Montreal Bank Trash

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This from Bash Back! news:

06/07/10: The Laurentian Bank was attacked in the middle of the night. The atms, windows and sign were smashed with a hammer and rocks. An attempt was also made to obscure one of their cameras with paint bombs. The words “Solidarity with the G20 arrestees” were painted on the bank`s wall.

Solidarity with the G20 resistance. Don`t back down in the face of repression.

-anarchists

Lets spread the word about what's being done, lets keep our mouths shut about who might be doing what...

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Expelling Undercovers from Montreal's Demonstration Against Police Brutality

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undercovers jump and run at Monday's anti-cop demo

One of the most disheartening aspects of the 2009 March 15th Anti-Police Brutality demonstration in Montreal was the diffuse nature of resistance, so that people would do various things but even when undercover cops were identified in the crowd there was no capacity to eject them, or to unarrest comrades.

That's why the following video circulating on Youtube made me smile. The scene is Monday's demonstration, the 2010 March 15th Anti-Police protest - and what you see are a number of undercover cops identified, and expelled from the demo.

Watch. Learn. Apply.

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Laugh Out Fucking Loud

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These are tags. One says "Fuck the Police", another says "All Cops Are Bastards." We have also seen these slogans at demonstrations in the past, so we can surmise that the group we are dealing with here is a group that we see in demonstrations.
- Yannick Ouimet, Service de police de la Ville de Montréal

The above quote is in regard to the attack on a deserted police station over the weekend. The cop's logic is brilliant, fucking brilliant.

Remember, tonight is COBP's annual Demonstration Against Police Brutality metro Pix-IX at 5pm...

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Smashing Cop Cars in Montreal

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Play safe and don't get caught!

From the CBC:

Vandals hit 11 Montreal police cars
Saturday, March 13, 2010
CBC News

Eleven cruisers were vandalized overnight at the Montreal police traffic and road safety division's building in the city's St. Henri district, police said Saturday.
Windows were smashed and the police cruisers' computers were damaged.Windows were smashed and the police cruisers' computers were damaged. (CBC)

Windows were smashed and the vehicles' computers were damaged.

Witnesses who alerted police said between 15 and 20 people, dressed mostly in black hooded jackets, used rocks and baseball bats to damage the vehicles in the parking lot on Dominion Street at Notre Dame Street West.

The vandals also spray-painted messages in English on the building, which was unoccupied at the time, said Const. Yannick Ouimet of the Montreal Police Service.

He speculated there may be a connection between the vandalism and Monday’s planned march against police brutality.

"We've seen these [graffiti] tags during past demonstrations," Ouimet said.

No arrests have been made.

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There's a Fire Truck on My Ceiling: Windi Earthworm Remembered

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Windi Earthworm was an institution of the radical anglo left in 1980s Montreal. A crossdressing openly gay street musician who took it upon himself to educate the public about the Vancouver 5, the genocide of Indigenous peoples, the destruction of nature, and the miseries of life under capitalism, Windi was a frequent performer at benefits put on by the scene. Indeed, generally he was by far the most popular act.

Michael Ryan has written the following for my new webpage memorial to Windi, who died of AIDS in 1993:

There's a Fire Truck on My Ceiling

In 1978, the first time I met Windi Earthworm, he was sweeping (there’s no other word for it) out of the apartment of a mutual friend as I was entering, his grinning face framed by a flaming bush of hennaed red hair, wearing a loose-fitting shirt and a skirt your mama would’ve died for. A quick introduction and he was gone.

It wasn’t the first time I had seen Windi, mind you. I was familiar with him as the most idiosyncratic and mesmerizing of Montreal’s legion of buskers. Among the Dylan and Beatles covers, the occasional tasteful jazz or classical and the many traditional Latin American bands playing for quarters, Windi stood out. Aggressive, frenetically in motion, chiding, cajoling, even baiting his audiences – sometimes in drag, not feminine drag, no one would have mistaken Windi for a woman, this was a guy in a dress. His lyrics were hard and real and torn from his own life: drug deaths, homophobic attacks, militant resistance, street youth suicides, slumlords, ravaged prostitutes. But Windi wasn’t just some street poet of the underbelly, and his relationship to the street wasn’t reserved for his riveting performances. Many were the frightened young people who ate his food and slept on his couch, or perhaps you’d see him on the street dressed in his nun’s habit, so realistic that I once heard the cops address him as sister, handing out condoms or clean syringes. Never as part of a movement. Windi didn’t do movements – movements had rules – Windi wasn’t very good at rules.

Eventually, Windi and I became good friends. Brought together by the Vancouver 5 defence campaign. Windi had known some of the 5 well during the period he had lived in Vancouver. But again, Windi didn’t join the Free the Five Defence Committtee – groups and all that. The Vancouver 5 simply became part of his act. When AIM activist Gary Butler was transferred to a Montreal area prison, some of us set up a support group; Windi developed a rant that became an overall lesson in the oppression of Native people in North America. How many people read the leaflets we so painstakingly created? How many people stopped to listen to Windi’s rant? I’m pretty sure Windi wins.

Then, when I was living in West Germany in 1985, a letter came from Windi. He’d been diagnosed HIV-positive, still a death sentence at the time. By the time I got back to Montreal a year later, Windi had moved to the country. He was living in a shack with no electricity or running water – and trust me, Quebec winters suck. He was raising chickens, had a few goats, a garden and a sheep dog named Taj. For the next few years, Windi was my source of eggs and occasional fresh vegetables.

When Windi’s health started to noticeably deteriorate, he left Quebec for the West Coast, settling in Victoria, B.C. He knew his time was short, and he had a daughter in B.C. he wanted to be closer to. Windi died in 1993; I had visited him in Victoria a few weeks before. The disease had ravaged him; his once long red hair was cut short, gray and wispy. He slept most of the time I was there. From Victoria, I went to Colorado to visit friends. Shortly after I left, Windi was hospitalized for the last time. Every couple of days, I would call the hospital and we’d make small talk – what really was there to say – he was dying, and we both knew it.

The last time I spoke to Windi, he was less than 24 hours from death and in the grip of dementia. The last thing he said to me was, “there’s a fire truck on my ceiling.” Of course there was.

Unlike Michael, i never knew Windi very well - by the time i left home and joined the anglo anarchist scene in Montreal in 1986, he had the somewhat unreal quality of being well-known and well-loved by almost everyone i met, and yet he just wasn't around so much any more. So apart from a few casual conversations in friends' homes, at the Café Commun/Commune, at the Art dans la Rue anarchist arts festival, i never really knew him.

