From December 7 to 19, downtown Montreal will be the scene of an extraordinary effervescence, since approximately 10,000 delegates will take part in the COP15 on biodiversity. We have been warned for several weeks that this will be the largest police deployment in twenty years in Montreal. The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) will be involved, and there is even talk of the possibility of resorting to the support of other services. municipal police. It is obvious that the presence of thousands of people in downtown Montreal as part of COP15 requires some preparation and security measures. However, the measures put in place must remain proportional, reasonable and respectful of human rights, and allow all voices to be heard.
Like other Conferences of the Parties (COP) on climate, and various international summits (G7, G20, etc.), the holding of COP15 on biodiversity will generate numerous mobilizations and initiatives from active social movements . Whether they are critical of COP15 as a forum for tackling a major environmental crisis, whether they are calling for its boycott or whether they see it as an opportunity for dialogue between negotiating parties and governments, several groups and coalitions plan to hear their demands. Several demonstrations and other activities are planned on the sidelines of the event. In this context, it is essential that police forces and the various levels of government respect the exercise of the right to demonstrate.
However, it is undeniable that over the past two decades, in Quebec and in Canada, police forces have violated the right to demonstrate and, in many cases, the physical integrity of demonstrators. We can think of the Summit of the Americas in Quebec in 2001, the G20 in Toronto in 2010 or the student movement in 2012, where demonstrators were seriously injured by the police and thousands of people arrested during mass arrests.
On several occasions, the security forces delimited a space, often very restricted, in which the demonstrators had to confine themselves. This was the case in 2018 during the G7 in Quebec, with street restrictions, as in La Malbaie, with the establishment of a “free expression zone” circumscribed by fences. This type of practice, which has been described by some as a “democratic enclosure”, clearly contributes to hindering the exercise of citizens’ right to demonstrate.
We can expect that the coming decades will see an increase in demonstrations and actions calling for action on climate change and the accelerated loss of biodiversity. Mobilizations demanding that social inequalities and the catastrophic consequences of these crises for human rights be taken into account will intensify. Social movements are and will be essential as well as absolutely essential to deal with the environmental crises that are shaking the world.
In 2018, the United Nations Human Rights Council set out the framework principles relating to human rights and the environment. One of them insists on the responsibility of States to “respect and protect the right to freedom of expression […] on environmental issues”. It emphasizes that, even when security considerations require the implementation of certain restrictive measures, these must not impede the exercise of rights, in particular the right to demonstrate.
It is more important than ever to defend and protect the exercise of the right to demonstrate against all forms of repression and obstacles, and to continue the mobilizations for human rights and environmental justice.
As we pointed out in one of our reports on the right to demonstrate in Quebec, published in 2013, “to meet and express oneself in the public space is a recognized fundamental right, and not a simple privilege depending on the goodwill authorities. Demonstrating in the street is a constitutional right guaranteed by the Canadian and Quebec charters. In order for the population to be well informed of their rights with regard to demonstrations, an informative website (droitdemanifester.ca) was created by the LDL in collaboration with the Mouvement d’éducation populaire et d’action communautaire du Québec and the Service aux UQAM communities.
The League of Rights and Freedoms has been defending human rights for 60 years. She has extensively documented police abuse and violations of the right to demonstrate in Quebec. On the eve of COP15, it therefore reminds police forces and political authorities that it is their duty not to undermine the full exercise of the right to demonstrate, which is vital for social movements and democracy and , therefore essential for citizens to be able to fully participate and decide on the future of their society.