MONTREAL — About 800 anti-capitalist demonstrators marched through downtown Montreal on Sunday in a May Day rally.
Protesters planned to protest at a Tory riding office in affluent Westmount-Ville-Marie to show the contrast between the country’s wealthiest and poorest.
One of the organizers, Lucien Chiasson, says the Harper government hasn’t done enough to help low-income earners but he says none the major federal parties offer solutions to a systemic problem.
The protesters never made it to the Conservative campaign office after police blocked off the route and led them onto another street.
There were no major incidents in the May Day rally and only a few people appeared to be arrested, though the final count wasn’t immediately released by police.
The group that organized the rally, Montreal’s Anti-Capitalist Convergence, played a part in the headline-making protests during the G-20 summit last summer in Toronto.
In past years, protests on May 1 to mark International Workers’ Day have resulted in serious clashes with police but this year organizers tried to make it more family friendly.
A separate demonstration involving union groups was held earlier in the day.