So i guess like many others, my relationship to Windi was a relationship to his music. And of course to stories of his exploits - stories that he himself would recount as he performed - the mental image i have constructed of his chaining himself to Anita Bryant is as real as if i had seen it with my own eyes. But over time he became to me someone who existed as his music, recorded on tapes that slowly degraded as they were played year-in-and-year-out. (Don't believe what anyone tells you: the advent of mp3s was a very good thing as far as recorded music was concerned!) And then finally, most likely in the fire that gutted the apartment i was living in back in the early nineties, the tapes themselves were no more.

So when my pal loaded up my usb key with music earlier this year, and i saw folders full of Windi's music, it was a both very pleasant and surprising! i'd just assumed those old bootleg tapes were the only form the music had existed in, while in fact people had been translating them into mp3s and sharing them around, quietly and low-key, amongst his friends and family.

These mp3s of Windi's music were recorded in the 1980s, one set live at the Café Commun/Commune - a collectively run restaurant that was cornerstone of the anglo radical left at the time - the other, Alive!, was a collection of some of Windi's favourite tunes, assembled as a demo in the hope of drumming up potential shows or possibly even a recording contract.

They are made available here with the permission of Windi's daughter.

Windi Earthworm -
Live at Café Commun/Commune

• The Bulldozers are Coming - 9:03 min. - 12.7 mb
• The Wind Will Sing For Us - 4:11 min. - 5.9 mb
• Wail Into the Night - 4:34 min. - 6.4 mb
• talking I - 2:58 min. - 4.2 mb
• You Can't Kill Me - 3:21 min. - 4.7 mb
• Love is Like War - 4:40 min. - 6.6 mb
• Out On the Main - 7:33 min. - 10.6 mb
• talking II - 3:59 min. - 5.6 mb
• Lovers' Laughter - 2:41 min. - 3.8 mb
• talking III - 1:47 min. - 2.5 mb
  
  
• On Mars - 4:09 min. - 5.8 mb
• talking IV - 1:14 min. - 1.8 mb
• Change in the Weather - 8:14 min. - 11.6 mb
• talking V - 1:53 min. - 2.6 mb
• Ragged Clown - 8:10 min. - 11.5 mb
• Jumper in the Metro - 4:45 min. - 6.7 mb
• talking VI - 4:24 min. - 6.2 mb
• In My Mother's Womb - 6:33 min. - 9.2 mb
• Jackie Onassis - 4:32 min. - 6.4mb
  
  

Windi Earthworm
Alive!

• Dance Little Gypsy - 5:21 min. - 7.5 mb
• Just Want to Hang On To You - 3:11 min. - 4.5 mb
• Ragged Clown - 6:48 min. - 9.6 mb
• Stone City - 4:10 min. - 5.9 mb
• Jumper in the Metro - 3:47 min. - 5.3 mb
• The Wind Will Sing For Us - 2:12 min. - 3.1 mb
• And They Want Me To Clean Up My Act? - 2:27 min. - 3.5 mb
• News Report - 2:17 min. - 3.2 mb
• King Kong - 7:01 min. - 9.9 mb
• Words from the Machine - 3:27 min. - 4.9 mb
• The Walls Were Paper Thin - 4:00 min. - 5.6 mb
• The Buldozers Are Coming - 10:16 min. - 14.5 mb
• Safe in My Mother's Womb - 4:27 min. - 6.3 mb

click on the above links to play the song - right-click to download or else click on the following to download all of the above in a great big zipfile (203mb)

Working on putting up the Windi Earthworm Remembered webpage, i googled Windi to see if there was anything up on the net i should be aware of. While there are a few mentions, as of this writing it's not much.

i did find two articles mentioned at the National Archives, which i went down and photocopied. They're both from Montreal gay newspapers from the 80s, and both are in French. Each in their own way, they both recount the constant harassment Windi endured from the Montreal police, who would routinely arrest him for playing on the street - and this despite the fact that he paid to have a permit to do so. As he explains in the audio news report accessible here, "I draw a large crowd, I sing anti-socially I suppose as far as the police are concerned, I am a transvestite at times and that does stir up the police's blood I think..."

You can read these two articles here:

• "Windi Earthworm" Berdache Septembre 1981
• "W.E. pour Windi Earthworm" Sortie Juin 1984

With the help of google, i learned that there is also a brief entry in Lesbian and Gay Liberation in Canada: A Selected Annotated Chronology , 1964-1975, that in May 1975 one John Windi "a.k.a. Windi Earthworm" was the first chairperson of the newly established Gay Information and Resources Calgary, a group that offered "weekly meetings, a speakers' bureau, political action, and a library."

Enticingly, i also learned that in 1986, Claude Ouellet produced a short film about Windi, entitled Ragged Clown, which was presented at the Gay Film Festival that year. (This film will hopefully be made available on the internet soon!)

More recently, Viviane Namaste has mentioned Windi in two of her books (C'était du spectacle!: l'histoire des artistes transsexuelles à Montréal and Invisible lives: the erasure of transsexual and transgendered people). Both times she refers to the same incident: in 1980 Windi (who had trained as a nurse) was refused employment by the Montreal General Hospital because he wore the "female" nurse's uniform. Seeking support for a human rights complaint, Windi approached l'Androgyne, Montreal's gay/lesbian/feminist at the time; but the bookstore collective refused to write a letter of support, citing the criticism that transsexuality was "sexist". (Note that by today's definitions, Windi clearly was not trans - he liked to be referred to as "he", he made no effort to pass, he stated that he would not perform at a women's festival "because that's for sisters" - but back in the day of course the term could easily have been used by and for someone who liked to dress in drag.)

Windi Earthworm lived at a time where it was still true that to be openly gay was to put yourself in opposition to the way the world was, no ideological hidden agenda required. And the leap to being not "just gay", but to seeing through the other lies of capitalist culture, was not so great as it is now. It was certainly a leap that more than one person made. It may be a different world today, but the lessons of our past, the joys and power of being yourself, of saying what you think, of sailing away from cookie-cutter America and not just hoping to recreate it, all these are worth remembering if not rediscovering.

And while you're at it, enjoy the music.

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If I Knew Who You Were, I'd Buy You A Beer

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Brilliant fucking action by persons unknown in Montreal, who have very recently engaged in an educational graffiti campaign exposing the sordid history of police murder in this city.

As an article in today's edition of La Presse, with the scandalously biased headline "Des graffitis haineux contre le SPVM" ("Hate Graffiti Against the Montreal Police Department"), tells us, "Hateful graffiti against the police has sprouted like mushrooms over the past few days, all over Montreal."

The "hate messages" are actually epitaphs of a sort, a simple stencil of the Montreal police department's logo with a gun adjoined, and the name and date of death of a person killed by the police along with the words "Killed by the Montreal Police".

Oh yeah, and a website: www.flics-assassins.net.

That's right, while the action here is the communiqué, this action also exploits the wired nature of North American culture, the graffiti-memorials including a web tag, where you can see photos of other epitaphs from this campaign, along with a text explaining some of the murderous history of the Montreal police department.

