Prince William and Kate Middleton are facing protests while in the Caribbean. Here are 9 other times locals protested royal tours.
Talia Lakritz
- Prince William and Kate Middleton are encountering protests on their Caribbean royal tour.
- It's not the first time royal tours have been protested by local citizens and advocacy groups.
In what became known as "Truncheon Saturday," Queen Elizabeth received an icy welcome from crowds in Quebec in 1964.
Crowds of separatists in Quebec booed, turned their backs, and chanted "Elizabeth go home" as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited Quebec City in the midst of the Quebec sovereignty movement.
Quebec City police restrained the crowds with their nightsticks, known as truncheons. According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's digital archives, 35 people were arrested and six were injured. The day became known as "Truncheon Saturday."
Four protesters were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct when Prince Charles visited New York City in the midst of "The Troubles" in 1981.
Irish nationalist protesters called Charles a "murderer" and yelled "Free Ireland now!" during a Royal Ballet performance of "Sleeping Beauty" at the Metropolitan Opera House, the Washington Post reported in 1981.
Outside the theater, 3,000 protesters chanted "British terrorists! British terrorists!" and held signs such as "British terror must go" in demonstrations against violence during the Northern Ireland conflict, also known as The Troubles.
Queen Elizabeth's 1983 tour of the West Coast was protested by Irish and Argentinian groups.
Members of the Irish nationalist group Irish Northern Aid and Argentinians opposed to Britain claiming the Falkland Islands as an overseas territory protested at Queen Elizabeth's stops along the West Coast.
"We are against this royal visit," Suzeanne McGee of Irish Northern Aid told the Washington Post in 1983. "We will not show respect for the wealthiest welfare recipients in the world. We will not bow down to the sponsors of evil."
In 1986, protesters threw eggs at Queen Elizabeth during her tour of New Zealand.
Police told AP News that the protesters disguised themselves as crowd-control officers in order to get close enough to the monarch. One of the eggs hit the Queen's coat, and another hit the windshield of the car she and Prince Philip were riding in.
The protesters were demonstrating against the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document containing protections for Māori people that were not honored by the British government.
A topless protester who wrote "Get your colonial shame off my breasts" on her chest was arrested as Prince Charles toured New Zealand in 2005.
Charles encountered protesters with signs reading ""death to the monarchy" and chants calling him a "parasite" during his six-day visit.
The topless protester on his Wellington walkabout was charged with disorderly behavior, police told NBC News.
Anti-royal protesters clashed with police during Prince Charles and Camilla's 2009 visit to Montreal, Quebec, in Canada.
Over 100 protesters assembled for a sit-in outside Black Watch Barracks, where Charles and Camilla were scheduled to appear.
The demonstration, organized by the militant nationalist group Réseau de Résistance du Québecois, caused Charles and Camilla to be 40 minutes late for their engagement as police in riot gear dispersed the crowds, The Guardian reported.
Protesters in Montreal chanted "Down with the monarchy!" during Prince William and Kate Middleton's first royal tour as a married couple in 2011.
Protesters gathered outside stops at Saint-Justine Children's Hospital and Quebec City Hall in Montreal during William and Middleton's nine-day tour of Canada.
Demonstrators chanted slogans like "French Quebec!" and "Parasite go home!" according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Prince William and Kate Middleton were met with protesters in Cambridge, New Zealand, in 2014.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge went on a three-week tour of Australia and New Zealand, in 2014 — their first official overseas trip overseas with their first son, Prince George.
Protesters gathered outside Cambridge Town Hall with signs calling for New Zealand to abolish its constitutional monarchy and become a republic.
Anti-war protesters demonstrated at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's visit to a war memorial during their 2018 royal tour of New Zealand.
Harry and Markle laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior and visited the UK Memorial honoring British and New Zealander soldiers in Wellington's Pukeahu National War Memorial Park.
Among the crowds gathered to see the royal couple were protesters demonstrating against the ongoing deployment of the New Zealand Defense Force in Afghanistan.
New Zealand Defense Force personnel were withdrawn from Afghanistan in May. Three months later, New Zealand troops returned to help evacuate both New Zealand citizens and Afghan nationals who had aided the NZDF during its deployment.
Prince William and Kate Middleton are facing protests on their Caribbean royal tour marking Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee.
William and Middleton had to cancel the first stop of the tour in Belize on Saturday after locals organized a protest against the royals.
The royals were given permission to land their helicopter on a soccer field that is currently embroiled in a land dispute between Belize citizens and Flora and Fauna International (FFI), a conservation group that lists Prince William as a patron, Reuters reported.
Protesters carried signs that read, "Prince William leave our land," "Not your land, not your decision," and "Colonial legacy theft continues with Prince & FFI," according to Reuters.
On Tuesday, as the couple visited Jamaica, protesters gathered outside the British High Commission in Kingston, CBS News reported. The protesters, who were demanding that the UK pay reparations for its slave-trade past, carried signs that read, "Seh Yuh Sorry!" and "Apologize now!"
Before Middleton and William arrived in Jamaica, The Advocates Network Jamaica — which is an "unincorporated, non-partisan alliance of organizations and individuals in Jamaica and the Jamaican Diaspora," as its official overview states — had published an open letter to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge about why they would be protesting.
"We see no reason to celebrate 70 years of the ascension of your grandmother to the British throne because her leadership, and that of her predecessors, have perpetuated the greatest human rights tragedy in the history of humankind," the letter read.
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