Marcher: Mandela would condemn Charter of Values

MONTREAL – Leonard Wosu remembers when Nelson Mandela made his hastily planned visit to Montreal 23 years ago. It didn’t affect him immediately that he was standing close enough near Montreal City Hall that he could rub shoulders with the former South African president.

“It didn’t hit me as much at that time as it did later on,” he said. “I mean, I thought ‘wow, I shook hands with a legend!’ It was a big eye-opener for me that somebody’s who’s been in jail comes out with no bittnerness.”

Wosu spoke at Montreal’s first march honouring the life of one of the world’s most revered civil rights activists. The march started at the Cote-St-Catherine metro station and processed down Victoria Street to the park that’s named for Mandela.

“Nelson Mandela is a hero. He fought for justice, peace, liberty, and he inspired a whole nation, a generation, a whole world. He means the world to me,” said Hala Yassin, who organized the march.

Some Montrealers viewed Mandela’s life through the prism of local current events.

Florence Nguezem, who emigrated here from Cameroon, said that if Mandela were an activist in Quebec, he would condemn the proposed Quebec Charter of Values.

“You just have to accept everyone,” she said. “No matter their religion, or how that person is dressed.”