The Toronto Star
MONTREAL — A day after a violent protest ending in a series of street fires, police came under criticism Sunday over an altercation caught on video that shows patrons on a bar patio being pepper-sprayed.
Surveillance footage, played in a loop Sunday on one of Quebec’s all-news stations, shows several people sprayed by riot police at close range. Customers are seen scrambling to get inside the bar as a police officer knocks over tables and chairs.
Another video from a local TV station shows the officers took action after one was hit by a flying chair. The chair was then flung back toward the patio.
The bar owner said police went too far and he’s considering taking legal action.
“People were falling on each running inside to get away from the pepper spray, breaking things, and then people left by the back exit,” said Martin Guimond, who runs the Saint-Bock brasserie in the city’s lively Latin Quarter.
“My waitress said, ‘we have to call 911.’ And then she said, ‘But wait, it’s the police that are doing this.’ That’s when you realize there’s a total loss of security.”
Police didn’t immediately return a request for comment about the incident, which occurred steps from where the fires were earlier set.
Police had the new power of Bill 78, which lays out regulations governing demonstrations of more than 50 people. Among other things, the legislation, passed last week, requires organizers to give police eight hours’ notice of details such as the start time, duration and route of protest marches.
The bill was intended to restore order and put an end to three months of student protests, but it appears only to have given the movement momentum.
A demonstration was held Sunday afternoon against Quebec’s new emergency law and another march was organized in the evening.
Activist and filmmaker Michael Moore weighed in on Twitter in support of the students and against the new legislation. In New York, Montreal’s Arcade Fire wore the movement’s symbolic red squares during an appearance with Mick Jagger on Saturday Night Live.
It remains unclear to what extent police will enforce the new law - or whether they even can.
On Saturday, Montreal police appeared to take a tougher stance than previously seen during the nightly marches.
The march was almost immediately declared illegal because, police said, no itinerary was provided, protesters walked against traffic, and bottles and rocks were thrown at police.
Police presence was also larger than usual. Yet the march was allowed to continue for hours, with protesters eventually broken up into smaller groups after being charged by riot police.
Montreal police spokesman Const. Yannick Ouimet said 69 arrests were made, including nine people charged with criminal offences - five with armed aggression against police, three with assaulting police, and one with arson.
The rest were charged with bylaw infractions punishable by fines.
He said officers recovered a bag containing several Molotov cocktails before they could be used.
Two police officers suffered minor injuries from projectiles. Ouimet said one protester also suffered a minor injury while being arrested.
He said the windshields of two police cruisers were smashed.
Copyright 2012 Toronto Star Newspapers Limited