La Presse quotes police propaganda officer Paul Chablo protesting that "This is vandalism plain and simple. We're in a democratic society, and if people want to express themselves they can, but not at the cost of private property."

Ah private property, so much more important than truth, justice, or human life.

So often our actions are constrained by anxiety, sometimes serious sometimes fanciful, so that the form of our protest ends up making a mockery of the content of our politics. This action does the opposite of that, and in its own almost-under-the-radar way manages to deliver an unambiguous message in a politically exemplary form, liberating public space to keep the memories and pain of the oppressed alive.

Like i said, if i knew who did this, i would buy you a beer.

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[Montreal] Artists Against Apartheid VII

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This Sunday at Montreal's Salla Rossa, the seventh concert in tadamon's Artists Against Apartheid series:

SUNDAY APRIL 12th
20h00 $5-10
La Sala Rossa
4848 St. Laurent
Montreal, Quebec

Performing artists:

ADVAAR
Advaar is a celebrated Iranian music ensemble, the name is a Persian term meaning cycle, a notion found at the very heart in Persian art. Advaar is dedicated to building on the great Persian cultural heritage as well as composition and improvisation inspired by the landscape of learned and traditional repertoires.

KAIE KELLOUGH poet
Kaie Kellough is an acclaimed Montreal spoken-word poet and author celebrated across Canada for innovative and socially conscience poetry, Kellough is the author of lettricity (Cumulus Press) and is co-editor of talking book anthology (Cumulus Press).

MOLLY SWEENEY singer songwriter
Molly Sweeney is one of the most compelling new voices to emerge from the Montreal music scene, Sweeney’s percussive guitar, finespun lyrics and gossamer vocals evoke a world of rapturous melancholy, conjuring songs of exquisite love and unrequited dreams. In addition to solo work, Sweeney currently performs with Sam Shalabi’s Land of Kush both on-stage and on their critically acclaimed 2009 release Against the Day.

MALCOLM GOLDSTEIN and LORI FREEDMAN
Malcolm Goldstein, as composer/violinist, has been active in the presentation of new music and dance since the early 1960’s in New York City, as co-founder of the Tone Roads Ensemble and as participant in the Judson Dance Theater, the New York Festival of the Avant Garde and the Experimental Intermedia Foundation. His “soundings” improvisations have received international acclaim, while Goldstein has written extensively on improvisation and is the author of the book “Sounding the Full Circle ”. Lori Freedman is a Montreal-based bass clarinet player, composer, educator whose work travels internationally. Freedman stradles both worlds of contemporary and improvised music, has recorded more than 40 albums and travels widely playing with a huge variety of musicians such as Rohan de Saram, Frances-Marie Uitti, Joêlle Léandre and the late Steve Lacy.

BAX with Claude Maheu and Nicholas Calloia
Claude Maheu performs with flutes, saxophones, clarinets a multi instrumentalist and eclectic musician in Montreal. Nicholas Calloia is a celebrated contrabass player and is also a composer who is very active within the Jazz scene.

STEFAN CHRISTOFF on piano
Stefan Christoff is a community organizer, writer and piano player living in Montreal.

Artists Against Apartheid is the seventh concert occurring within the international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israeli apartheid.

Tadamon!: Boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israeli apartheid

Tadamon! Montreal
tel: 514 664 1036
email: info[at]tadamon.ca

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The Maison Norman Bethune: A New Maoist Bookstore in Montreal

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The following announcement from the Revolutionary Communist Party (the on based in Quebec, not to be confused with the Avakian-led group in the united states!), regarding the opening of their new bookstore in Montreal. The original French is available in pdf here.

The Opening of the Maison Normal Bethune

The Political Information Bureau is anno the opening of the Maison Norman Bethune - unique in Canada, aiming to be both an information center and an organizing space to support the struggle for socialism and world revolution.

This project is especially important in the current situation, where capitalism is going through one of its worst crises and where more and more people are expressing renewed interest in struggling for a system based on the interests of the majority and workers' power.

Located in the heart of Montreal's Centre-Sud neighbourhood, the Maison Norman Bethune will make a variety of documents available to those interested: the classic works of Marx, Lenin and Mao, works on revolutionary history, publications from contemporary revolutionary organizations such as the Parti Communiste Revolutionnaire, books and texts about current events and socialism, and in all languages... In short, the Maison Norman Bethune aims to distribute all that can serve the revolution.

The Maison Norman Bethune also intends to be a space open to workers and revolutionary and anticapitalist militants who hunger for knowledge and wish to organize themselves to not simply stir up new hope for communism and revolution, but a concrete and immediate project to make them a reality. It is also the place to contact the Political Information Bureau and to learn about the positions and activities of the Revolutionary Communist Party.

For the moment, the Maison Norman Bethune is open Wednesday to Saturday (see below). Over the coming weeks, the team which runs it will work to expand and improve the collection of books and publications available. Regular activities (speakers, video nights, etc.) will also be organized, and a schedule will soon be announced.

The opening of the Maison Norman Bethune itself represents an important victory in the struggle against the propaganda of the bourgeoisie and the unitary vision that its acolytes have been trying to brainwash us with for so long now. It is up to us and us alone, workers and militants who wish to bring forward the liberatory voice of communism and to develop revolutionary action which will put an end to the capitalist system whose time is up, to make this a lively space and a tool in the service of the struggle of the proletariat and the oppressed masses in this country.

The Political Information Bureau calls on all revolutionary, progressive, and anti-imperialist militants to support the Maison Normal Bethune. You have books to give us? You know someone, a militant or former militant, who still has some "hidden treasures"? You want to contribute financially to this project or to offer a bit of time to help out? Let us know, and a militant from the Political Information Bureau will contact you right away to follow up on your proposal.

And most importantly, come and drop by the Maison Norman Bethune, and spread the word!

The Political Information Bureau

*************************************************
Maison NORMAN BETHUNE
Bookstore - Political Information Bureau
1918, rue Frontenac
Montréal (Qc) H2K 2Z1
(across the street from Frontenac metro)
514 563-1487

Opening Hours:
Wednesday: 12:30 - 6pm
Thursday: 12:30 9pm
Friday: 12:30 - 9pm
Saturday: 10:00am - 5pm
*************************************************

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Thoughts on March 15th

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Every lost battle is a principle of weakness and disorganization; and the first and immediate desideratum is to concentrate, and in concentration to recover order, courage, and confidence.

- Carl von Clausewitz, On War

By the time the day was over, over two hundred people had been arrested at yesterday's 13th Annual Demonstration Against Police Brutality. Most of those busted were picked up an a "mass arrest" near the end - as always, a good portion of those were just passersby caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As previously mentioned on this blog, the demo was preceded by a media scare campaign preparing public opinion for mass arrests. Despite this - and despite the fact that the orange line (on which Mont Royal metro is found) was closed - meaning people had a lot of difficulty getting there - over 1,000 people showed up to express their anger at the ongoing social and racial profiling that is the bread and butter of police work. (Police and media lies about just a few hundred people showing up could easily be contradicted by anyone who was there - even just look at the fact that 200 were arrested, most of these hours after the main demo had been broken up by riot cop charges.)

