MONTREAL — Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton was among several thousand people who turned out on a sun-splashed spring day in Montreal on Saturday to protest the ongoing war in Iraq and the systems that lead to war in general.

The rally, one of several held across the country on Saturday, was significantly smaller than recent Montreal protests that drew crowds of more than 100,000 people despite bitterly cold conditions.

"I would expect there's been a lot of disillusionment and discouragement amongst those who have been protesting," said Layton, who has been a regular presence at the Montreal protests.

"So what you have here is the beginning of the next wave of protests, people who want to maintain a connection with the idea that violence and invasions unilaterally determined...are not an acceptable form of international relations."

Many among the crowd felt their actions remained relevant, especially while the issue of the post-war Iraqi government remains unsettled.

"I think some of us feel that there's so much that's wrong with this U.S. takeover and corporate globalization and everything, we still need to be out here," said Sue Alward, 59, who works in the United States but lives on the Quebec side of the border east of Montreal.

"There's two forces now: there's the U.S. and there's everybody else. You want to be part of everybody else."

Most of the Montreal protesters, however, were also able to acknowledge that demonstrations like this probably do very little to affect government decision-making.

"I don't think that these (protests) are going to have a concrete impact on policy in the Gulf right now, or on the massacres," said Michael Gagne, 28, of Montreal. "They're really about building the movements back home so that we can prevent future wars, as well as change the system that leads to war."

In Ottawa, about 1,000 people gathered at Parliament Hill to send a message that the war in Iraq is far from over. Organizers said little, instead directing the spotlight on youth who were asked to lead the march and rally.

"No one wins in war, and victory is not the same as peace," Kess Emond-Sioufi, 14, told the crowd. "Each war has its own excuse, and each war sets the stage for the next war."

Zeinab Issa, 18, said conditions for the Iraqi people won't be any better even if the U.S. soon declares victory in the conflict.

"(Bush) said that there was going to be peace and stuff, (that) there's going to be some liberty in Iraq," she said. "But after what I've seen after the war, no. I mean, there's a lot of people dead, so I don't believe anything he says."

Hundreds of people milled about outside Toronto City Hall for the One Big No Peace Festival, a day-long event with scheduled musical performances from the Cowboy Junkies, Sarah Harmer and the Rheostatics.

Much like in Montreal, it was a more subdued anti-war event compared with previous weeks, with placard-carrying protesters representing a small minority.

And the usually heavy Toronto police presence was virtually non-existant. Only a few officers were visible, stationed in police vehicles well away from the scene.

"Now they (the U.S.) are pointing a finger at Syria," said Rosemary Eversley, one of the Toronto participants. "Where is it all going to end?"

In Winnipeg, about 700 people marched from the provincial legislature to Market Square. There were many anti-American signs in the crowd, labelling Bush as a moron, imperialist and dictator.

"I'm not so much anti-American as I am anti-empire," said Chanelle Birks, 16. "The highest power also has the highest corruption and the highest amount of greed.''

In Calgary, a sombre "funeral" procession of about 150 people snaked through downtown to the U.S. consulate. Once there, a group of protesters carrying makeshift coffins laid on the ground, conducting a "die-in" to commemorate those killed in the war.

With the war a fait accompli, the demonstration in Vancouver took on an anti-occupation theme. A few hundred demonstrators gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery before marching a 16-block route through downtown, holding signs reading Death to Imperialism and Regime Change Begins at Home."

About 200 people marched through downtown London, Ont., as did a similar number in Halifax where Roman Catholic Sister Joan O'Keefe said she's still coming to the anti-war rallies because she wants to see a lasting peace in Iraq.

She said she finds it odd that the British and U.S. forces have refused to police the cities they've taken over in Iraq, allowing citizens to loot government buildings and even hospitals.

"I don't think they were ready for that," she said.