Montreal, QC: Update June 6 to 12 – raids and arrests, disruption of the Grand Prix, etc…

from sabotagemedia:

An update on recent events in the uprising from the usurped and raped land we call Quebec.

June 6th

Letters containing white powder signed “Revolutionary Armed Forces of Quebec”

Since June 6th, more than fifty letters containing white powder and a statement signed “Forces Armées Révolutionnaires Québécoises (FARQ)” were received in several offices of ministers, including that of Charest and other elected members of the Liberal Party and of the CAQ, the two parties having passed Bill 78. Also several media offices, businesses and capitalist institutions were targeted, causing evacuations throughout Quebec. The letters containing a statement claiming they contained Anthrax have so far revealed to hold baking soda.

There are apparently two different texts that have been received, one of them was published by the media and a pdf can be found on their servers (in french): http://fr.canoe.ca/sections/fichier/frq-1339021546.pdf

June 7th – opening day of the F1 Grand Prix

Protests have continued every day while Power reports the running out of steam of the “student movement” after each demonstration. The mass mobilizations that focused in Montreal have given way to smaller crowds, but more frequent and dispersed. Popular assemblies have formed in some places, those who remain in confrontation with Power are getting to know each other. With the coming of the F1 Grand Prix and threats of disruption escalating again, the Police State was to send a clear message, “we are watching you and and we will come and get you.”

the show begins: searches and arrests

June 7th at 6 am, on the opening day of the festivities surrounding the Grand Prix, the cops have conducted a series of searches in connection with the actions that occurred in the Montreal metro, at the University of Montreal and the office of the former Education Minister Line Beauchamp. 11 people were targeted by warrants having been issued following the investigation according to the pigs. Six people were arrested during the day. The media already prepared for the show, focused on one of them, Yalda, being the daughter of Amir Khadir, only elected member of the leftist Québec Solidaire party at whom the cops were essentially looking for black clothes.

disruption of the Grand Prix opening cocktail party and festivities

Throughout the day the SPVM, the SQ and private security forces were deployed heavily in the city center and in the St-Henri neighborhood where the luxurious GP opening reception was taking place. Gatherings of hundreds of people marched in late afternoon and tried to approach and disrupt the events fenced and guarded by the cops, resulting in clashes near the opening reception and later near Crescent Street in the center of the Grand Prix festivities. At one point a group was kettled and the cops made arbitrary arrests on them. Several formed a human chain to try to prevent the arrest and the cops finally let the crowd disperse.

Confronting gas, batons and stun grenades, the disruptions continued until about midnight.

There were 37 arrests according to the cops.

a video

June 8th – Grand Prix day two

The siege by the forces of law and order intensifies every day. Each day more cops and each day more profiling. People wearing the red square (symbol of the student strike) are forbidden access to the site of the festivities of the GP.

Other rallies were held throughout the day including one against police repression and solidarity with Bahrain.

their justice

At the Montreal courthouse, of the six people, two women and four men targeted in the crackdown the day before, all were denied their release except, Andréa who was released under conditions.

Xavier, Yalda, Simon, Mathieu, Andréa and Zachary – which we name here to make solidarity and understanding the rest of their case easier – face various charges including break and enter, mischief over $ 5000, theft of less than $ 5000, disguise with intent, conspiracy, assault of a photographer in the corridors of the courthouse, intimidation of a member of Parliament, assaulting a cop, and to cause fear of a terrorist act, the latter being the same accusation against those of the smoke bombs case.

Second night of disruption of the festivities

During the evening, crowds of several hundred people moved into the city center and several clashes took place into the night around Crescent Street. The cops fired gas and rubber bullets against a backdrop of pop, neon and luxury cars and the presence of thousands of bewildered tourists. A crowd even managed to enter on Crescent and scroll with pots and pans with anti-capitalist and anti-sexist chants between Lamborghinis and sexualized young women promoting various junk. There were also a few clashes between protesters and douchebag F1 fans during the evening.

There was 12 arrests according to the minions of power, four under criminal charges

June 9th – Grand Prix day three – can’t stop chaos!

The cops are always more numerous downtown and in Berri metro. The yellow line leading to the qualification races in F1 is full of cops, two to five by train, dozens on the docks. Political profiling is systematic. People wearing a red square or people who seem least bit young are detained, searched and questioned. The buzz of helicopters can be heard throughout the day. Officers are stationed on rooftops downtown.

