The demonstration of Bread and Forests: women mobilized “for our children”

Thousands of women took to Mother’s Day to take to the streets of the Old Capital in hopes of securing a greener and fairer future for their children.

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“Mothers are tired of being angry alone, so we band together to be angry together. What connects us is the love and concern we have for our little ones,” says Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, co-instigator of the Mothers at the Front movement.

Around noon, the imposing crowd gathered in the Museum Park began a march of just over a kilometer on Grande Allée, towards the National Assembly.

Gathered on the occasion of the Bread and Forests mobilization, thousands of mothers – and fathers – asked the government to protect “their children from the increase in social inequalities [notamment liées aux places en garderie] and the degradation of ecosystems”.

“François Legault, are you sleeping? Do you sleep?”, sang the procession, on the children’s nursery rhyme area Brother Jacquesled by a banner reading “For Our Children”.

More seats

One of the key demands of the mobilization is to be able to ensure a place in quality and affordable daycare for each child, indicates Myriam Lapointe-Gagnon, of the Ma place au travail movement.

This is a particularly difficult situation for mothers who often have to put their professional career on hold to take care of their newborn baby.

“We found no daycare for 19 months, so I worked fifteen hours a week, when my son was sleeping or in the evening, to survive,” testifies Marylin Dion, a young mother of two children.

“I had no choice but to bring extra income home, you couldn’t just be dependent on my spouse’s income,” she adds.

A healthy future

Prime Minister Legault is also being asked to adopt a framework law that “will require the government to scrutinize all its decisions for their impact on the environment and social equity”.

“At our level, we are pretty much at the end of what we can do. At some point, we need political will to make things happen,” said Stéphanie Couture, a mother who took part in the demonstration.

An observation shared by Ms. Barbeau-Lavalette, from Mères au front, who asks the government to take decisions “at the height of the climate catastrophe that awaits us”.