Police

Montreal, January 9, 2021 Today at 8 p.m., for the first time in our history, a province-wide curfew will be put in place. After ten months of a health crisis, our government has once again opted for a police-based solution. With alarms, sirens and flashing lights, the police will announce the time of its reign every night, at least for the next month. This strategy of intimidation and fear implemented won’t be sufficient to camouflage the amateurism and ineffectiveness of the caquiste method of pandemic management. ...

Cops are murderers. We burned their cars. You can too. We used three incendiary devices: square plastic bottles filled about 3/4 of the way with a mixture of gasoline and motor oil. We used super glue to attach two individually packaged fire cubes (which you can find in camping, hardware, and grocery stores) to the side of each bottle. At each car, we placed a bottle on its side (cubes facing up), pushed it under the tire of the car, and lit the cube. ...

People in the so-called US have been rising up against white supremacy and the police, and for Black liberation. People in so-called Canada have been in the streets too – naming genocide against Black and Indigenous people, calling out police murders here, and making their opposition known. Many of these demonstrations, occupations, and riots have been met with more police violence. The police in the “US” and “Canada” regularly use tear gas, rubber bullets, tasers, batons, and sound weapons to suppress our presence in the streets and to harass marginalized communities on the daily. ...

June 13, 2020 – Montreal – At 12pm today, one hundred Montrealers gathered in front of the Bordeaux prison to call for defunding the police and decarcerating prisons. Black activists told the crowd about the violence inflicted upon their communities by prisons and the police. The crowd held banners with slogans such as “Prisons Kill,” “Black Lives Matter,” and “Defund the Police,” and made noise to show solidarity with prisoners inside Bordeaux. ...

1. Nothing justifies police violence; whether we’re on a morning jog, using a counterfeit $20 bill, or breaking a jewelry store window. What the colonial state determines as crimes are often attempts at escaping poverty and systemic violence, or the result of these two things. We advocate for a restorative justice centered on the needs and experiences of victims, not a punitive justice centered on the needs of commerce and state control. Those who partake in protests while reproducing the discourse of the dominant class and playing police are doing the oppressors’ work. ...

(There is also a PDF of this text available for printing) We’ve seen a lot of people on social media spreading rumours and sharing conspiracy theories about the uprising currently going on South of the border. These might be rumours about potential white supremacist attacks and interventions or conspiracies about police agents being responsible for violence carried out by protestors. This kind of online behaviour is harmful and undermines the movements you’re probably trying to support, and we thought we’d take a minute to break down why we should collectively push back against this trend. ...

May Day is an occasion to remind ourselves why we fight for a more just world, a world not submitted to the domination of a capitalist elite, a world where we can dream. However, for reasons that are clear, we won’t be able to assemble in the streets this year, but this doesn’t mean the resistance is dead. Despite its ravages, the coronavirus crisis has provided many with the opportunity to break with normality and reconsider the anxiety-inducing, senseless and dehumanizing rhythms of our lives. More than ever, these troubled times are the occasion to reflect on the possibilities of creating a new world that only we can shape through mutual aid and solidarity. ...

A bit over a hundred people marched through downtown Montreal Thursday night, to show their solidarity with the inhabitants of Wet’suwet’en territory currently facing violence and harrassment from the colonial Canadian state and its police force, the RCMP. Demonstrators marched in the streets of Montreal toward the RCMP offices behind a banner reading “RCMP OFF WET’SUWET’EN LAND”. The RCMP headquarters was targeted in response to violence against indigenous people and especially the Wet’suwet’en. The car parked in the driveway had its windows broken and tires slashed, and paint bombs and graffiti hit the building. The demonstration occured in the context of a wave of actions currently shutting down so-called Canada. The message is clear: violence committed against indigenous peoples, land defenders and water protectors, on Wet’suwet’en land or elsewhere, will always meet with a response. This response will come from everywhere and it will only get louder. ...

The Canadian state isn’t invulnerable. As Canada sends an army into Wet’suwet’en territory to try to force through the Coastal GasLink pipeline, it’s time to find the weak points of this country’s economic and political power, and attack. Last night, in response to the start of the RCMP raid, we visited the riding office of David Lametti, federal minister of justice, in Montreal. We emptied a fire extinguisher filled with paint inside after breaking a window. ...

On January 4th, Wet’suwet’en members delivered an eviction notice to the CGL mancamp known as “site 9A” on Unistʼotʼen territory. CGL complied with the eviction notice, and employees and security forces completely withdrew from the territory. Shortly thereafter, there were reports of over 100 felled trees and piles of tires and accelerants blocking Morice West Forest Service Road, effectively protecting the area from industry and RCMP incursion. This unceded Wet’suwet’en land has now been liberated from Canada. ...

Each year, the COBP organizes a week against police brutality built on a specific theme. The theme this year is “Police Everywhere, Justice Nowhere: International Solidarity!”. Revolts are multiplying worldwide: Chili, Colombia, Algeria Ecuador, Haiti, Iraq, Iran, France, Hong Kong, India… And the common point in all these revolts is police brutality. A brutality supported by colonial forces, who do not hesitate to equip police everywhere with more and more lethal weapons. ...