Montreal pesticide die-in protest: more than 100 people lie down outside Health Canada offices over C-30 and C-31

More than 100 people, many in Halloween costumes, staged a die-in on Saturday outside Health Canada's offices in downtown Montreal, driving home a single message: pesticides kill. Participants lay on the ground in front of the Guy-Favreau complex while others in white coveralls moved through the crowd pretending to spray pesticides.

According to The Canadian Press, children at the event were invited to trace the outlines of the people on the ground in chalk, and organizers placed a cardboard coffin and tombstones bearing the names of various diseases in front of the building, creating a symbolic cemetery.

The target: Bills C-30 and C-31

Thibault Rehn, executive director of Vigilance OGM, one of the groups behind the protest, said the action aimed to denounce what he called historic setbacks by the Carney government on pesticides. Bill C-30, passed in June, allows cabinet to override Health Canada and reauthorize pesticides that had been banned, while section 13 of Bill C-31, now under consideration, would end the requirement to re-evaluate registered pesticides every 15 years.

For us, this is like granting pesticides a lifetime authorization, and therefore we oppose this bill, Rehn said.

Parallel protests across the province

Protests against pesticides took place simultaneously on Saturday in Quebec City, Ottawa, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Terrebonne, Blainville and Val-David. The demonstrations were organized by groups including Victims of Pesticides in Quebec, the Family Farmers' Network, Union Paysanne, Les Greniers Agricoles, Mères au Front and Vigilance OGM.