Authorities repressing protesters’ rights: report
A Montreal-based human rights organization issued a report Wednesday that paints a picture of systematic political and police repression of social protest movements in Quebec.
The report by the non-profit Ligue des droits et libertés (LDL) contains figures it says reveal a pattern of repression that test the right to protest in Quebec. Some statistics in the report: 5,895 arrests were made at 185 demonstrations in Quebec between 2011 and 2014. Another 1,006 were made during the spring of 2015.
Over 75 per cent of arrests were for bylaw infractions of the road safety code.
83 per cent of charges pertaining to bylaw P-6 (which forbids the wearing of masks during rallies and requires that a protest itinerary be provided to authorities beforehand) resulted in acquittal or were dropped.
Considering how many P-6 charges were eventually dropped, LDL officials say it confirms police are trying to discourage protesters from demonstrating.
“The objective of the police was to stifle the protests from the beginning and to prevent it from continuing,” said LDL co-ordinator Nicole Filion.
“With the endorsement of the political class, the police repress social protest with impunity. This trivialization of human rights violations must stop,” Filion said.
Constitutional and human rights lawyer Julius Grey was not surprised by the report’s findings.
“We are a society that is becoming more repressive and people are not yet aware of it,” Grey said.
“People think that it’s a very liberal and free society, but it isn’t.
“The arrests in Montreal have had a very disturbing side. Which doesn’t mean that someone who goes around smashing windows shouldn’t be arrested, of course, but it does mean that, in general, we repress too much.”
As for the police acting in concert with the political class, Grey said authorities are merely reflecting broader society.
“Basically, they’re acting on behalf of a society that has turned mean and conformist. We need a society that is less bent upon the maintaining of order, and more on justice.
“There are periods when societies are open and free. ... And there are periods when people are much more law, order and so on. We’re living in one of those periods. I don’t like it. I think it’s wrong.”
Grey also noted, “You can see that our society is moving toward repression and it’s facilitated by the technological means that the forces of order have. So they can always find out about everybody, photograph everybody and so on. You have mass arrests, mass prosecutions. You have the discouragement of dissent.
“The other thing is, if you get a criminal record, it ruins your whole life,” he said. “No matter how minor the offence is, it sticks forever and it’s always on your Google profile and so on.”
Grey said the “fear of arrests, the fear of being shoved around, beaten, means people are less and less interested” in protesting.
“It also has the effect of radicalizing the protest. Only the hardliners remain. The people who are moderate protesters decide to leave well enough alone.”