No point giving a play-by-play of the demo - indeed, i couldn't, because i got separated from it when the riot police charged at Sherbrooke corner University, and only found it over an hour later when it was already encircled at Beaudry and St-Catherine. Instead, a few observations...

A lot has been made in the media about how protesters were violent towards not only police, but we also apparently broke windows of restaurants and even of cars parked on the street.

But this media brouhaha shouldn't make us forget that most people who showed up didn't want to fight, of those that were willing to defend themselves a majority were only willing to fight the cops when actually attacked, only a tiny minority out of these might have been willing to go proactive... and then there is an equally tiny minority who were happy to use the occasion to fuck anything up if they thought they could get away with it - i.e. throwing garbage around, breaking the windows of cars parked on the street, etc.

While some of the people vandalizing at random were likely cops planted in the crowd (as we saw at Montebello in 2007), it is true that there are are also some people on our side who engage in this. It should also be mentioned that some of the "random vandalism" is not necessarily a bad idea - pulling dumpsters into the street shows a desire to slow the advancing police lines (the way it was done was ineffective, but at least it shows the desire is there!). Breaking the window of a yuppy restaurant may have political meaning (though this is not necessarily the best day to do it!) - i mean i had to wonder why the Four Points Hotel we passed, where workers have been on strike for months, was left untouched.

& you know, graffiti-ing as we go is certainly a good way to spread the message!

But aggression against passersby, throwing garbage around just to make a mess, smashing the windows of cars (and not fancy cars) parked on the street - this strikes me as less smart. When one thinks of the people who are victimized by this kind of behaviour - sometimes just regular folks - the whole thing strikes me as deplorable. And it must be said - sometimes when this went on other demonstrators intervened - just as some folks seemed to think tipping garbage cans over was a good idea (it takes more than that to make a barricade, comrade!) others stopped to pick up the garbage.

But that kind of silliness was ephemeral to the demo, a really minor factor, despite the media's exaggerations. Over a thousand people showed up and one or two (literally) cars got damaged - it's not the main story!

More importantly to me is what the demo shows about the state of the radical left.

You see, the police had been announcing they wanted a fight for some time now - ever since the talk of the anti-mask bylaw back in January, when the annual demo was pointed to as a place the cops would want to use such a bylaw. And more recently they've been almost guaranteeing a riot in the newspapers every day.

Yet if anybody showed up with a plan as to how to defend themselves or the demo, i didn't see them. i don't think this is the demo organizers' job - COBP obviously takes enough heat as it is just for organizing the annual march, even though they appeal to people to not act violently.

Organizing defense is not their job, but it is ours.

There were hundreds of anarchists and communists out yesterday, hundreds more who would have supported us, the police had announced beforehand that there would be arrests, but there seemed to be no coordinated plan on how to respond. No "red fists", no "black blocks", no plan to act in a way that would change the balance of power, or the inevitable outcome. And yet what a propaganda coup it will be, better than the smartest slogans or niftiest newspaper, when some group actually manages to show it can successfully defend itself and others in such a situation!

The Prussian military theoretician Carl von Clausewitz noted that in war there can exist a state of equilibrium or a state of tension. The former exists when both sides maintain themselves, but neither tries to actually do anything the other is not prepared to accept. All sides stand their ground, posturing, but prepared for tomorrow to be much as today and yesterday.

A state of tension, on the other hand, exists when one side tries to do something that will challenge the status quo, something that they know the other side will oppose - because of this plans must be made more seriously, and thought out all the way to the end. The deal becomes for real. As we can read in On War, compiled by Clausewitz's widow Marie von Brühl after his death:

If a state of tension exists, the effects of the decision are always greater partly because a greater force of will and a greater pressure of circumstances manifest themselves therein; partly because everything has been prepared and arranged for a great movement. The decision in such cases resembles the effect of a mine well closed and tamped, whilst an event in itself perhaps just as great, in a state of rest, is more or less like a mass of powder puffed away in the open air.

As he explained:

Most bygone Wars, as we have already said, consisted, so far as regards the greater part of the time, in this state of equilibrium, or at least in such short tensions with long intervals between them, and weak in their effects, that the events to which they gave rise were seldom great successes, often they were theatrical exhibitions, got up in honour of a royal birthday, often a mere satisfying of the honour of the arms, or the personal vanity of the commander.

What we have on the radical left is precisely this kind of state of equilibrium, punctuated by rare states of tension. Not surprisingly, it is in the states of tension that we actually win things, which is not to say that the states of equilibrium may not play their part in maintaining a certain kind of stance or collective identity. But faced with the world as it is, where time is a factor against us, it must be said the the state of equilibrium does more than simply reflect our lack of seriousness, it chokes us.

For instance, by way of example as to where it might have made a difference had a few dozen people taken it upon themselves to have a proactive plan: as we walked down St-Denis five undercovers in the crowd revealed themselves to bust a guy. They had to drag him struggling out of the march, and one whole block away to where two police cars and some other cops were waiting.

No effort was made to unarrest the guy, although the undercovers were vastly outnumbered. (btw the same undercovers were spotted later milling around demo - they obviously didn't feel very worried about their cover being blown!)

Similarly, near the beginning of the march, one person was arrested by five cops. The cops and their victim were surrounded by dozens of people for several minutes before they took him around the corner to where their reinforcements were waiting. During this time they were pelted with... empty soda cans!

Then during the few minutes that the cops were gone with their victim, their cars were sitting there unguarded, surrounded by the demonstrators. Apart from a little bit of white paint, nothing was done to them.

This is not a criticism of any individual or group, especially not the demo organizers themselves, but it shows that the level of combativeness of the demonstrators was at a frustrating level. Rowdy, but not organized. Individuals may have come prepared on an individual level, but there seemed a real lack of any collective organization for self-defense. A broad state of equilibrium.

Of course, i don't want to sound grumpy. The annual demonstration is what it is, and measured in a certain way the efforts of the past thirteen years have been successful: it is now a Montreal tradition, it allows for a coming together of the radical left alongside people who regularly do get aggressed by police, and allows for the possibility of further solidarity. As a cultural phenomenon, it is a success.

It could be more, but perhaps it shouldn't be. i don't know. But if it is not, if the radical left does not use it as an opportunity to learn and do better, one fears that we will surrender the initiative to the state to do so.

To end with a final quote from Clausewitz:

Woe to the cabinet which, with a shily-shally policy, and a routine-ridden military system, meets with an adversary who, like the rude element, knows no other law than that of his intrinsic force. Every deficiency in energy and exertion is then a weight in the scales in favour of the enemy; it is not so easy then to change from the fencing posture into that of an athlete, and a slight blow is often sufficient to knock down the whole.

