Arrested and imprisoned Sunday evening while demonstrating near the Radio-Canada building, where Prime Minister François Legault was for the recording of the program Everybody talks about it, anti-mask leader François Amalega Bitondo appeared masked on Monday by videoconference at the Montreal courthouse.
Posted at 4:51 p.m.
The activist refuses to wear a face covering. For his appearance, the police officers who brought him in front of the camera, from the South Operational Center of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), therefore handcuffed him and put a mask on him forcibly.
“He refuses to wear a mask, but our room here is smaller than a wardrobe,” explained one of the officers responsible for the appearance of detainees to judge Nathalie Duchesneau. “The standards do not allow us to bring in an accused who is not masked, for the safety of our staff. »
François Amalega Bitondo therefore appeared on the screen with a face covering.
The Crown opposed his release. The 43-year-old man therefore remained detained. He will undergo his preliminary investigation on Tuesday.
Bitondo, who is representing himself, without a lawyer, tried to speak to Judge Duchesneau, but the latter replied that it was not yet the time.
The anti-vaccine leader, who accumulates tickets for non-compliance with sanitary measures, does not have the right to approach within 300 meters of Prime Minister Legault. This order was issued against him on November 18, because Bitondo tried to bypass the police who were protecting Mr. Legault to speak to him during a visit by the Prime Minister to Shawinigan.
However, Sunday evening, during the demonstration of twenty people in which he participated, in front of Radio-Canada, the SPVM police officers judged that the activist was too close to the Prime Minister.
He was therefore arrested and charged with breach of condition.