Montréal Contre-information
Montréal Contre-information
Montréal Contre-information

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Denouncing violence

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Aug 252017
 

From Céline Hequet, translation by MTL Counter-info

I was not at the counter-demonstration last Sunday in Québec City, but the media wave that followed it has made want to double-lock the doors and let copies of Le Devoir accumulate on the front steps until a winter storm takes them. By force.

In effect, on all platforms, politicians were quick to do their favourite thing, namely to denounce “violence”, a term deployed so often that we don’t know much about what it really even means. What violence? That of the police? Of those who throw things in the streets? Of those who think that some people deserve more than others to live in wealthy countries?

In the case of certain elected representatives, one even wonders if they hadn’t had their Facebook accounts hacked, or whether to see this all as a betrayal of the people who originally put them on the road to fame. We know what it takes to be politically correct; it is about the same thing as it takes to become the most annoying of career politicians. And it’s not like that we’re going to change Québec.

Yes, like others, I saw the images of the guy who the antifascist militants handled a bit roughly, while he affirmed to the camera that he was there to demonstrate with them. I recall that the individual reported other people to the police that he determined to have been insufficiently peaceful.

Was he truly a sympathizer for the counter-demonstration or did he, on the contrary, come precisely so he could undermine it? There is doubt. But it’s true, we should not strike at people without making sure beforehand that they are indeed Nazis.

I could criticize the far left militants. However, when I see the last 100 years of history in the West, I know who is to be found on the right side. And in 50 years, it isn’t three broken chairs and a bleeding nose that we recount to students, but two world wars and the death camps.

So no, when I am asked to denounced the violence of my comrades – of those who were able to see live the Nazi salute that, only on video, had the same effect on me as a punch to the stomach – I cannot accept it. I have the impression that I’m being asked to hit the finger that’s pointing at the fire.

The violence comes from those on the extreme right that, were they coherent with themselves, would self-deport to Europe. Y’all don’t have any more right to be here than anyone else, other than indigenous folks. Go back to where you come from, we don’t want ya anymore.

The violence comes from the members of La Meute who lick the boots of the SPVQ because they know very well that, in their neighbourhood, the cops are already doing the dirty job of profiling for them.

The violence comes from Jean-François Lisée who, plagiarizing Trump on Charlottesville, dared to tweet : «Manifs à Québec: la violence, les masques, c’est pas une façon de s’exprimer. Peu importe son opinion. Point final. #polqc» [Demos in Quebec: violence, masks, it’s not a form of expression. No matter your opinion. Period.”], as if there had been two equally wrong sides.

The violence from the cops who shoot tear gas at demonstrators at close range because they did not have enough with taking one of our friends’ eyes in 2012.

The violence comes from the terrorists who place bombs in mosques of people who live here.

The violence comes from Atalante, who want to see people return to live in countries where their lives are threatened.

So, responsibly, because I am familiar with the big issues hiding behind the media uproar and the sensational images, all I can say is: solidarity with the antifascists! And a warm welcome to the refugees.

No face, no case: in defence of smashing corporate media cameras

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Aug 242017
 

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
Download for print here

During the anti-fascist mobilization against the racist far-right in Quebec city on Sunday, a Global News camera was destroyed by black bloc participants [1. Unfamiliar with the black bloc tactic? See ‘What is a black bloc?‘]. Afterwards, an anti-racist in the crowd was overheard asking his friend “I understand attacking the fascists, and even the police who protect them, but journalists?”

We’d like to offer an explanation for why this happened, and why it will continue to be a necessity in demonstrations where people will be breaking the law.

Sometimes, it is necessary to go against what the mainstream considers “acceptable”, to break the law in order to do the ethical thing. Those who mask up to fight the racist far-right have decided, at great personal risk, that they will use any means necessary to shut down fascist organizing. Many of us believe that the entire system needs to be abolished, that the laws are oppressive, or that those who make the laws are responsible for a serious and urgent problem; whether that’s the destruction of our planet, the hundreds of thousands of home foreclosures, murders carried out by police with impunity, etc.

Every photograph that is taken of people wearing masks or doing illegal actions becomes evidence that can be used for repression. Police routinely use footage from demonstrations found on social and independent media to criminally charge people and put them in cages. To make demonstrations safer for those who are already putting themselves at great risk, we need to make our demonstrations camera-free zones (at least in the sections of the demonstration with masked participants).

First off, discourage people from filming or taking pictures during a protest, and explain how it is harmful. Often, people take pictures without thinking, and later get themselves or their friends in trouble. Other people who are filming are corporate journalists or “good citizens” who later hand over the information to the cops.