We will see.

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This March 15th in Montreal: Join the Demo Against Police Brutality

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This Sunday is the 13th annual demonstration against police brutality in Montreal, within the framework of the International Day Against Police Brutality.

The demonstration is called for Sunday, March 15th at 2pm, at metro Mont Royal.


As always, there is a fear of police violence, or mass arrests, at the March 15th demo.

Over the past year the police have repeatedly singled out COBP in the media, for instance prior to demonstrations around the Villanueva murder last summer, when newspapers pointed to COBP's involvement in the campaign as an indication that demonstrations might evolve into riots. More recently, during the debates around the anti-mask bylaw the Police Brotherhood is trying to get passed in Montreal, COBP was once again singled out, as the Brotherhood argued that masked protesters at the March 15th demos routinely engage in violence.

& now, during the week leading up to this year's demo, the police and media have been putting the fear campaign into gear. Police spokespeople made a show of taking the Brotherhood to court this week, trying to get an injunction obliging the cops to wear regular pig uniforms at the demo this Sunday (the porcine union has been having the cops dress in battle fatigues as pressure tactics in its negotiations with the city). But the pseudo-court case was really just an opportunity to explain that this demo was liable to be "more violent than ever" due to anger over the Villanueva killing.

In the face of this scare mongering, it is more important than ever to stand with COBP, and to attend this weekend's demonstration. See you there.

What follows is COBP's callout for the demo:

“As police officers, repression is our job. We don’t need a community relations officer for a director, we need a general. Let’s keep in mind that the police force is, after all, a paramilitary body.”
Yves Francoeur, President of the Montreal Police Brotherhood

DEMONSTRATION: SUNDAY, MARCH 15th, 2PM
Metro Mont-Royal
Organised by the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COBP)
Rest of the text:

CALLOUT FOR MARCH 15th, 2009: 13th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY

“As police officers, repression is our job. We don’t need a community relations officer for a director, we need a general. Let’s keep in mind that the police force is, after all, a paramilitary body.”
Yves Francoeur, President of the Montreal Police Brotherhood

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
DEMONSTRATION: SUNDAY, MARCH 15th, 2PM
Metro Mont-Royal
Organised by the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COBP)
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

The Montreal police (SPVM) is in an uproar. With the current cases against them looking as loaded as their guns, these guardians of the civil tranquility have a bad case of frayed nerves. Their bargaining tactics as they negotiate the renewal of their collective labor agreement have allowed us a glimpse of their true nature: they now parade around town in military apparel, sending a very clear message to the people of Montreal. The police are keeping a finger on the trigger, and are willing to fight for their right to keep it there.
And how could we forget the events of August 9th, 2008. Early in the evening, while playing dice at a park with his brother and some friends, 18 year old Fredy Villanueva was shot dead at point-blank range by Constable Jean-Loup Lapointe, as his accomplice, Stéphanie Pilotte, looked on. Not satisfied with having shot and killed one young man, Lapointe went on to wound two of the other youth present, shooting one of them in the back. It must be made perfectly clear that this was a murder and that Constable Lapointe should be considered a murderer and must absolutely face criminal charges.

There have been many attempts to portray this as an isolated case, a rare fatality that does not put into question the integrity of the police. Cops, however, never act alone. It is the entirety of the police force and the policing institution itself which is to blame in these cases: Fredy Villanueva is the 43rd person killed by the SPVM since 1987. Not a single police officer has been found guilty of voluntary or involuntary manslaughter. Every single police officer involved in these cases resumed regular duties, which explains why one can still cross paths with a cop like Dominic Chartier. Constable Dominic Chartier killed Yvon Lafrance in 1989, was involved in Martin Suazo’s death in 1995, and has had six complaints filed against him with the police ethics committee. But these facts alone are not enough to warrant a dismissal from his position as weapons instructor for the SPVM.

The Montreal Police Brotherhood (FPPM), with their incomparably bizarre Yves Francoeur reigning supreme in the role of godfather, exists mainly to cover up the wrongdoings of its members, operating much like a crime family. It systematically attempts to sabotage the holding of public inquiries and has interfered with the crown prosecutors’ work on numerous occasions. Meanwhile, with the SPVM recently proposing a ban on protestors wearing masks at demonstrations, we may well ask why the SPVM do not do some unveiling of their own. If the cops are so afraid of public inquiries, it’s because they have something to hide. Thanks to the FPPM, the details of the 2005 police shooting of Mohamed Anas Bennis have still not been made public, and as they have time and again interfered in the holding of any kind of public investigation, this case remains unresolved.

The Brotherhood, along with the vast majority of police, has lately been more radical in its stances, most notably in its president’s own words as he declared that Officer Lapointe “…did his job well”. The police try to set an example in this time of social unrest. They try to play their repression off as being necessary for keeping things in their rightful place. To succeed in their mission, someone will eventually have to pay the price. The political powers that dictate the police’s actions know who to blame when it comes to protecting their own: “visible minorities” who are members of “street gangs” who live in a dangerous and “troubled” ghetto. This kind of racial and social profiling is a day to day reality in Montreal’s working class neighbourhoods. In St-Michel, and Montreal-North to name a few, if it’s not the color of your skin that brands you a criminal, it’s the clothes you wear. As of last year even the highly respected Quebec Human Rights Commission had declared the SPVM guilty of “discriminatory practices and profiling”. The youth of these neighbourhoods are being judged by incompetent hacks and yet it is they who are treated as such. There is also the discrimination experienced by the homeless, who are apparently guilty of not being able to keep a roof over their heads. Montreal police (who seem to not have much rattling around in their heads) seem to find it perfectly reasonable to burden homeless with tickets they cannot pay, thus criminalizing their misfortune.

The people pay the price for “Justice” when its armed goons go on the attack. Besides their possession of firearms and other tools of repression such as the baton and pepper spray, we are now introduced to a new weapon: the electroshock gun Taser. Responsible for the deaths of over 300 individuals in North-America alone, this weapon was most notable employed by the SPVM in the killing of Quilem Registre in 2007, and remains in use despite Minister of Public Security Jacques Dupuis having ordered an assessment of the weapon. Some of the Tasers in use emit a charge up to 50% higher than expected.

So who protects us from the police? Besides facing the possibility of death or imprisonment, we must also behave and learn to keep quiet to appease these hired guns. No name-calling, as the SPVM is pressuring the city to make it a crime to insult a police officer. One wrong word could soon cost you one more fine. It’s easy for anyone to grasp the fact that the new municipal regulations – anti-mask and anti-insult – suggested by the SPVM clearly target, as stated by their spokesperson Paul Chablo, two protests in particular: the International Workers Day protest on May 1st and the March 15th International Day Against Police Brutality. Besides being illogical and subject to interpretation, the two proposed regulations prove that there is a real danger of political profiling. We just have to look at the case of Benjamin Nottaway, Algonquin chief from Lac Barrière, imprisoned since last November for participating in a peaceful protest denouncing the government’s neo-colonial policies.

