Mayor in war of words with anti-fascist protester
A war of words is brewing between the mayor of Quebec City and a Montreal activist who was arrested in the provincial capital during a protest on Sunday.
Mayor Régis Labeaume accused protesters of belonging to a “gang ” of Montreal thugs led by Jaggi Singh — an activist often associated with anti-capitalist movements.
Singh and hundreds of others descended on the provincial capital Sunday as part of a counterdemonstration against a march by the far-right group La Meute. The protesters managed to keep La Meute holed up in a parking garage for hours while clashing with riot police in a series of skirmishes that injured a handful of people.
In a blistering address Monday, Labeaume compared the anti-fascists to La Meute, claiming the protesters represented the “creme” of Montreal “thugs.”
Singh said Tuesday that by comparing anti-fascists — or antifas — to La Meute, the mayor is “pandering to racists” and making a false equivalency.
“Specifically, in singling me out, Mayor Labeaume is in effect encouraging the internet trolls and anonymous far-right activists who on a daily basis make racist comments, including threats, against me personally.”
Despite being hemmed in a parking garage for hours, La Meute ultimately held its march on the Plains of Abraham. Singh was briefly detained for crossing a police line.
La Meute’s leaders scoff at the notion that they are a racist, antiMuslim group. But at least one of the group’s members, Shawn Beauvais-MacDonald, attended a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., this month.
“If we listen to (La Meute), they’d have us believe they’re Boy Scouts ... (while their members) look like a private militia,” Labeaume said.
Some of the antifas wore masks and attacked political opponents during the counter-protest.
Though many have criticized the antifas’ ham-fisted tactics, Singh said he believes the way to stamp out right-wing groups is through “direct action” and by “taking public spaces away from them.”