Protestors ‘draw the line’ against exploitation of people, the planet

Posted: September 23, 2025

(September 21, 2025) By: Mark Gentili, Sudbury.com

An national, intersectional protest was held in communities across the country on Saturday, including in Sudbury, bringing together climate activists, public health-care advocates, Indigenous land defenders, Gaza War critics and anti-billionaires to speak with a single voice

Backed by a chorus of honking from drivers passing by on The Kingsway, Sudbury’s Draw The Line protest on Sept. 20 drew dozens of supporters of disparate causes together to speak as one voice for “for the people, peace and for the planet.”

It was a scene repeated at major cities across the country as the national protest drew together climate activists, public health-care advocates, Indigenous land defenders, Gaza War critics and anti-billionaires.

“A historic alliance has come together of climate, migrant and economic justice, labour and anti-war organizations to rise to this moment and take to the streets all across Canada to draw the line against injustice, pollution, and violence — and for a future built on peace, clean energy and fairness,” stated a press release issued about the rally last week.

“(Prime Minister Mark) Carney is cutting public services while billionaires profit. Canada arms genocide while we can’t afford rent. 1.2 million migrants face permit expiry and deportation,” the release states. “Indigenous lands and people continue to face colonial and corporate violence. Big Oil cooks the planet.

“Meanwhile, Ford and the provincial government continue to ramp up attacks here in Ontario on environmental protections and water regulations. 2SLGBTQ+ people, workers, the disabled, so many of us are feeling threatened and unsafe. It’s clear we need to unite and fight back!”

At the Sudbury event, protestors held signs calling for public health to be protected, for land to be returned to Indigenous communities and treaties honoured, for the protection of unions, for Canada to stop selling nickel for arms production and for tax reform for the “billionaire class”, among other causes.

Among those who lined The Kingsway on Saturday was Dina Zaquot, who was forced to flee Gaza following the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

Zaquot said her immediate family is scattered across countries neighbouring Israel (her mother is in Jordan, for instance) but she still has extended family living in Gaza, where “there is no safe area,” Zaquot said.

“The probability for my family (in Gaza) to die is higher than for them to live,” she said.

Because Zaquot’s husband is Palestinian-Canadian, she was able to gain entry to Canada. The same cannot be said for other refugees from the war.

Zaquot said she is angry the Canadian government, which made it fairly easy for refugees fleeing the situations in Ukraine and Syria to enter the country, has imposed tougher bureaucratic hurdles for refugees from Gaza.

“We are good people,” she said, adding she would like to see Canada “welcome her family.”

Also out Saturday to draw the line was longtime local public health care advocate and retired nurse Dot Klein. She held a large sign emblazoned with the phrase “Public Health Care for People not for Profit”.

She was out to push for equality in health care, Klein said, for accessibility and affordability across Canada, but in Northern Ontario in particular. Across the region, people don’t have equitable access to care, which is contributing to a host of other social challenges, she said.

As to the Draw The Line protest itself, Klein said the event was “exciting and energizing” to see so many people converge, adding there is strength in numbers.

“If we don’t come together, it’s fragmented,” she said, but speaking with one voice makes for a louder message.

That opinion was echoed by Scott Florence, the executive director of the Sudbury Workers’ Education and Advocacy Centre (SWEAC) who said the intersectional nature of the event is its strength.

“It makes sense to come together and speak out,” Florence said.

Critical of the increasingly authoritarian direction of the current United States government, Florence said Canadians like to think this country is different, but he said the passing of Bill 5 in Ontario, which allows for the creation of “special economic zones” where provincial and municipal laws can be exempted to benefit corporate interests, shows this country isn’t immune from government overreach.

The potential impact of Bill 5 on workers, First Nations and people in general is a good example of why Draw The Line is important, Florence said, because the separate issues each group is fighting have a common root: people.

“These are issues we should all be concerned with: genocide, the environment, health care, unions,” Florence said. “We are all involved in all of these things.”

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