The Montreal police are “preparing for any eventuality” and ensure that they are always “very attentive” to demonstrations against health measures across the country. At a time when certain groups are relocating, after the end of the occupation in downtown Ottawa, Valérie Plante insists: no blockages will be tolerated in Montreal.
Updated yesterday at 3:55 p.m.
“As a police organization, we are very attentive to what happened in Ottawa, but also elsewhere in Canada and in Quebec. Our Operational Planning Service is monitoring these movements and preparing for any eventuality,” said Deputy Director of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), Vincent Richer, on the sidelines of a press conference on Monday. City Hall.
If every citizen “has the right to demonstrate”, that this right is “important and that it should not be denigrated”, gatherings must “be held in a certain balance, for the good of the community and the rest of society,” insisted Mr. Richer. “We are very attentive to this, and we continue to follow the movement”, he also indicated on this subject.
Nearly two weeks ago, Mayor Valérie Plante had already indicated that she would not accept seeing her streets blocked by truckers, when more than a thousand people marched through the streets of Montreal on behalf of “freedom” under high police surveillance.
These people were then invited to take the road to Ottawa, to join the opponents of the sanitary measures who then occupied Parliament Hill.
Monday, Mme Plante reiterated that his stance hasn’t changed one iota. ” It’s the same thing. Montreal is still in a state of emergency, and it is important for us that Montrealers can continue to circulate freely,” she insisted. “The right to demonstrate is important. We are used to Montreal, but we do not block streets, no, “added the elected municipal official in the same breath.
She had indicated in recent days that the SPVM had also sent observers to Quebec in recent weeks to learn how to deal with this type of group.
In Vankleek Hill, about 100 kilometers from the Canadian capital, between Ottawa and Montreal, more than a hundred demonstrators also gathered on Sunday evening. Around the same time, other demonstrators also gathered in the Embrun area, a municipality located south of Ottawa. Other protesters had also gathered in front of the Canadian War Museum, two kilometers west of the main parliamentary buildings. Ontario police said Sunday that close surveillance of these various gatherings will continue to be provided outside the city of Ottawa, in concert with its partners such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.