Mr. Speaker, all of Kabylia has erupted into conflict as a result of the death of a Kabyle college student at the hands of Algerian police on April 18.
Since that date, demonstrations have been on the increase in this region of Algeria where most of the inhabitants are Berbers, a people which makes up 17% of the Algerian population. Berbers' rights, culture and language are not recognized in the Algerian constitution and their reaction shows how exasperated they are.
These peaceful demonstrators are opposed to the arbitrary actions, exclusion and injustice to which they are subject. But the government is turning a deaf ear and is coming down hard on demonstrators: 60 have died and 1,300 have been injured since the demonstrations first began.
In the last century, Kabyle poet Ismaïl Azikkiou wrote:
The hate they sowed in the villages, We reaped; and still it grows;
Tomorrow, a march organized by the pan-Canadian committee to show solidarity with and support for Kabylia will be held in the streets of Montreal. The Bloc Quebecois will not be able to attend, but we will be with the marchers in spirit.