Unity Rally
Perhaps the most famous demonstration to take place in this area was the Unity Rally of October 27, 1995. Three days before the 1995 Quebec referendum, Canadians from outside Montreal descended into Dorchester Square and Place du Canada and joined a massive demonstration in support of the federalist campaign against Quebec sovereignty. Crowd estimates varied widely, from 35,000 to 150,000. The event was a massive project which involved Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Progressive Conservative leader (and future Quebec premier) Jean Charest, Quebec Premier Daniel Johnson Jr. and a host of provincial premiers and federal cabinet ministers. Quebec sovereigntist elements were present in comparatively microscopic numbers and had managed to post a few signs, including a banner pulled by a small airplane reading "Welcome to Our New Economic Partners!" Despite this, the event passed without major incident, as Montreal Police were quick to enforce the rules and parameters of the protest and remove agitators from both sides quickly and quietly. As such, clashes of ideas remained at the level of passionate debate.
Read more about this topic: Dorchester Square
Famous quotes containing the words unity and/or rally:
“The unity of effect or impression is a point of the greatest importance. It is clear, moreover, that this unity cannot be thoroughly preserved in productions whose perusal cannot be completed at one sitting.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“All the critics who could not make their reputations by discovering you are hoping to make them by predicting hopefully your approaching impotence, failure and general drying up of natural juices. Not a one will wish you luck or hope that you will keep on writing unless you have political affiliations in which case these will rally around and speak of you and Homer, Balzac, Zola and Link Steffens.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)