impels people to go for more."
With a report from Bertrand Marotte
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