Trusted movement media is an exception to the ‘camera-free zone’, as they have built trust with participants in the black bloc by consistently blurring masked faces, and not filming any criminalized actions.

Corporate media, on the other hand, exist to propagate and reaffirm a capitalist worldview, and regularly hand over their footage to police without even waiting for a court order. On Sunday in Quebec City, a CTV journalist was told not to film people with masks, to which he replied that he had every right to (which, according to the State’s laws, he indeed does). When he was given a final warning that if he continued his camera would be smashed, he walked over to the police to point us out, and later ripped off the mask of a comrade (which he paid for with a sore face the next day).

The corporate media has always furthered the interests of the class that provides its funding. Anyone who has ever been subjected to their coverage knows it’s biased. The strategy of positive mass media attention is extremely short-sighted – these institutions will never be our allies, as long as we want to challenge power structures in a meaningful way. Any message we try to communicate through corporate media will always be reframed in order to keep liberalism intact.

Those who decide that we need to fight back are already up against fascist thugs and the weaponized police who protect them – we don’t need yet another enemy putting our safety at risk. Although corporate media can be told not to film people in masks, they’ll often continue to sneakily film from a distance, because they have no respect for our struggles. Last Sunday, several antifascists came equipped with water-guns full of black paint to spray in the faces of fascists. Using similar tactics to blind the lenses of corporate media cameras, or even plain-old spray paint, will come in handy in the future.

Demonstrations need to be participatory. If everyone has a camera in their hands, they become another alienated spectator. People go out into the streets to change the world precisely because they’re sick of watching it on TV, and watching how the powerful are constantly changing it for the worse. Street demonstrations need to be spaces of participation, creation, and destruction, not stages for the media and traps for police surveillance.

Several tips for safer blocs

The Quebec police have announced that they will be making future arrests based on video surveillance. Although we don’t want to bolster paranoia, because maybe this is an empty threat, it serves as an opportunity to remember some helpful pointers for wearing masks.

Why wear a mask? It allows us to take action without fear of immediate identification. The more people are masked, the harder it is for the authorities to isolate or identify a part of the crowd. You can wear a mask to protect your identity, or simply to protest against constant surveillance. Developing a practice of masking at demonstrations opens up space for participation in actions for people who would otherwise be risking legal status, immigration status, or employment. It is best to go with friends who can watch your back, to be aware of where the police are, and to be mindful of your surroundings so you can pick the best moment to mask up and unmask.

Don’t be casual about taking off your mask or partially opening up your disguise. Decide wisely when to go into anonymous mode and when (and where) to come out of it. Don’t go halfway. If the cops can find a picture of you with the exact same clothes and shoes, with a mask and without, all your careful disguising will be wasted.

Even if we get away, the police may use photos or video to charge us later. It’s best to cover your hair, face, arms, tattoos, and hands. Make sure that there are no identifying features on your clothes, shoes, or backpack. It’s a good idea to change several pieces of your outer clothing or even your shoes (for instance, bring a light jumper, track pants, or a rain poncho you can throw away). Don’t forget to cover, disguise, or ditch whatever backpack or bag you may bring. Shoes can be covered with black socks. Cloth gloves are best because they don’t transfer fingerprints, unlike plastic gloves. If we bring any materials with us, let’s wipe them down beforehand with rubbing alcohol to remove fingerprints. And most importantly, be sure that when you are masking or unmasking, you are not being filmed!

To read more about safety in a confrontational protest, see the How-to page at MTL Counter-information.

Guidelines for movement media:

Be in solidarity:

  • Don’t start recording until the demonstration has been moving for at least 20 minutes, to give everyone who wants to put on a mask a chance to.
  • Don’t record people doing criminalized actions (like breaking windows, graffiti, throwing projectiles, building barricades, etc). Don’t film the attackers themselves, only the attackers’ targets.
  • If someone is wearing a mask, don’t film them. They are wearing a mask for a reason and your footage can still identify them by other clothing items or their facial features. The only exception to this is if you have built relationships of trust with people wearing masks, and they’re asking you to be there because they know you’re on their side.
  • Before publishing videos and photos, always blur faces. Check out this tutorial if you’re not sure how.
  • Don’t live-stream. The police will be able to save your footage for evidence immediately. If you capture something incriminating, you won’t have a chance to edit it out.