Some marches were held during the day but it is the 47th night of protest that fucked the cops. Despite the riotsquads systematically blocking all routes to Crescent, hundreds of people managed to sneak quickly between vehicles on St. Catherine finally reaching Crescent where clashes broke out. The crowd was dense downtown and hundreds of SPVM and SQ cops armed with gas, bombs and plastic bullets quickly lost control to the crowds who, dispersing and regrouping throughout the evening, seemed to be constantly mutating between curious tourists and angry protesters. The air quickly became heavy with gas and the evil-blackblocs-thugs-maskedwithcriminalintension-provocateurs could be seen helping people affected by the gases, as was seen in the smogs of Victoriaville. As the evening progressed the riotsquads seemed totally disorganized, going in any direction. Street signs, fencing and containers spilled into the street. Several cruisers were vandalized and windows were shattered. A hotel was attacked after cops took refuge there with someone they arrested. The clashes lasted until about 1 am.

28 arrests according to the pigs, 14 under criminal charges.

videos here, here
and a compilation of videos from the GP weekend

June 10th – last day of the Grand Prix

intensification of the Police State

Even more than the day before, cops are deployed downtown, in the subway and on Sainte-Hélène and Notre-Dame islands where the F1 race is, on foot, horseback, bicycle, by car, helicopter and boat. Profiling is even more intense and systematic. On Sainte-Hélène and Notre-Dame islands people are forcefully searched at the metro exit and people are expelled from parks more or less close to the race and sent back to the metro. In the whole metro system people wearing a red square or some black clothes are detained, searched and questioned. People are kept in custody for hours in chartered buses or jail cells without accusations. The cops designate, arrest and eject random people they say they have seen in a demonstration or who have a “suspicious behavior”. Democracy fully and unscrupulously exposes itself as what we always knew it was: the same old shit that extends totalitarian control in the immediate interests of a crass elite under the doctrine of security.

The cops claim that 34 people were arrested and 40 people were expelled from the islands during the day, but from peoples testimony the number is probably much higher, perhaps even hundreds of people were expelled from the islands and the metro or detained temporarily without receiving charges. In a testimony amongst many others a woman reports how she was expelled from the metro for reading parts of 1984 out loud and then spent hours in a jail cell without accusations for having taken the metro once again.

Demos took the streets into the evening. Hundreds of people gathered to march for the 48th consecutive night. For a fourth night in a row clashes erupted. Paint balls were thrown at cop cruisers and some windows were smashed, notably those of the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, while a gang of uberparasites, including the governor of the Bank of Canada and President of the Bank of France, were inside for a reception.

The cops reported 12 arrests, 3 under criminal charges.

a video

June 11th

A young man, Mathieu G. was arrested on the highway while he was traveling with his family headed to the funeral of his sister. He was immediately brought into custody and therefore was prevented from getting to the funeral. He was arrested in connection with the juin 6th arrests.

At the Montreal courthouse, two of the June 6th arrestees, Simon and Xavier, were released under strict conditions.

beginning of the International Economic Forum of the Americas

Marches under surveillance by the SPVM and the SQ were held for the first day of the International Economic Forum of the Americas where a few of the worst shit on the planet meet to talk about how they can rape us even more intensely.

Loud crowds marched through the streets of the business district with anticapitalist and anticop chants. A UQAM (university) window was smashed in the evening.

Two arrests according to the cops.

June 12th

other hostages of the State released under parole

At the Montreal courthouse, Yalda, Zachary, Matthew G. and Mathieu M. were released under conditions.

Yalda is accused of ransacking the offices of the former Education Minister Line Beauchamp and the University of Montreal in an occupation in April, as well as assaulting a photojournalist from the Journal de Montreal at the courthouse in May.

Zachary is accused of ransacking at the University of Montreal for the same events.

Yalda and Zachary were released under the following conditions:
a bail of $ 2,000 and a commitment of $ 10 000, report to police every two weeks, at all times have a copy of their condition, not to be within 300 meters of a government institution, a college or university, observe a curfew from 22h to 6h, prohibition to appear at the courthouse unless they have been summoned and prohibition to participate in a demonstration declared illegal (all demonstrations right now) or “non-peaceful”. During “peaceful” demonstrations, they cannot have a backpack or disguise.

In the case of Yalda, she will also be prohibited from being within 500 meters of the photojournalist.

Mathieu G. and Mathieu M. are charged with mischief over $ 5,000, conspiracy and disguise with the intent to commit a criminal act in connection with the bags of bricks thrown at the subway tracks on April 16.

They were released under various conditions. Among other things, to pay a bail of $ 2,000, observe a curfew, prohibition on demonstrations, prohibition to approach within 300 meters of a subway, a college or university and not to be in contact with anyone with a criminal record or who is currently facing justice, except members of their family or work.

The accused were applauded as they left, outside a crowd had gathered to greet them.

Solidarity with all rebels in the streets and in the cages of the State!

The struggle can only continue!

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