Hundreds of Lebanese protest in Chomedey

By Robert Frank

www.thesuburban.com

Hundreds of disgruntled protesters
rallied outside Laval’s Château Royal
hotel on du Souvenir boulevard, Oct. 28,
to protest against a visit by Lebanon’s
former prime minister, General Michel
Aoun and his son-in-law, Lebanon’s
energy minister Gibran Bassil.

Laval police spokesman Franco di
Genova, told The Suburban that dozens
of local peace officers deployed to the scene, “after the demonstration commenced around 8 p.m. About 200-250
people protested outside peacefully. We
had no problems with them at all.”

Inside, the Lebanese politician, who
spent 15 years in exile in Paris and now
heads a party called the Free Patriotic
Movement, spoke to a $75-a-plate dinner
audience to raise money and boost support among local followers in Quebec.

The demonstrators, who bore
Lebanese flags and placards denouncing
General Aoun, accused him of supporting the governments of Iran and Syria.

In 2006, General Aoun signed a memorandum of understanding with
Hezbollah, a group which Canada and
the United States have branded as a terrorist organization.

Four Hezbollah members have been indicted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon—a United Nations-authorized judicial
body based in Leidschendam,
Netherlands—for their alleged involvement in the 2005 assassination of popular Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

On Oct. 19, a car bomb in Beiruit took the life of Wissam al Hassan, the head of
Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces’ intelligence service, who had recently
uncovered evidence of clandestine
Syrian meddling in Lebanon’s affairs.

CTV News reported, Oct. 29, that the protesters believed that Aoun planned to
spend several days in the Laurentian
resort city Mont Tremblant, “to meet
members of a local group with ties to
Hezbollah.”