In 2016 the federal government announced the construction of a new migrant detention center in Laval. This prison, which is anticipated to hold up to 158 undocumented migrants, is intended to be built on Correctional Service of Canada grounds, right beside Leclerc prison, and is slated to open in 2021. While the Liberal government is attempting to spin this project as a more humane way to detain migrants, we call it what it is — a prison, and know that this is simply prettier window dressing on a violent system of imprisonment and deportation, one that keeps people locked in cages while tearing apart families and communities. We want a world without prisons or colonial borders, a world where people, not states, can decide how they can move and where they can stay. Stopping the construction of the Laval Immigration Detention Centre is one step in the struggle to tear down migrant prisons everywhere.
Block new prisons from being built and shut down the old ones!
This site is an information clearinghouse for news, analysis, and materials related to the struggle against the Laval Immigration Detention Centre.
Many flyers and posters were distributed for the antiracist demonstration, as well as a tour of the Quartier Latin and downtown.
The artist Zola made two magnificent wheatpastings.
Le Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Communautaire a fait une distribution de tracts dans Centre-Sud et le Village pour dénoncer l’instrumentalisation de l’aide aux personnes démuni.e.s par des groupes racistes et appeler à la manifestation antiraciste.
Antifa flyering before the Impact game at Saputo Stadium.
“Welcome to Hell” posters went up in front of a dozen metro stations and in front of La Meute members’ homes.
Graffiti appeared around La Meute’s gathering point and the top secret meetup point of Storm Alliance near De La Concorde metro.
The morning of July 1st, BASH UQAM dropped two banners against La Meute and racism off the Berri street bridge in the Quartier Latin.
That evening a night demo had been called in case there was a need. Following the victory, around 75 people gathered and took a little photo to send a message to all the racist and hateful groups.
From June 29th to July 1st, Solidarity Across Borders did an info caravan through a number of towns and villages close to the US border, to strengthen solidarity with migrants.
At noon more than 250 people joined a gathering at Place Valois in Hochelaga. At 1pm, around 200 people split into two then three groups to block the gathering of La Meute and Storm Alliance around Saint-Antoine street downtown, for 5 hours, preventing them from marching. At some point a group of 5 people from La Meute’s security attempted an exit, maybe to go pick up their water bottles and signs which had been left in a car to the south. They were pushed back with eggs, rotten tomatoes, and smoke bombs. Towards the end of the day a school bus was vandalized. It gave them some A/C for the ride all the way back to Saguenay…
A nice victory – we promised them hell, they got a taste of hell.
Let’s keep up the fight, fascism shall not pass! Another call to action will be published later in the summer, stay tuned!
Refugees Welcome Caravan Wraps Up 3 Days of Outreach in Border Region from Coaticook to Huntingdon
Canada Day Action
Signs bearing the words “CROSSING HERE due to (un)Safe Third Country Agreement. Still on unceded indigenous lands” were placed at five different sites along the Canada-US border early morning on Canada Day.
There are multiple sites similar to Roxham Road every few kilometers along Quebec’s border with the United States. In addition to sending a message of support to refugees and migrants who are crossing irregularly from the United States, this action was meant to encourage people living in the area to actively support them – to open minds and hearts, and, in a very literal sense, to Open the Borders.
The signs draw attention to the reason people are crossing in this way: the so-called Safe Third Country agreement, which prevents migrants from making refugee claims if they go to a regular border crossing. They also question the legitimacy of the border and the Canadian state, established by European colonial powers to consolidate control over stolen lands and resources.
Caravan
The action marked the end of the “Refugees Welcome Caravan” which was on the road from June 29th to July 1st, traveling along the Canada-US border from Coaticook to Huntingdon to build support in the border region for migrants. At public gatherings such as an antique car show in Venise en Québec and a farmers’ market in Frelighsburg, shopping mall parking lots, and city centres, the caravan attracted attention with a musical procession, juggling and fire tricks, while passing the message with posters, flyers, speeches and improv theatre. Over the three days, more than 60 people – from Montreal and the region – participated in the 10-car caravan, which spent the two nights in a church and a farm.
The vast majority of people the caravan met supported the message of welcome to refugees. Caravan participants took the opportunity to exchange with people who thought Canada was much more welcoming than the United States and those blinded by racism into believing the fear-mongering propaganda of the right-wing and populist politicians in the hopes of shifting their perspective to the points of view of the oppressed.
Despite current public attention to the violence of the American immigration system, Canada continues to close its border to migrants coming from the United States as refugees. When people manage to cross irregularly, Canada’s refugee system is the next barrier they face: less than 50% of people whose files have been heard (as of March 2018) have been accepted. People who are rejected are deported or forced into precarity as undocumented migrants.
