Over 400 people gathered in downtown London on Tuesday afternoon for a rally and march organized by the family and friends of two Canadians being held in an Egyptian prison.

Western University emergency room physician Dr. Tarek Loubani and filmmaker and York University professor John Greyson were arrested in Cairo while travelling through Egypt on August 16th.

Dr. Ben Thomson, a friend of Loubani, says “They were walking into a police station asking for directions and on that day that was sufficient to be arrested.”

Supporters gathered in Victoria Park at 1 p.m. in support of the two men, who have now been imprisoned for 39 days.

Organizers say the objective is to pressure the Canadian government to increase efforts to assure that the Egypt releases Loubani and Greyson.

Dr. Amit Shah, who works with Loubani at the London Health Science Centre says people are very upset and worried.

“There’s nothing to do with any kind of actual allegations which will be proven. This is about a political issue for Egypt and we need political intervention to get them home.”

Placards, badges, buttons and postcards to "lick and send" to Prime Minister Stephen Harper were provided at the rally.

Loubani and Greyson were in Cairo en route to Gaza where Loubani was to teach emergency room medicine and Greyson was looking into producing a documentary.

Thomson was supposed to meet Loubani and Greyson in Gaza for their humanitarian work and has mixed emotions about the situation.

“According to military law in Egypt they can be held as long as two years, which they’ve already been held far too long…I’ve experienced shock, horror, frustration, infuriation.”

Last week the pair began a hunger strike to protest the arbitrary nature of their detention. They have still not been formally charged and Egyptian officials have provided no reasons for why they are being held.

Friends of Greyson, also a former Londoner, are dumbfounded.

Wendy Pearson says “John is an idealist, he works really hard for the causes he believes in. His filmmaking career has been dedicated to that…It’s extremely worrying, particularly since they’ve gone on a hunger strike, you know there’s only a certain amount of time that we have in which to get them out.”

A second rally was also held Tuesday outside the Egyptian consulate in Montreal.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is expected to meet with Egyptian officials at the United Nations to discuss the release of the two Canadians, and those at the rally hope it happens soon.