The annual demonstration against police brutality took place in relative calm on Friday.
In a provisional report, the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM) reported around ten misdeeds and a single arrest, for assault against a police officer.
Held every year since 1997, the demonstration was traditionally organized by the Collective opposed to police brutality (COBP).
This year it was rather the initiative of the Collectif March 15, which describes itself as “an autonomous group of activists of various tendencies coming together behind a central position, namely opposition to police interventions – brutal or not” .
The collective denounced “racial, social and political profiling” and wanted “an end to police arrests and mixed squads” bringing together social workers and police officers.
“Cops have no leverage to act on the social problems that lead to crime. Claiming to take care of the most vulnerable on the one hand and maintaining random arrests on the other is hypocritical, racist, transphobic, sexist and contemptuous of the poorest,” a masked member of the Collective said on the microphone March 15 , who did not provide his identity.
The procession of around 200 people circulated in the Village and in the Centre-Sud district before returning to Sainte-Catherine Street heading west to the sound of the slogans “Everyone hates the police” and “From Rafah to Montreal, the police are colonial.” Palestinian flags were also numerous among the crowd, which included several masked demonstrators.
Depending on what The duty was able to observe, at least three windows of banking institutions were smashed on Sainte-Catherine Street. Smoke bombs and pyrotechnics were also launched. The police several times issued warnings to the demonstrators, without however putting an end to the demonstration, which ended around 7 p.m.