Solidarity Across Borders rejects the case-by-case approach and calls for status for everyone crossing the border. Though Canada is certainly no paradise, people are coming because they think it is the best option for them. No one should have to go through the stress, precarity and humiliation of trying to prove they are a refugee and why they deserve to stay here. No one should be threatened with deportation. No one should be stripped of status and be forced to live in the shadows, prey to exploitation and fearing discovery.
A particularly disgusting piece of “fake news” was being shared on social media following to two far-right rallies that occurred in Montreal on July 1st.
While La Meute and Storm Alliance were immobilized by antifascists, a smaller march called by the Front Patriotique du Québec marched from Carré St-Louis to the Jacques Cartier Bridge.
Within hours of the FPQ march ending, a story began to be shared in their networks – and also by members of La Meute, Storm Alliance, and other such groups – about a brutal attack on three Indigenous people who had been trying to join the FPQ march. According to this story, antifascists spotted these would-be Patriots at an unnamed metro station and beat them so badly they had to be hospitalized:
In another post, this same “Calinda Nath Grondin Cado” claimed specifically that it was Jaggi Singh who led this violent attack:
As the story was repeated on twitter by La Meute member Sébastien Chabot (alias World Truth), it became a matter of “the troops of Eve Tores” (sic) who had sent three people to hospital:
The spin people were giving this on social media was that “antifa” had attacked Indigenous people hoping to attend the FPQ march. This plays into the increasingly prominent narrative within the national-populist right, that Québécois were never colonizers but were the historic allies of Indigenous people, who are now called upon to stand with Quebec against the “invasion” of “illegal immigrants” and a corrupt (English) Canadian federal government.
The problem with the story of this attack, of course, is that it is not true. Not even a little bit. As became clear quickly enough.
Thanks to work by comrades at LetroupeauQC, it quickly became clear that the people shown in the photos were in fact victims of violence … just not in Montreal, not in 2018, and not from antifascists.
Mathieu Grégoire was the victim of a homophobic assault in Beauce in 2016:
Stephanie Littlewood was the victim of a brutal assault from her ex-partner in Leeds, England, 2016:
Nagieb Khaja is a journalist who was beaten by border guards at the Turkey/Syria border in 2015:
Yet again, the far right has been caught peddling lies. What makes this case special is how brazen the lie was and how quickly it was debunked by people on our side. Indeed, within 24 hours, members of La Meute were being warned not to share the story, that doing so would simply discredit their side:
While it is good to see that even our opponents have now conceded that this story is untrue, it would be a mistake for us to simply move on without highlighting some important dynamics in play.
First, we must note that two people were accused publicly on social media of being behind a violent assault. Eve Torres is a candidate for Québec Solidaire in the Outremont-Mont Royal riding, who has garnered media attention due to the fact that she wears a hijab. Jaggi Singh is a Montreal-based anarchist and antifascist who both the far right and “mainstream” political and media figures have tried to paint as the “leader of the antifas”. Both Torres and Singh spent the day at the anti-La Meute demonstration and so couldn’t have been involved in any assault some place else, even if it had occurred, but this didn’t stop members of the far right from accusing them. This was both slander, and incitement to violence – more than one person commented on social media how there would be reprisals for this non-attack. It is no coincidence that these two were singled out in this way: hijab-wearing and racialized activists in Quebec are prime targets of the far right here, and always end up topping their “enemies” list. A situation which the mainstream media and political figures are complicit in creating and maintaining, due to its own racism, sexism, and Islamophobia.
Second, this serves as a reminder that the far right is built on lies and misconceptions about the world. Not a surprise, something we all know. Nonetheless, we assume that most of our opponents are at least sincere – i.e. they may be repeating lies, but we assume they believe them. Yet it is important to keep in mind that there are operators who understand the situation, who realize how credulous their fellow far-rightists are, and who take advantage by consciously fabricating lies in order to advance their agenda. (We saw this in December in the case of “fake news” targeting mosques in Cote-des-Neiges, and more recently when a far-right troll tried to fabricate evidence of sexual assault by a medic at the G7 protests.) Whether these people are police operatives attempting to manipulate the overall political situation, pathological individuals seeking attention, or unscrupulous political agents who don’t mind lying to their own side is often difficult to tell.
Dirty politics of this sort are referred to by police and military as “psychological operations.” Progressive movements need to understand that we are now operating in a situation where such psychological operations are increasingly common, and we need to take precautions to reduce their impact. This is not a problem that will go away, and we are horribly mistaken (and naive) if we believe that all cases will be this easy to spot. We have to be careful.
On July 1st, far right group La Meute planned to hold their “largest and best rally ever” in Montreal. Anti-fascists outnumbered them, surrounded them, and prevented them from marching by keeping them confined to a single block.
