Anti-war demonstrations in a dozen Canadian cities on Saturday protested the military mission in Afghanistan, beginning a weekend of action organisers hope will raise awareness of Canada's involvement in the US-led "War on Terror."
The rallies, the largest being held in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, will continue until Sunday, organiser Dylan Penner told AFP. In Montreal, hundreds of protesters descended on a military base to express disagreement with the presence of Canadian forces in Afghanistan, Radio-Canada reported.
"It is against the will (of Canadians) that the government has decided to extend the military presence (in Afghanistan) until 2011," said Raymond Legault, a spokesman for the anti-war group Collectif Echec a la Guerre.
In March Canadian lawmakers agreed to extend the military mission, retaining the deployment of 2,500 troops based in southern Afghanistan until at least 2011.
The cost of Canada's presence in Afghanistan, from the start of the US-led invasion in 2001 to the projected withdrawal in 2011, could reach 18.1 billion Canadian dollars (15.8 billion US dollars), according to an official report.
Protest organisers told AFP they were not motivated by the general election on Tuesday, which saw the reelection of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, but rather the seven year anniversary of the 2001 invasion.
Ninety-seven Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2001. A diplomat and two Canadian aid workers have also lost their lives in the conflict.
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