Submitted to MTL Counter-info
On the afternoon of Thursday, June 16, some respectable gay organizations held a ‘vigil’ in Montreal’s Gay Village for the victims of the recent shooting at a gay club in Orlando. The Collectif carré rose (CCR), which campaigns for more cops and security in the Village to counter ‘homophobic attacks’ (read: rich people getting mugged), disgustingly invited a slew of local and provincial politicians to speak to the crowd, including Quebec premier Philippe Couillard. While the politicians pretended to not be complicit in violence against queer and trans people, mining the crowd’s grief for political capital, the CCR and their buddies salivated at the promise of new lobbying possibilities for their pro-cop bullshit.
So we were thrilled to hear that a member of the crowd, trans activist Esteban Torres according to prosecutors and media, physically attacked Couillard when he began speaking, forcing the premier to be evacuated from the event. It was reported that Esteban’s ‘weapon’ was a simple ball of paper, thrown from a few feet away and hitting its target – seemingly an intelligent choice for an individual act in which one is unlikely to avoid arrest, as one imagines few other methods, acting alone, of forcing a political leader’s evacuation that won’t likely bring jail time.
We wish we could have been there to follow up with a few bricks.
No cop, no politician should feel protected in the Village.
Solidarity with Esteban!
Fuck the Collectif carré rose!
SPVM out of the Village!
– anarchists