The only way to resolve these problems is to face their true causes. The poverty engendered by government reflects the wealth of the calmer, less populated rich neighbourhoods, where some even employ their own private security. Economic and social instability has consequences that are becoming clearer and clearer. Here and around the world, it is the same reasoning that keeps the system in place, and just as our police kill, so it is in every place where they take on the role of oppressors. Two recent events caught our attention; there was the murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos in Greece, and that of Oscar Grant in Oakland, California, both at the hands of the forces of order. In both cases, just as we saw in Montreal-North, people took to the streets in revolt, at one point almost culminating in an insurrection in Greece. In the latter case, the two killer cops had criminal charges brought against them. This just goes to show that it is important to act in the face of injustice, that only a strong public outcry can really change things. The International Day Against Police Brutality is the perfect opportunity to show that we refuse to stand for police impunity and to show our opposition to the system that legitimizes their actions. It’s the fist step towards changing a world that has no future ahead of it if we allow passivity to rule.

Justice to all the victims of police brutality and impunity!

No justice, no peace!

-- Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COBP)
http://cobp-mtl.ath.cx/

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Wednesday in Montreal: P4W: Prison for Women Film Screening w/ Ann Hansen

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KEEPING IT REEL!
QPIRG-Concordia's Subversive Cinema Series
next feature film: P4W: Prison for Women
National Film Board (NFB) Classic Film

Followed by a special lecture by ANN HANSEN,
author of "Direct Action: Memoirs of an Urban Guerilla".

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 7pm
1455 de Maisonneuve West, H-110
(metro Guy-Concordia)
Welcome to all. FREE. Wheelchair accessible.

P4W: Prison for Women is an NFB classic film that takes shattering look at love and isolation in the most desperate of places. The film centres on five women inmates - their stores, their relationships and their lives - inside Canada's only Prison for Women in Kingston, Ontario. The complex fabric of this invisible community is revealed through the use of interviews, monologues and powerful verité sequences. (Canada, 1980, 90 minutes)

The film is followed by a special lecture by ANN HANSEN. Ann is a former inmate at Kingston’s Prison for Women; and author of “Direct Action: Memoirs of an Urban Guerrilla.” Ann was part of the underground anti-war guerilla movement of the 1980s in Canada.

Info: 514-848-7585
info@qpirgconcordia.org - www.qpirgconcordia.org

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Montreal Neo-Nazi Gets Two Years for Armed Assault

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Last Wednesday in Montreal an eighteen year old neo-nazi was sentenced to two years prison for stabbing two Arabs in downtown Montreal and assaulting a taxi driver.

The scumbucket, whose name we are not given because he was under 18 at the time, was one of a gang of neo-nazis who were out and about last August 24th. They came across a group of seven young Arabs and began insulting them - then our scumbucket pulled out a knife and stabbed one of them so badly that he required fifty stitches and numerous blood transfusions as a result.

According to La Presse, the neo-nazi proceeded to stab a second victim and then he and his friends fled by taxi. Only thing is, the taxi driver being an immigrant they began to attack him too, smashing his windshield as they left the cab.

Now i just heard of this for the first time a couple of days ago, and from googling around i see apart from an article in La Presse it hasn't been mentioned in the papers. WTF?

Note to those who are interested: a second neo-nazi arrested in this case, Julien-Alexandre Leclerc (20 years old), is scheduled to appear in court on March 25th.

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Video Message from the Villanuevas and Other Victims of Officer Lapointe

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Remember: tomorrow at 1pm, be there to march with the Villanueva family and other victims of August 9.

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[Montreal] Support the Villanueva family!

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URGENT : March with the Villanueva family!

The Coalition Against Police Repression and Abuse (CRAP), is joining the Villanueva family in calling for people to come out in big numbers in support of their extremely justified and legitimate demands, this Saturday, February 7th, in Montreal-North.

To all those who are moved by the Villanueva family’s cause, this is the time to come out and show solidarity!

Although the public inquiry, presided over by Judge Robert Sansfaçon, is set to begin in less than two weeks, the Charest government is still refusing to pay the legal fees for the families of the victims of the police intervention at Henri-Bourassa Park this past summer which cost young Fredy Villanueva his life.

The responsibility for the legal fees should not fall to the families of the victims but rather to the government which called for the Sansfaçon inquiry in the first place.

If the government wishes the Sansfaçon inquiry to retain any semblance of credibility in the eyes of the public, they will also need to push back the date of the inquiry to give the families’ lawyers the time to study the case file, which contains over a thousand pages worth of documentation.

Otherwise, the Sansfaçon inquiry will be yet another demonstration of the disproportionnate powers enjoyed by the police, which will be shown by the presence of six publicly funded seasoned lawyers to defend the interest of the police force.

The Sansfaçon inquiry will not shed all the light on the death of Fredy Villanueva by using a police blue bulb !

Come out and support the Villanueva family’s just and legitimate demands!

* Meeting at Henri-Bourassa Park, corner of Pascal and Rolland, Montreal-North, Saturday, February 7th, 1pm. *


contact : coalitioncrap@hotmail.fr

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Ville9 mtl-nord (Fredy Villanueva)

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Local musicians respond to last summer's police murder of Fredy Villanueva...

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[Montreal] Protest the Slaughter of Tamils in Sri Lanka!

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The following from the Montreal Tamil Action Committee, about an emergency response to the massacre in Sri Lanka:

WORK TOGETHER TO STOP THE SLAUGHTER!

Emergency Rallies in Montreal and in Ottawa!

=======================>
Wednesday February 4TH
5 to 7pm
Complex Guy Favreau on 200 Rene Levesque west
<========================

Tamils and non-Tamils alike must work together to end the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka. As more and more civilians are affected by the Sri Lankan government onslaught against Tamil rebels in the North and Eastern regions we must unite to expose the growing humanitarian crisis affecting more than 250, 000 people trapped in the conflict area.

This brutal regime not only targets Tamil civilians in the conflict region through aerial bombardment of schools, hospitals and places of worship, it also targets innocent Singhalese civilians who oppose its actions against Tamils. News of recent murders, abductions and beatings of sympathetic journalists who cover the plight of Tamils in the country are testimony to the brutality of this regime.

The only way we can ensure that the Canadian government moves away from its silent and complicit position on this issue is through our united actions. On February 4th the Tamil Action Committee will support the call to action by the Canadian Tamil Congress in front of the Parliament in Ottawa between 1pm and 4pm and then in front of the Sri Lanka High Commission between 5pm and 7pm. In Montreal there will be a demonstration in front of Complex Guy Favreau on 200 Rene Levesque west between 5pm and 7pm.

