The Quebec City police department (SPVQ) assumes “excessive power” in the conduct of demonstrations, denounce several community organizations in the capital. At issue, according to them: a regulation adopted last year which opens “all kinds of breaches” and undermines the fundamental right to express oneself and mobilize.
The 1er June, around a hundred demonstrators were heard in front of Parliament on the sidelines of a rally organized by the Pro-Life Campaign. “Barely 5 minutes after their arrival,” laments the Regroupement des groups de femmes de la region de la Capitale-Nationale (RGFR-CN), “a worker was violently restrained and given a ticket for crossing the street. »
“Why this ticket when the street was closed to traffic? », asks the fined protester, Anne-Valérie Lemieux Breton.
On September 15, the Quebec West Housing Assistance Committee (CLAQO) organized a convoy to visit, aboard a bus, the “Wild West for tenants” that Sainte-Foy has become, according to the organization. .
“There were barely twenty of us. However, three patrol cars and around fifteen police officers were deployed to follow us,” denounces Charles-Olivier P. Carrier, a CLAQO organizer. “I guarantee you that all the participants did not feel safe. »
A recent “festive and family” event did not escape the vigilance of the SPVQ either. On September 18, a few dozen people, including children and people with reduced mobility, gathered near a school to demand better security on rue Marie-de-l’Incarnation, a four-lane artery where Motorists disobey speed limits in school zones on a daily basis.
“A few minutes before the start of the march, two police officers intervened to tell the demonstrators to stay on the sidewalk and that all people who walk in the street will receive a ticket,” explains Naélie Bouchard-Sylvain of RÉPAC. This undermined the message and one of the protesters’ means of expression: the occupation, by pedestrians, of the space reserved for cars. »
Again this week, the dock workers at the Port of Quebec, locked out for more than two years, denounced the “abusive police repression” deployed during a demonstration where the SPVQ allegedly demanded, according to Frédéric Brisson of the Canadian Public Employees Union public (CUPE), to confine themselves to pedestrian crossings.
A criticized regulation
All these police interventions draw from the same source: regulation 28-17 adopted in 2023 by the municipal council. This aims to “ensure the safety of people” during gatherings on public roads, “while respecting the fundamental rights of freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly. »
It provides that “any person must, during a gathering on the roadway of a public highway, obey an order from a police officer who asks them to move from the place where they are for security reasons. »
This regulation succeeded its ancestor, 19.2, adopted in the wake of the Maple Spring and then judged unconstitutional by the Court of Appeal in 2019.
From its inception, the new regulation 28-17 has been contested by organizations in Quebec. “We contested it as soon as it was filed,” explains Josyanne Croteau, coordinator of the League of Rights and Liberties Quebec section. “For us, it was clearly a political desire to control the way in which freedom of expression can be exercised in public space. »
For a year, she has observed “clearly an escalation” between the SPVQ and the demonstrators in Quebec. “Demonstrations must take place more and more often on the sidewalk in the name of security,” observes Josyanne Croteau. If the SPVQ lacks personnel to properly supervise gatherings in the street, this is not a reason to restrict the population’s freedom to demonstrate. »
“Not only is the regulation problematic in itself, but the police do not even respect it,” deplores Naélie Bouchard-Sylvain of the Regroupement d’enseignement populaire en action culturelle des regions de Québec and Chaudière Appalaches (RÉPAC). Even when we give the route of a demonstration, the police allow themselves to change the route at the last minute, to rush us in time… The SPVQ allows itself to decree that if there are not 50 or 200 of us, we will not we can’t take the street. This is completely arbitrary! »
The SPVQ defends its action and emphasizes that its police officers respect the fundamental right to demonstrate guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“Our mission is primarily to facilitate and protect the right to legally and peacefully protest,” he wrote in response to the Duty. It also consists, adds the email, of “limiting the scope of obstacles to circulation and economic life. »
“We have confidence”
Several organizations had already brought their grievances to the doors of city hall on June 18 to request the repeal of the regulation. They plan to be heard again on the 1er next October.
The current administration refuses to give in to their demand. This regulation, assures the advisor responsible for police files, Marie-Josée Asselin, seeks first and foremost to ensure the safety of the population.
“The regulations do not apply differently depending on the causes defended or the people who support them,” she assures. We wanted a regulation that applied equally to everyone, whether truckers on Parliament Hill or families near a school. »
Now that several organizations are denouncing a regulation that discourages them from mobilizing and making their voices heard, the administration does not intend to change its approach. “No one would want a city where politicians dictate to police officers how to do their jobs,” she believes. We have confidence in our police department, its officers have training for this and they supervise around 300 demonstrations each year without any problem. »
In the eyes of Josyanne Croteau, however, politics cannot “exempt” itself from a regulation “which opens all kinds of breaches” in constitutional freedoms.
“The City,” she concludes, “has a really clear responsibility in this. I don’t think she can let go of responsibility. »