Further reading on anarchists and the media

Caught in the Web of Deception: Anarchists and the Media
“Cops, Pigs, Journalists”: To Inform, To Obey
The Reasons for a Hostility – About the Mass Media

Traditional Mi’kmag 1st and 7th District Chiefs oppose Junex projects

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Aug 232017
 

Today, we traditional council chiefs from the 1st and the 7th Districts of Mi’kma’ki have gathered at the Junexit Banquet organized by the Camp by the River. We are here not only to support the occupation that has been set up on August 7th against Junex but also to assert our inherent rights and title over our unceded and unsurrendered territory, as affirmed by the 1763 Royal Proclamation. We assert our presence here to protect our territory under the Protection clauses for unceded lands, as protected by Constitutional Rights, Charter Rights, Human Rights, and International Rights.

The Chief of Mi’kam’ki 1st District, Unamaki, which is currently involved in its own struggle against oil and gas exploration by Alton Gas, as well as the 2011 historic and victorious struggle against fracking in Elsipogtog (6th District), thus adds her support to the 7th District’s current opposition to exploration and extraction on its land by Junex.

After the dismantling of the blockade, the struggle is just beginning, and coalitions are being formed between Mi’kmaq District Chiefs from the northern and southern ends of our Nation, as well as with land and water protectors from other nations.

As Traditional Mik’maq council Chiefs, we affirm our complete and inviolable sovereignty over the land Junex is illegally attempting to destroy. We are not concerned by the Indian Act (INAC) leadership, who’s authority lies exclusively within the border of the Federal Indian Reserves as stated in the Chapter 91.24 of the Constitution of Canada (Indians and land reserved for Indians). INAC describes only boundaries of reservations, and not traditional hunting and fishing territories. Outside of Federal Indian Reserves, the authority and jurisdiction lies with the rights holders, i.e. traditional district chiefs.

We demand an immediate moratorium on all exploration and/or development of oil and/or gas on traditional mik’ma’ki territory, District 7.

As Mi’kmaq peoples, we have a duty and obligation to defend and protect our Ancestral District territory. We cannot remain silent and condone any oil drilling within our territory that will poison our lands, waters, fauna and wildlife. We call all groups and individuals concerned by the protection of water and land on Gespegawagi territory to voice their support, take action, and join the struggle on site.

Suzanne Patles, 1st Unamaki district
Gary Metallic, 7th District Gespegawagi

Quebec city: Anti-Fascists block islamophobic group from marching

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Aug 222017
 

https://vimeo.com/230527342

From Sub.media

Hundreds of anti-fascists and anti-racists blocked a planned march by islamophobic and anti-migrant far right group La Meute. People clashed with police, beat up a nazi, and kept the racist marchers trapped in a mutli level parking lot for hours. Once the protesters left, the group exited and marched.

Jaggi Singh responds to mayor Régis Labeaume

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Aug 222017
 

Régis Labeaume, the right-wing Mayor of Quebec City, has made inflammatory comments today against anti-racist protesters, and against me personally. The substance of his comments have been reported here.

For those that don’t understand French, Mayor Labeaume talked about a “Singh gang”, referred to antifa protesters repeatedly as “cretins”, stated that the protesters that destroy property are “always from Montreal”, and told the protesters to “go somewhere else than Quebec City” and that “Quebec City is not for you”. Lots more too.

This is my public on-the-record reply:

Mayor Labeaume, like Donald Trump, is claiming equivalency between anti-racists — and the varied tactics and strategies we use — and the racist far-right. His false equivalency, like Donald Trump’s after Charlottesville, is absurd. With his comments today, Mayor Labeaume is essentially pandering to racists in Quebec City, repeating a disgusting tactic he has used since he’s been a public figure.

More generally, Mayor Labeaume is replicating the rhetoric of the racist far-right by essentially telling people to “go back to where you came from”. This is the main talking point of far-right anti-immigrant groups, including the racists of La Meute, the Storm Alliance, and Soldiers of Odin, all of whom have a strong presence in Mayor Labeaume’s Quebec City.

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. His personalization of me is dangerous and inflammatory. Moreover, it’s incorrect. I wasn’t leading any group or groups. I was an active participant in the anti-racist mobilization on Sunday, and my role was quite public and open, and witnessed widely by fellow protesters and the media. According to one report: “Avant de se faire arrêter violemment, le militant Jaggi Singh ne faisait que danser et scander des slogans, ou partageait quelques informations aux contre-manifestant-e-s.” [tr: Before being arrested violently, the activist Jaggi Singh was dancing and shouting slogans, or sharing information with the counter-demonstrators.]

Labeaume, like Trump, has the mentality of a bigot, but with a huge media platform. In talking about “la gang à Singh” Labeaume sounds like those far-right conspiracy theorists who blame everything on George Soros. The far-right in Quebec has taken up the theme that I’m personally responsible for anti-fascist organizing, and Labeaume repeats their false talking point. Labeaume remarks reminds me of this racist skinhead, but with a suit and tie (go to 1:35).