We encourage our allies to join us on this day. Come join these actions and unite to end the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka.

*The Tamil Action Committee is made up of concerned individuals, Tamil and non-Tamil organizations campaigning to expose the human rights violations in Sri Lanka and to end the discriminatory policies towards the Tamil community in Quebec and Canada, especially towards Tamil refugee
claimants.

Tel: (514) 342-2111
Email: tamil.action.committee@gmail.com

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Montreal's Shit-Eating Pigs Have Thin Skin

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If the Montreal Police Brotherhood get their way, reading the title of this post aloud may become a ticketable offense in Montreal.

At least, that's what today's news portends. It would seem that the Brotherhood is planning to get a bylaw passed that will allow police to fine people who insult them. Who defines what is insulting, and what contexts this law will be applied it, remain to be seen.

"La police au service des riches et des fascistes" is certainly in the running. [A popular Montreal slogan at Montreal demos: "the police work for the rich and the fascists."]

This latest move by the Brotherhood comes on the heels of the new anti-mask law, which we all learned about for the first time a week ago, and which is set to be passed by the City Council tonight. The anti-mask law will make it a ticketable offense to wear a mask at a demonstration - though the police have magnaminously allowed that it would not be imposed on people wearing face coverings for religious reasons or to protect themselves against the weather.

Only against those of is who might dare to protect ourselves aand our friends from the police.

The Montreal Police Brotherhood - the cops' union - is, like most police unions, an aggressive opponent of oppressed people and the left. Indeed, it is an oppressor in its own right. The Brotherhood's officials routinely speak up in support of killer cops in the media, and often take things further - for instance they are set to appear in court this week to demand a halt to a coroner's inquiry into the 2005 police killing of Mohamed Anas Bennis. That's right: Quebec's Chief Coroner is to be gagged, told that she is not allowed to investigate this police killing. (Court solidarity and a demo against this attempt at censorship is scheduled this Thursday: see here!)

Think this is just hubris on their part, and unlikely to work? Think again: last year a similar coroner's inquest was successfully put on ice by the Brotherhood, using similar legal bullying tactics. In 2003 Michel Berniquez was arrested by a pack of six cops, he had his head slammed into the pavement, and was held face down on the ground for half an hour. Later that night, while in lock-up, he died. While this information came out in an initial coroner's report, a more fullblown inquiry which was planned was blocked by the Police Brotherhood's court action last June.

So why these recent moves by the Brotherhood?

Well partly, it's just doing what it is "supposed to" do - defending the police, who themselves are charged with defending this rotten capitalist order.

But partly the latest moves to invent bylaws to criminalize traditional protest culture - masks, insults - as well as the City Council's seeming willingness to rubber stamp these new rules - should perhaps be seen in light of the new cycle of struggle which we hope to see emerge from capitalism's latest crisis.

The recession is already swelling the ranks of the discontented. Not just sections of the unionized labor aristocracy who are being pushed down, but more importantly the working class, including most especially in Montreal the immigrant working class which already reminded folks of its potential in the rebellion following Fredy Villanueva's murder last summer.

While in the united states a lot of this discontent may be chanelled into support for the "progressive Obama administration" - at least for fifteen minutes or so - there is no similar carrot being waved here in Quebec, where a (neo-)Liberal provincial government rules alongside the Conservative federal one.

i think it's well likely that the Police Brotherhood's latest moves amount to their upping the ante before we can, giving themselves some of the tools they will need to clamp down on what might be promising times ahead.

& remember: other cops in other cities will be watching, and if they succeed in doing this here, they'll be sure to do it elsewhere too...

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[Montreal] Demand Truth & Justice for Anas!

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DENOUNCE THE MONTREAL POLICE BROTHERHOOD'S MOTION TO PREVENT A CORONER'S INQUEST

****************************************
LUNCHTIME RALLY
12:00 (noon), Thursday, January 29, 2009
Palais de Justice, 1 Notre-Dame East
Champs-de-mars metro

****************************************

T-shirts to support the Justice for Anas campaign will be available on-site
Family-friendly rally!! Bring your placards and banners!!


Join us in denouncing the proceedings filed by the Montreal Police Brotherhood that seeks to prevent the coroner's inquest into the death of Anas from taking place!

IMPORTANT UPDATE (27-1-09):

Dear friends and supporters of the Justice for Anas Coalition:

We have just learned, via the Bennis family lawyer, that the hearing of the legal proceedings filed by the Montreal Police Brotherhood to prevent the coroner's inquest from taking place has been postponed. In light of this news, we are calling off our call for courtroom solidarity this Thursday, January 29. However, we will continue with our plans to have a lunchtime rally (see above) to oppose the Montreal Police Brotherhood's attempts to cancel the coroner's inquiry from taking place and to share our perspectives on why the hearing has been postponed.

Please note that we will make sure to mobilize again to ensure that there is a strong presence in court for whenever the postponed hearing ends up taking place, which we anticipate will be in the coming months.

In solidarity,
Justice for Anas Coalition
(514) 342-2111

BACKGROUNDER

Early in the morning of December 1, 2005, Mohamed Anas Bennis, a 25-year old Canadian of Moroccan origin, was on his way home following morning prayers in a nearby mosque in his neighbourhood of Côte-des-Neiges when he was shot twice by Montreal police officer Yannick Bernier who was working with officer Jonathan Roy. Anas was pronounced dead on arrival to the hospital.

Now, over three years later, the Bennis family and the public are hardly any closer to understanding exactly why Anas, who was described as a mild-mannered and sensitive person, was killed by the Montreal police that morning. The Bennis family has been met with disrespect and disdain on the part of government bodies in its multiple attempts to ascertain very basic truths. A troubling veil of secrecy continues to cloud the circumstances surrounding Anas' death. For two years now, the Bennis family, along with the Justice for Anas Coalition, has been demanding a full, public and independent inquiry on Anas' death.
In June 2008, Quebec's chief coroner, Louise Nolet, announced that she had ordered a coroner's inquiry into Anas' death. Although this was not a full and independent inquiry as the Justice for Anas Coalition had been demanding since its formation in January 2007, it was nevertheless an important, albeit partial, victory. The decision to order the coroner's inquiry surely came as a result of the public pressure campaign led by the Justice for Anas Coalition, whose three demands have been endorsed by more than 30 organisations, over the past 2 years.

However, in August 2008, the Montreal Police Brotherhood filed proceedings against Louise Nolet and coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier – who was to preside over the coroner's inquiry – with the goal of having the coroner's inquiry cancelled. The Brotherhood alleges that all of the answers to the family's questions have already been made available. Yet, up until now, the family has not received answers to many of their questions: why has the knife that Anas allegedly wielded -- according to the police version of the events -- never been produced or undergone forensic evaluation? Why has the video of the scene never been made public? Why have the police officers Bernier and Roy never had to testify publicly or been cross-examined on their version of the facts? The Brotherhood also preposterously alleges that the coroner's inquiry will only serve to harass officer Bernier.

