Video still of protest against GardaWorld, February 2026.
Neighbors Against ICE is organizing a “Montreal GardaWorld Protest” on Saturday December 5 starting at 1:00 pm at Place du Canada.
Their promotion notes: “Join with your neighbors as we demand GardaWorld – one of Canada’s largest private corporations – stop collaborating with ICE.”
It further explains: “We are a cross-border coalition of Americans, Canadians, religious leaders, public health experts, and local activists uniting in Montreal to demand that GardaWorld immediately terminate its $2.5 billion contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).”
And it highlights: “By accepting contracts to run detention warehouses in Surprise, Arizona, and San Antonio, Texas – as well as ICE transportation across the country – GardaWorld has made itself complicit in human suffering.”
Earlier this month, Project Salt Box investigative reporting noted: “In March, the company’s American subsidiary, GardaWorld Federal Services, won a contract worth at least $313 million to run a planned detention center in a warehouse in Surprise, Arizona. …The company also holds a $17.3 million contract to convert a building in San Antonio [Texas] into a processing and detention center, and it built and runs the Florida detention site known as Alligator Alcatraz.”
Residents from Surprise, Arizona and San Antonio, Texas opposed to these contracts with ICE are expected at the Montreal protest.
Earlier this year, the Montreal Gazette reported: “Nearly 200 people gathered in front of the United States Consulate General in downtown Montreal on Sunday [February 1, 2026] to oppose the actions of U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).” That protest was promoted as being in “solidarity with Minneapolis”.
Another protest took place outside the GardaWorld headquarters in Montreal on Friday February 13, 2026. This video by Alex Tyrrell and this video by Nur Dogan shows that Montreal riot police dispersed the crowd with the use of tear gas.
The Montreal Gazette reported at that time: “About 1,000 Montrealers protested against the province’s investments in GardaWorld outside the company’s headquarters near Place Vertu shopping mall in the St-Laurent borough.”
The McGill Daily also reported: “Montreal activists — accompanied by Québec solidaire, Amnesty International, and several union representatives from the Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux (CSN – Federation of National Trades Unions) and the Fédération Autonome de l’Enseignement (FAE) — gathered at Place Vertu, before making the approximately two-kilometre march towards the security firm’s headquarters. A McGill contingency also attended the protest.”
Corporate accountability and human rights
In November 2025, Aidan Gilchrist-Blackwood, the coordinator of the Canadian Network for Corporate Accountability, told The Walrus magazine: “There is, unfortunately, a precedent of serious abuses being documented and linked to the Canadian security sector around the world. …There are not good mechanisms in Canada for accountability for abuses linked to Canadian companies outside of Canada.”
At that time, John Babcock, a senior communication advisor with the Global Affairs Canada media relations unit in Ottawa, commented: “The Government of Canada expects Canadian companies operating abroad to abide by all relevant laws, to respect human rights in their operations, and to adopt best practices and internationally respected guidelines on responsible business conduct.”
We continue to follow this.
Further reading: Ontario company’s contract with ICE questioned after the shooting death of two human rights defenders in Minnesota (PBI-Canada, January 27, 2026).
