Across Canada this past weekend, despite miserable weather, more than 35,000 people demonstrated against the threatened war on Iraq.

Actions were held on November 15, 16 or 17 across Canada, from Victoria to Thunder Bay to Charlottetown, in communities big and small.

Muslims and Arabs, students, peaceniks, trade unionists, seniors, environmentalists, Aboriginal people, anti-racists, people of faith, raging grannies, parents, kids, street theatre performers and anti-war organizers braved gale force winds, blinding snow storms, freezing rain and sub-zero temperatures to take their message into the streets across the country.

Canadians are part of a growing worldwide opposition to war on Iraq. One million people filled the streets of Florence, Italy, November 9 in opposition to the war. In the belly of the beast, 200,000 surrounded the White House in Washington, D.C. and 75,000 rallied in San Francisco on October 26. And 400,000 marched in London, England, September 28, in a demonstration co-sponsored by the Coalition to Stop the War and the Muslim Association of Britain.

All this before the war has even started.

Everywhere organizers and participants were adamant in their disgust for the “anti-democratic and brutal” regime of Saddam Hussein. They expressed solidarity with the people of Iraq who not only suffer under the dictatorship but have also endured the 1991 Gulf War and twelve years of United Nations’ sanctions. An estimated 1.5 million Iraqis have died as a result of these sanctions that prevent the Iraqi people from accessing basic food, medicine and water.

In Edmonton, Patti Harnagel from End the Arms Race told the crowd of 750 that “the U.S. Congress didn’t stop the Vietnam War. The people stopped the war.”

Confidence is so high this time, many people believe this war can be stopped before it starts.

Slogans included the standard “No blood for oil,” a popular chant during the demonstrations against the 1991 Gulf War. A new generation, also recognizing this as just another war for profit, has livened up the slogan. In Halifax, 300 chanted “No, no we won’t go, we won’t kill for Texaco,” and in Toronto 8,000 shouted “Exxon, Mobil, BP, Shell, take your war and go to hell.”

In Montreal, 5,000 linked their opposition to war to the struggle for Palestinian human rights.

Without exception, in every city, there was an incredible response to theactions from pedestrians, motorists, and transit drivers. Pedestriansreadily accepted leaflets and in some cases joined the march. Motoristshonked their horns madly in support and took placards and signs to post intheir windows. And streetcar and bus drivers joined in the fray, ringing andhonking their opposition to war.

The biggest demonstration by far was in Vancouver, where euphoria from the left slate’s victory in the recent municipal election swept people into the streets. Fifteen thousand marched through the rain chanting “Chrétien, Bush and Blair, we’ll resist you everywhere.”

In smaller communities, like Tofino, Brandon, Thunder Bay, Midland, and Sydney, where protesters numbered in the tens rather than in the hundreds and thousands, organizers said the turnout was a “positive beginning.” Many of these communities used the day of action to launch a petition campaign calling for Prime Minister Jean Chrétien not support war on Iraq.

Organizers said the anti-war movement is just getting started. They put the call out for the next pan-Canadian anti-war days of action January 18 and 19.

“The liberal government here will face a political crisis like they have never known if they decide to support a war on the people of Iraq,” said Faline Bobier, emcee of the Toronto rally and member of the Toronto Coalition Against Sanctions and War on Iraq.