Politice Repress Peaceful Demonstration

At the end of a two-day conference on the criminalisation of anti-mining protests, I left the university to participate in a march called by one of the student federations to commemorate the first anniversary of the massive student protests last year (March 22, 2012: 200,000 people). It ended rather badly.

 I have still not quite recovered from what has just happened to me and a bit surprised at how much it has affected me.

This is a second group, just around the corner from the one I ended up in. The circle in the centre is singing. In our group we just danced ! Journalists were also inside the circle with us.

I am home after being detained by the police and served with a fine of $637 for “not informing the itinerary of a demonstration.” (as if I had convoked the event !!!) I was one of 294 people, mostly university students, who were corralled in several groups at  downtown intersections while they took us, one by one for identification and served with the same “notice of infraction” for participation in the Via22 march marking the first anniversary of the Maple Spring. It was a call to a convergence of the generalized social groan over a wide variety of measures being announced by both the Quebec and Federal government.

We started off on a downtown street in the direction of traffic but found the police blocking the road at the first intersection. The crowd of 500 - 1000 then turned north. At the next intersection the police also blocked the way so the march turned right. At the next intersection we found the police again blocking two routes and when we turned right (as indicated by the police!), that too was blocked. At that point everyone realised that they were corralled on all four sides. The police then held us there until buses and personnel arrived to process us. (I should add that it was a very peaceful group and I quickly made friends with pretty well everyone around me.) A speaker system announced that we were arrested. (I had heard no prior announcement warning us that we were in contravention or asking us to disperse.) After a considerable wait, we were taken one by one toward buses where we were processed, issued with a ticket and told to leave the area. (We were about 100 in our “corral”.)

This is not the first time a demonstration or march in recent weeks has been shut down completely, sometimes violently. Over the last month two demonstrations have ended with police beating up numerous protestors and arresting hundreds. This time there was less physical violence. As far as I know no one was beaten or chased down by cavalry (who were, by the way, very present). However, it is clear that the intention is to intimidate both those who participate in demonstrations and those who might think about participating. The fine is a stiff one that many will have difficulty paying. It puts a chill on any call for marches or demonstrations since it means a high risk of being handed a six hundred dollar fine. Yet there is a growing rejection of a variety of measures being adopted by the government regarding social services, education, health, immigration and housing. Ultimately, the police actions are an abuse of power stemming from political decisions make at city hall and the National Assembly. It leaves a very bad taste in the mouth of young people who, in twenty years, will be professionals in society with a very negative opinion of police and politicians.

It could have been worse of course but, the event left me badly shaken. I was cold and shivering after standing in the street for more than an hour. It was only when I left the scene and ran into a young journalist who asked me how I felt that I realised how much the experience had left me shaken. Being surrounded by the police and taken away by two of them toward a waiting bus, brought back memories of many very violent scenes I had witnessed in Peru during the 1980s. I realized that, in many ways, there were parallels between what has been happened here in the city over the past year and the slow decline into extreme violence in Peru during the 1980s. As citizens began to realize that there rights were being eroded drastically, they found that every attempt to express their discontent was publicly repressed by the police. Ever stronger methods were used to repress the marches and demonstrations. Until the whole country erupted, on several occasions. (Here we have already seen police charges of peaceful marches, indiscriminate beatings with batons, pepper spraying of unaggressive youth, use of extremely dangerous “sound grenades” that, in addition to the explosion, spread gases and sometimes rubber pellets. Last summer there was use of plastic bullets: one student lost an eye and a few people had cranial fractures from beatings to the head.

This is a young generation with a strong commitment to building a more egalitarian and just society. In every country where they take to the street as citizens to demand attention to social issues they are being repressed by the police (or even the military). I think of Greece, Spain, Tunisia, France, England, the United States, Canada and Quebec. This is a generation that could well demand what it is about our societies that repress legitimate, peaceful, democratic expression of public concern about social issues.