Montreal women's rally demands feminism be inclusive

The March On MontrealoutsidePlace des ArtsSaturday brought together around 500 peopleto mark the first anniversary of the Women's March and bring modern feminism into a new year.

The event started at 11 a.m. as the sun started peaking through the clouds, treatingthe crowd to an unseasonably mild day.

The first speaker stepped to themicrophone saying, "If we don't have an intersectional perspective, we will fail our sisters."

The diverse crowd cheered.

"Have we already forgotten the Indigenous women of ValD'Or?"local Black Lives Matter leaderMarlihanLopez said into the microphone to applause.

AttendeeLiseDagenaisagreed that Indigenous women can't be forgotten and needmore federal laws to protect them.

One of thegoals of the rally was to bringmarginalized voices to the centre of conversations about feminism and feminist movements like #MeToowherewomen sharedstories of sexual harassment on social media.

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Despite the impact of #MeToo, many women have felt excluded from it for safety reasons, said one of the event'sorganizers, Sandra Wesley also the executive director of sex work organizationChezStella.

Nancy Brown, a member of the social justice group the Raging Grannies, said that in her 50 years of being a feminist she's seen the movement be misinterpreted before.

In the future, she wants to see more inclusiveness for black women and for men.

Mariette, five, and Audrey, three, attended the really with their mother,milie Gagnon.

Gagnonhas started having conversations with her daughtersabout discrimination and how "some people have fewer choices than others."

Attending the rally is a way "to start to broach these topics," Gagnonsaid.

Keeping the movement going

Last year,thousands of demonstrators descended on PlacedesFestivals, in the wake ofU.S. President Donald Trump's inauguration, in solidarity with the massive March on Washington where an estimated half a million people gathered.

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This year's event was smaller and organized by the Centre des Femmes de l'UQM, a feminist group based at the Universit du Qubec Montral,Chez Stella, the local chapter of Black Lives Matter, and others advocacy groups.

For those attending, it proved an opportunity to show that people still care about the issues which triggered thoserallies.

"It's important to keep the moment going," saidAysha White.