The Mayor of Quebec City is power-tripping if he thinks he can decide whether I, or anyone else, is welcome to his city. There is no border between Montreal and Quebec City (and if there was, I wouldn’t respect it anyways). I will definitely continue to visit Quebec City, on my own terms, and I look forward to participating in more demonstrations there, and visiting friends and comrades.

Moreover, I feel compelled to add that I have strong connections to Quebec City. I spent a summer in Quebec City a long time ago, working at the Complexe Scientifique on Rue Einstein, trying to improve my French. I was privileged to hear a speech by the late, great, unionist Michel Chartrand in Quebec City, which helped to improve my French in other unpublishable profane ways. I spent a full year engaged in social justice popular education work, spending a significant amount of time in Quebec City in advance of the mass protests against the Summit of the Americas in 2001. I might be a Toronto-born, Montreal-living, anarchist activist, but the Mayor of Quebec will not dictate to me (or anyone else) when and how I can visit Quebec City.

Instead of lashing out at anti-racist protesters, perhaps Labeaume should look inwards at his own complicity for the current xenophobic environment in Quebec City, for which he bears much responsibility. In the past generation a toxic mix of inflammatory talk radio, pandering politicians like Labeaume, and cynicism has made Quebec City into a base for the racist far-right, where anti-immigrant groups feel like they can organize openly with impunity. By insulting anti-racist protesters, Labeaume is providing a smokescreen for his own inaction and apathy in the face of racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia, which has had murderous consequences in Quebec City.

Importantly, it’s clear that neither the Mayor nor the police of Quebec City are capable of dealing with the far-right racist threat in their City, and in significant ways they are complicit in the rise of the far-right. Instead, anti-fascist activists, from Quebec City, Montreal and beyond, will rely on the model of grassroots organizing involving popular education, supporting migrants and other communities under attack and, yes, engaging in direct action to confront far-right racists and fascists when necessary.

Fortunately, Quebec City is much more than inflammatory talk radio, Mayor Labeaume, and racist, right-wing groups. There is a beautiful community in Quebec City, that I have known well in the past. My experiences in Quebec City, with the exception of far-right racists and the police, have been positive. I have learned so much from other organizers in the Quebec City community, and commend their resilience and organizing. Labeaume’s recent comments, which are really about pandering to part of his racist base, will simply increase the resolve of anti-racists and anti-fascists to effectively mobilize, despite the current Mayor.

To repeat some slogans on Quebec City’s streets on Sunday: “Everyone detests racists! Welcome refugees, immigrants, Muslims, Haitians, and everyone!” (The slogans sound better in French!)

— Jaggi Singh, anti-fascist anarchist activist

Horizon Quebec Actuel: members

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Aug 212017
 

Members:

Send information on the membership of Horizon Quebec Actuel to mtlantifa@riseup.net

Group photos:

Send information on people in these photos to mtlantifa@riseup.net. Once the information is verified, we will add it to the description of the relevant images.

White supremacist plaque removed in Montreal

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Aug 212017
 

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Inspired by the popular removal of racist monuments across North America in the wake of Charlottesville, and in solidarity with the anti-racists confronting the white supremicist group La Meute in Quebec City today, community members removed and destroyed a Heritage Canada plaque celebrating colonial genocide early this morning in Montreal. They replaced it with a notice commemorating the people killed on the site and honouring resistance to colonialism and to white supremacy. There are many similar monuments in Montreal, just waiting to be taken down …

Soldiers of Odin – Québec : members and demonstrators

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Aug 182017
 

Members:

Send information on the membership of S.O.O. to mtlantifa@riseup.net

Demonstrations:

Send information on participants in S.O.O. demonstrations to mtlantifa@riseup.net. Once the information is verified, we will add it to the description of the relevant images.

Group photos:

Send information on people in these photos to mtlantifa@riseup.net. Once the information is verified, we will add it to the description of the relevant images.

Atalante: members

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Aug 182017
 

Members:

Send information on the membership of Atalante to mtlantifa@riseup.net

Group photos:

Send information on people in these photos to mtlantifa@riseup.net. Once the information is verified, we will add it to the description of the relevant images.

La Meute: members and demonstrators

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Aug 182017
 

Members:

Send information on the membership of La Meute to mtlantifa@riseup.net

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Demonstrations:

Send information on participants in La Meute demonstrations to mtlantifa@riseup.net. Once the information is verified, we will add it to the description of the relevant images.

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