FIGHTING THE CURFEW
What started as a defiant dance party ended with smashed windows, looting
Young men are detained by police downtown on Monday during the second night of protests against the province's 8 p.m. pandemic curfew. Meanwhile in Old Montreal, shops already hurt by COVID-19 clean up broken glass,
Shop owners along Notre-dame St. in Old Montreal were busy sweeping glass from the sidewalk Monday after an anti-curfew demonstration on Sunday night escalated into a riot.
“Last night I was home, 9:30 at night, and the concierge, she calls me and she goes `they just smashed through the window' so I rushed downtown … and I saw the damage, it was a disaster,” said Frank Passa, the owner of Ristorante Quattro near St-laurent Blvd. He hadn't been aware of the protest.
On Sunday, Montreal's curfew was moved back to 8 p.m., just a few weeks after it had been changed to 9:30 p.m., resulting in a protest that began with people dancing to loud music, chanting anti-legault slogans, and calling for “freedom for the young.”
The seemingly festive tone eventually turned sour when people lit fireworks and set fire to trash in Place Jacques Cartier.
The Montreal police riot squad was deployed and used tear gas to clear the square, sending dozens of people into the streets of Old Montreal. They set fire to trash cans, destroyed city benches and smashed shop windows.
According to a preliminary review by the Montreal police, seven people were arrested, 107 tickets were given out related to public health rules and several cases of arson, mischief and breaking and entering were recorded.
Several shop owners were able to have their windows replaced overnight or early Monday morning, leaving no trace of the attacks other than shattered glass on the sidewalk and a sense of camaraderie among those who were targeted, all of whom have been struggling to survive the pandemic.
“Already it's hard, business,” said Passa. “We're closed and everything, and now it's going to cost me another $2,000.”
Both Passa and his neighbour, Moshe Simhon, who owns NRJ Jeans, found metal no-parking signs inside their businesses.
“They threw the city sign, they threw it inside and they smashed the window,” said Simhon, who was on the phone with his insurance company on Monday morning. “They took jeans, they took watches, they took three coats.”
Katia Ohayon, the owner of Sandrini, a shoe store across the street from Simhon and Passa's businesses, said Sunday night's events seemed to come out of nowhere. Her store was also broken into and various items were stolen.
“Usually when there's something going on we hear that it's going to happen, we kind of call each other, we warn each other,” she said. “This time, it was totally out of control. There was no police presence, or if there was they were all concentrated in one area.”
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante described the vandalism as `unacceptable' and defended the police response to the situation.
“Everything happened within a two-hour period and when things escalate, they escalate quickly,” she said. “Police were in place and monitoring things closely. Sometimes if police move too quickly it can lead to further escalation, like putting oil on a fire.”
Plante acknowledged the right to protest, “But it has to be done within the rules … to smash the windows of stores and restaurants while the owners are already on their knees because the past year has been tough? I find it unacceptable.”
She added that city crews would clean up the damage and invited Montrealers to support businesses by visiting the Old Port, which she did on Monday afternoon alongside an SPVM inspector.
Workers were seen exchanging
the metal no-parking posts that had been thrown through windows with plastic signs secured to parking meters.
Quebec has faced strong criticism for implementing a curfew at all, and the resentment only grew stronger when Premier François Legault announced that it would be moved back to 8 p.m. in Montreal and Laval.
Those against the measure say there's no proof it has any effect on reducing COVID-19 cases.
On Monday, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé tweeted that a Google study of the curfew showed an immediate decrease in nighttime mobility in Quebec when it was implemented, which he said reduces contacts by extension.
According to a survey by the Institut national de santé publique du Québec from the end of March, before the curfew was rolled back to 8 p.m., nearly 70 per cent of Quebecers said they were in favour of having the curfew in place over the next few weeks.
“What do we have to do with curfew and Legault?” Ohayon said. “We have been suffering like hell to survive our businesses. What do we have to do with it? We're victims like everyone else.”
It was totally out of control. There was no police presence, or if there was they were all concentrated in one area.