A crowd estimated at 120,000 rallied in the streets of Hamilton, a steel town near Toronto, against the conservative provincial government of Ontario on February 24. The Tory government plans to slash public spending and social services. The demonstration, the largest in Canadian history, was part of a two-day mobilisation called by the province's trade union and social justice movements.

The day before saw plants and factories close as workers downed tools. Some 25,000 unionists picketed workplaces around the province. Fourteen hundred buses unloaded wave after wave of public and private sector workers. They were joined by women's organisations, church groups, students, older people, members of the Communist Party and the social democratic New Democratic Party.

The huge turnout -- the march stretched three kilometres -- came despite a campaign by the press to discourage participation that claimed "union bosses" would organise "violence". The government mobilised the Ontario Provincial Police along with riot police. Despite this provocation, the protests were peaceful.

The Tory government has recently passed Omnibus Bill 26, which seeks to curtail and dismantle trade union, democratic and social rights in the province. Several speakers from the teachers' federations at the rally slammed the government's C$1 billion in cuts to public education in the province. About 20,000 Ontario teachers are expected to lose their jobs in the next four months. It is estimated that at least 25% of those present at the demonstration were teachers.

[Abridged from the Canadian People's Voice.]

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