The Montreal Bangladeshi community organizes a rally on Park avenue on wednesday night to support families and friends in Bangladesh protesting against quotas on government jobs. Many people at the rally believe that the system aims to favor the children of supporters of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has governed the country since 2009. They also denounced the violence against the protesters and the students.
For several days university students have been holding rallies across Bangladesh to protest against the system of reserving some public sector jobs for the relatives of war heroes, who fought for the country’s independence from Pakistan. Some of these jobs are also reserved for women, ethnic minorities and the disabled. But at least a third of posts are kept for the family members of those categorized as war heroes. (The Guardian)
According to Rume Alter, a young woman, who came to Montreal with her husband who studies at Concordia University the system of quotas is discriminatory, she said the recruitment should be based on merit.
Earlier this week schools and universities across Bangladesh were shut down until further notice after six people were killed in protests over quotas in government jobs.
Amnesty International and the US State Department condemned the violence and urged Hasina’s government not to repress peaceful protests.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, also called on the government on Tuesday to “protect demonstrators against any form of threat or violence”. “Being able to demonstrate peacefully is a fundamental human right,” he recalled.