here’s an update of recent events in Montreal surrounding the Student Strike from sabotagemedia:
April 12th
A mass of youth broke into and ransacked the University of Montreal after a court injunction was granted to the university against student striker.
the same evening a crowd stoned the windows of banks, vandalized a copcar and threw projectiles to the cops.
April 13th
Office of the Minister of Education, Line Beauchamp, was ransacked.
The next day a person was arrested and held in custody before being released a few days later with house arrest.
April 15th
Overnight four ministers’ offices had their windows broken and left with paint and graffiti.
Office of the Minister of Justice, Jean-Marc Fournier.
Office of the Minister responsible for Seniors, Marguerite Blais
Office of the Finance Minister, Raymond Bachand
Office of the Minister of Labour, Lise Thériault
April 16th
At three places bags of bricks were left on subway tracks interrupting the service.
April 18th
A smoke bomb in the subway stopped the service on the green line around 7:30 am.
April 19th
During a “manif-action” (action-demo) called “Downtown Shutdown” access was blocked to the Omni and the CIBC tower, where are situated the offices of the Employers Council of Quebec, the Montreal Economic Institute and the Junior Chamber of Commerce of Montreal.
Red paint bombs were thrown at police cars. Furniture and bags of garbage were thrown in the street.
Two people were arrested
April 20th
Various groups including students on strike disrupted the Plan Nord job fair and a riot broke out downtown. Intense street battles with the cops insued and many places had their windows busted including the Montreal World Trade Center, Palais des congrès (the main conference center), media monopoly Québecor and various banks and a dozen copcars.
April 21st
Another disruption of the Plan Nord job fair this time called by the RRQ (a nationalist group) and InnuPower (an Innu first nations group) ends with mass arrest of about a hundred people. The job fair is closed for a second day in a row.
April 22nd
Overnight paint bombs were thrown against the front of SNC-Lavalin (huge engineering firm that amongst other things receives military contracts, builds prisons around the world and also built the 10 million dollar fence during the G20 in Toronto). Two people were arrested
Overnight Journal de Montréal office windows were busted and a graffiti “médias partout” (media everywhere) was sprayed on the building.
April 24th
While the student “delegates” recently negotiating with the government call not to do “actions of disturbance,” a demo is held at which police cars are vandalized and the windows of an HSBC bank are shattered. Protesters shout “to negotiate is to get fucked!”
Three people were arrested for misdemeanors and “breach of conditions.”
April 25th
Smoke bombs interrupt the service on two subway lines at 9:45am and again one hour later on one line.
During a demonstration in the afternoon smoke bombs were triggered in the Complexe Desjardins (shopping center and business offices).
At the Montreal court , two young women went before a judge for breach of conditions related to the demos. One of them will remain hostage to the State at least until her bail hearing, on May 1. The other young woman, Emma, whom the media recently demonized was released with a promise to appear in court but while walking to a bar with a friend downtown, bike pigs went by, recognized her and decided to harass and arrest her. She wasn’t actually breaching anything – she didn’t have a condition against being downtown. This is simply the State trying to fuck with her. She appeared before the judge the next day and the crown argued against her release. She is currently being detained at Tanguay prison until her bail hearing Monday.
Depending on how the bail hearing goes, she would then either get released Monday or be held inside all the way until her trial (!), ie. possibly months. The bail hearing is in room 5.07 at the Palais de Justice at 9:30 am this coming Monday, April 30.
The same night a riot broke out downtown during a massive demonstration of thousands of people. Several banks, a police station, offices of the armed forces and state lottery were attacked and several street battles against the cops took place.
Solidarity with any and all arrestees!
Total liberation for everyone inside and outside the walls!
update from Grève Montréal:
Solidarity gathering with a comrade kidnapped by the justice system
Monday, April 30, 9 am, at the St. Antoine entrance of the Palais de Justice
As you may already know, our friend and comrade, Emma Strople, is currently being held in Tanguay, and will be appearing before a judge this upcoming *monday, april 30th, at the palais de la justice*, for her bail hearing. There is a possibility that she might be not be released, and instead held until her next court appearance (in several weeks).
We’re calling for a *solidarity gathering in front of the palais de la justice from 9 am onwards.* We also want to fill up the court room, if possible (at her last court appearance on thursday the 26th, the cops blocked off the courtroom entrance to prevent any of Emma’s friends from entering.)
On the 30th, like every other day, several people, known and unknown, will be passing before a judge who has the power to fuck up their lives with the stroke of a mallot. We’ll be there for these folks as well.
The state already has way too much power in our lives. Kidnapping our friends is a step too far. Together, we are strong, and can make our presence felt. Fuck submission.
