Following the call of the Ontario Workers' Federation, many Canadian unions, health workers, climate activists, students, associations and Kurdish activists came together in Toronto, Canada, to celebrate May Day.

Kurds joined the May Day rally following the call of the Toronto Democratic Kurdish Assembly and protested the Turkish invasion attacks in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq).

Canadian workers and Kurdish activists gathered in Queen's Park on Sunday and held a joint rally. Despite the heavy rain, thousands of people gathered in the area to express their demands. Canadians voiced their demands concerning minimum wages, affordable housing prices, and paid sick leaves.

The Kurdish activists raised concern over the occupation of Kurdistan and the Turkish chemical attacks against the Kurds, displaying banners and chanting slogans. The activists wearing chemical white suits with red paint representing blood stains to denounce the chemical attacks of the Turkish army in Kurdistan were watched by the Canadians with great interest.

TURKISH CHEMICAL ATTACKS PROTESTED

500 hundred leaflets in English were handed out in the demonstration area. Speaking on the stage on behalf of the Toronto Democratic Kurdish Assembly, the Kurdish activists called upon the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to investigate the repeated use of poison gas by the Turkish state in South Kurdistan. The activists remarked that the Turkish state pursued a neo-Ottoman, expansionist policy and aimed to occupy the entire Kurdistan.

'TURKISH ATTACKS ARE A GIFT TO ISIS!'

“However, the EU and the US prefer to ignore the fact that Turkey, a member of NATO, has committed multiple violations in Kurdistan. The Turkish military operations against the Kurdish democratic forces in Syria are a gift to ISIS. The Turkish aggression leads to the resurrection of the barbaric terrorist group and facilitates the renewal of its threats targeting the peoples of Turkey, the region and the world,” the activists said in a statement.

The rally continued with Canadian speakers voicing their demands.