From an Egyptian-Canadian student: "My mother, Mariam, is a medical doctor in Egypt. She was in Tahrir today -- Thursday, Feb. 3 -- treating people who had been wounded in yesterday's vicious attacks. She wanted me to share this information with as many people as possible."

Mariam's account:

"Despite what happened yesterday, the mood in Tahrir is still uplifting and encouraging. These people were attacked yesterday by paid thugs bearing ‘white weapons' (knives, daggers, swords). Against these attacks, they defended themselves with only their bare hands and literally the ground beneath their feet -- pulling up the pavement to throw at their attackers.

The walls are crumbling. The walls behind which dictators indulge in decadent opulence while "their" people are mired in wretched circumstance. The walls behind which "leaders" secretly sell -- for personal gain -- the rights of the people they claim to represent.

Across North Africa and the Middle East, across the Arab world, for decades dictatorship and deepening corruption, firmly supported by imperial powers, seemed beyond challenge. Today, once "stable" regimes are now facing a popular reckoning.

From the vantage point of Palestine, there are three new dynamics.

On Friday afternoon, starting around 2 p.m., 175 people gathered in front of the Egyptian consulate in Montreal to show their solidarity with the Egyptian protesters who have been calling since Tuesday for the end of Hosni Mubarak's regime.

Montreal supporters chanted for three hours in French, Arabic, and English, calling for an end to rampant poverty, police brutality, torture, corruption, economic stagnation, and dictatorship. "The youth want liberty and dignity!" they cried. "Down with Mubarak and all dictators!" Their signs and banners showed solidarity with the Tunisian movement that was seen to have sparked the protests in Egypt.