Crowds of concerned Canadians took to the streets in a number of cities Saturday, to support the popular uprising against Egypt's 82-year-old President Hosni Mubarak.
About 150 protesters gathered outside the Egyptian consulate in Montreal, hoisting placards in solidarity with citizens of the North African country. About 16,000 Egyptian-Canadians reside in the Montreal area.
Nevin Kenawy, who immigrated to Canada from Egypt two years ago, described life under Mubarak's autocratic rule.
"The situation was so bad," she said outside the consulate, surrounded by chanting demonstrators. "Education is not good."
A rally in downtown Toronto's Yonge-Dundas Square drew more than 500 people.
Wael Zaghloul, a Toronto resident with close relatives in Egypt, said that it's "a matter of time now" before Mubarak's regime falls.
"We're not thinking whether or not it will happen, we're just discussing when," Zaghloul told The Canadian Press. "It's going to be a matter of days."
Ahmed Khalifa, one of the organizers of the Toronto protest, said he was comforted by reports that the Egyptian army had deployed in an effort to maintain a degree of order and described the week's events there as momentous.
"We are witnessing a great change in history," Khalifa told Â鶹´«Ã½ Channel. "It's like the fall of the Berlin Wall. We are watching Egyptian people and Middle Eastern people telling us that ‘we want freedom.'"
Dozens of people attended a rally at Churchill Square, near the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
"It has been 30 years of oppression, 30 years of him raping our land," said Edmonton demonstrator Mohamed Elmadany. "I want to be able to go out there and vote for somebody and to have those votes to be actually accounted for."
Demonstrations were also planned at Vancouver's main library branch and outside outside Calgary's city hall.
The gatherings follow peaceful demonstrations in Ottawa and Montreal on Friday.
Egypt's protesters are angry about the country's crushing poverty, unemployment and corruption. They are also demanding term limits for the presidency, the dismissal of Interior Minister Habib El-Adly, an end to police brutality and the abolition of the state of emergency designation in place since 1981.
Despite days of mass demonstrations, however, Mubarak has refused to step down. He named a new vice president after firing his cabinet and promised political reform, but rallying protesters continued to demand he remove himself from office.
Canada's foreign affairs minister is urging the Egyptian president to usher in democratic reforms, but said it isn't Canada's place to comment on whether political appointments announced on Saturday are a step in the right direction.
"It is incumbent of course on President Mubarak as well as his government to go forward," Lawrence Cannon told News Channel on Saturday. "We are calling for economic reforms as well as these democratic reforms."
Cannon said Canadians will have to wait to see what measures the Egyptian government intends to put in place. He also urged Mubarak to limit the use of force in dealing with widespread protests that have gripped Egypt over the past five days.
"For Canada it is important that there be calm, that the region be stable for very obvious reasons; security is extremely important in that area of the world. I think it is important to be able to heed the protesters' message," Cannon said.
A travel advisory was issued on Saturday, warning Canadians travelling to Egypt to exercise a high degree of caution and avoid non-essential travel to areas affected by protests.
With files from CTV Toronto, CTV Montreal and CTV Edmonton