This action by the Police Brotherhood simply adds more questions for the Bennis family, and reveals the police's bad faith and lack of transparency. It is worth noting that this is the same Brotherhood that filed similar proceedings to prevent an inquest into the death of Michel Berniquez (killed by a police officer in 2003), and whose president Yves Francoeur has stated that officer Jean-Loup Lapointe (who killed Fredy Villanueva this past summer on August 9th) "did his job properly."
It is imperative that the Brotherhood as well as municipal and provincial governments are reminded that the public support for the Justice for Anas campaign remains strong, and that the Brotherhood's attempts at preventing the truth from coming out will not go unchallenged.
Please come out in large numbers to fill the court and to support the demands of the Justice for Anas Coalition.

THE JUSTICE FOR ANAS COALITION

The Justice for Anas Coalition demands:

1. The immediate release of all reports, evidence and information concerning the death of Anas Bennis to the Bennis family and to the public;
2. A full, public and independent inquiry into the death of Anas Bennis;
3. An end to police brutality and impunity.

Justice For Anas Coalition
tel: 514-342-2111
email: justicepouranas@gmail.com
web: http://www.justicepouranas.org

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[Montreal] Costume Ball in front of City Hall this January 26th, 2009 at 6pm

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The Ban on Masks:
Le Gros Bon Sens invites you to a Costume Ball in front of City Hall this January 26th, 2009 at 6pm

• just because we wear masks doesn't mean we're violent
• our masks are used to protect us from the police apparatus which is already too controlling
• our masks can be a form of expression as well as a way to maintain our anonymity
• we like dressing up and having a good time
  

The group Le Gros Bon Sens invites the Montreal population to participate in a Costume Ball held in honour of our right to anonymity, this Monday at 6pm in front of City Hall.

Monday January 26th, 6pm
275 rue Notre-Dame est

You must wear a mask; opera masks will be available to those who don't have one.

Progressive Montreal and Quebec organizations are invited to resist this new rule by doing the following:

• circulate this invitation to the Costume Ball in your own networks
• come and join in our Costume Ball
• print and distribute fliers (downloadable in French here)
• publicly demonstrate your support to Le Gros Bon Sens, either by being present or by means of a press release
• get involved!

The agenda of the Municipal Council meeting on January 26th at 7pm, is available here (the point in question is 41.05):
http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/documents/Adi_Public/CM/CM_ODJ_ORDI_2009-01-26_19h00_FR.pdf

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Police Clamping Down on Montreal Left

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It would seem Montreal police are taking aim at the militant edge of the Montreal left, with news this morning of an impending bylaw banning masks at demonstrations.

As i mentioned last year in my post of the Montreal hockey riots, the increasing number of security cameras and surveillance videos has allowed police - and a reactionary public - to identify almost anyone ex post facto, once the fun is over. During the riot last April, hockey fans - and some folks who were simply taking advantage of a good opportunity - specifically targeted cop cars after the game. But in the days afterwards, police obtained pictures of them from the security cameras in various stores, as well as cell phone photos sent in by passeresby, and in the weeks following many arrests were made precisely thanks to this evidence.

The police realize what a powerful tool they have, and nobody is making any bones about it, this proposed law is aimed directly at the left and anarchist scenes, with the goal of aiding in the surveillance of protesters. While it is true that a mask may be worn during confrontations with police, as a way of protecting oneself from later arrest, it can also be worn simply to protect one's identity, keeping oneself - and by extension, the left - partially protected from the state.

It remains to be seen whether the left will be able to mount a successful challenge to this attack... one thing is for sure: if we don't resist this attack, we'll see similar repressive bylaws cropping up in other Canadian cities.

No more masked protesters, city says

January 18, 2009
David Johnston
The Gazette

The city of Montreal says it plans to pass a bylaw forbidding people to wear masks or face coverings at public demonstrations – a bylaw that civil-rights experts say could turn out to be unconstitutional.

Montreal police have asked the city for the bylaw, saying they want to be able to identify participants in violent protests.

However, Montreal’s top elected official in charge of public security said yesterday the city will be careful to make sure the bylaw’s language isn’t vague, and that explicit exceptions are granted.

For example, protesters would be allowed to cover their faces for religious reasons, and during cold winter events, said Claude Dauphin, chairperson of the public-security committee and a member of city council’s executive committee.

Dauphin added in a telephone interview that senior brass of the Montreal police made a pitch for such a bylaw during testimony two months ago at the city’s public-security committee.

The proposed bylaw was approved in principle by the executive committee on Friday. It could be ready for submission to city council as early as Jan. 26, Dauphin said, but the actual wording hasn’t been finalized.

Julius Grey, a Montreal lawyer who is an authority on civil-rights issues, said the bylaw could be ruled unconstitutional if the wording is too vague, or is seen as unreasonable.

“I do not exclude the possibility of preventing masks and disguises in certain particular circumstances, on good security grounds, case by case,” Grey said.

But a vaguely worded bylaw would not be able to withstand a serious legal challenge, he said.

Dauphin said the city is well aware that there are legal reasons to be careful with the bylaw’s wording.

He said city lawyers are studying existing bylaws prohibiting facial concealment that have been passed in Trois Rivières and Quebec City.

There are no similar bylaws in the rest of Canada, Dauphin said. In the United States, New York City has had such a ban since 1845 ; it was upheld in 2004. In Germany last year, at least four people were arrested for violating a temporary ban on face masks during the G8 summit.

Samer Majzoub, executive director of the Canadian Muslim Forum, said he is pleased to learn the new bylaw was conceived two months ago, and therefore has no apparent link with last weekend’s rally downtown against the Israeli military action in the Gaza strip.

“We have very good relations with the police and after last weekend’s rally, we asked them if they had any comments or suggestions for us, and they said no, everything was okay,” Majzoub said.

He added: “We don’t cover our faces at our demonstrations, neither the men nor women.”

However, Majzoub said he has noticed that many Quebecers have embraced the Palestinian koufieh, or scarf, as a fashion accessory; he has seen local young people on TV at public demonstrations with the koufieh covering their faces.

Dauphin said police have spoken to the city mainly about ski masks – not koufiehs – and more pointedly about the behaviour of demonstrators wearing ski masks at rallies that have been organized against alleged police brutality.

“At these events you see kids in ski masks throwing golf balls at police, or carrying big two-by-four wood sticks,” Dauphin said.

In North America and Europe, young masked demonstrators have usually been linked with the political left wing or with anarchist movements. In Quebec, masked demonstrators showed up at some Liberal Party events during last fall’s provincial election campaign.

djohnston@thegazette.canwest.com

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