The leader of La Meute – Sylvain « Maikan » Brouillette – promised “the best demo in its history”. It was a monumental fiasco:
(1) While La Meute claims to have 60,000 members, the exact number in the real world is more like 150… Buses came from as far away as the Saguenay. Adding up all their most devoted fans, La Meute was unable to gather more than 200 people, which includes their allies in Storm Alliance and Independence Day. What a shame for Mr. Brouillette!
(How will Mr. Brouillette continue lying about the real membership of La Meute?)
“We are the people”, “We are strength in numbers”… 150 people out of 8.2 million Quebecers, come on…
(2) Not only was it not the largest march in La Meute’s history, they didn’t even manage to march a single block!
Though their leaders proclaimed, “Quebec takes Montreal by storm” and “We will march with heads high”. In truth, for most of the time, they stayed seated in the entrance to a parking lot for almost 4 hours, before finally heading home in their school buses…
What happened? Counter-demonstrators posted up on both sides on rue Saint-Antoine, such that La Meute, with their inferior numbers, never had the courage to take the street and make their voice heard (that is to say, their hatred of immigrants and Muslims).
Sylvain “Maikan” Brouillette’s moment of glory took place when he walked up to the wall in front of him, to brush the end of his flag against an Immigration Canada signboard. Not even his own side ever understood what he was trying to do:
What’s for sure, the leaders of this hateful group retreated in front of the counter-demonstrators. Their security cell hid behind the riot police lines, while the majority of their members stayed seated, suffocating in the parking lot entrance, in the shade, and asked for water.
La Meute’s Supporters
The anti-immigration group Storm Alliance is also in decline, being unable to assemble more than 20 people. Just three S.A. flags were seen, but at least their devotee Mr. Dionne was present, he who displayed a Nazi flag at the demo last year in Quebec City:
As for Independence Day, one could hardly spot ten members, displaying their hallucinatory flag featuring the colors of Quebec, Canada, and the American Statue of Liberty (?), all while adding a spelling mistake in the English word that is normally written “Independence”…
This group is known for counting an ex-Grand Dragon of the Quebec Ku Klux Klan among its members, Michel Larocque. CTV embarrassed La Meute’s #2 by questioning him on this subject:
“Roch adamantly denies that Larocque is a member of their movement.”
“[He] is not a member of La Meute. La Meute is one entity,” Roch explained. “We accept groups that are not right-wing. That’s why we accept the Storm Alliance and Independence Day.”
Roch’s excuse is a bit too easy, arguing that Larocque is not directly a member of his group. What he leaves out is that he was part of it in the past, even having a La Meute tattoo on his left hand:
In the 90s, Larocque assaulted gay people in the name of the KKK and was “charged with trying to arson a house inhabited by Black people” (VICE).
Media Coverage
In general, the media gave more speaking time to the far-right’s spokespeople than to the anti-racists, despite the latter being much more numerous. These outlets, such as TVA Nouvelles, displayed an obnoxious tendency to relay their words without critical outlook, going as far as affirming the expression “illegal immigration” in their reporting:
The media should be careful to not so blindly relay xenophobic ideology. As the La Presse report reminded:
“La Meute and Storm Alliance denounce the arrival of irregular immigrants who they describe as “illegal”. However, this status doesn’t exist in accordance with the 1951 Refugee Convention. Every person has the right to cross the Canadian border in irregular fashion to request asylum.”
Conclusion
La Meute finds itself at a crossroads, faced with its own lies, not even knowing anymore why it’s protesting. Where is their so-called fight against radical Islam, when the word “Islam” wasn’t spoken a single time yesterday? (and this is for the best)
While their leaders said their march was going to make the “voice of the people” heard, they prohibit their members from bringing their own signs and chanting their own slogans (they might sound too racist)… Brouillette calls them “silent marches“.
La Meute doesn’t represent the people. It just represents a guru, who lies with every breath, named Sylvain Brouillette. 60,000 members? More like 150…
In 2016 the federal government announced the construction of a new migrant detention center in Laval. This prison, which is anticipated to hold up to 158 undocumented migrants, is intended to be built on Correctional Service of Canada grounds, right beside Leclerc prison, and is slated to open in 2021. While the Liberal government is attempting to spin this project as a more humane way to detain migrants, we call it what it is — a prison, and know that this is simply prettier window dressing on a violent system of imprisonment and deportation, one that keeps people locked in cages while tearing apart families and communities. We want a world without prisons or colonial borders, a world where people, not states, can decide how they can move and where they can stay. Stopping the construction of the Laval Immigration Detention Centre is one step in the struggle to tear down migrant prisons everywhere.
