CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE : WE WILL NOT SUBMIT TO MUNICIPAL BY-LAW P-6
by Anti-Capitalist Convergence of Montreal (CLAC)
Montréal - While conservative attacks from all directions weaken the thin social safety net (cuts to welfare, employment insurance reform, etc.) and further impoverish the majority of the population (health tax, tuition fee increases, hydro fees, increased bus fares, etc.), a municipal by-law is being used to prevent effective responses to these anti-social policies."In the current context of austerity, it’s not surprising that grassroots groups refuse to give the police the arbitrary power to decide on the choice of routes and symbolic targets with a particular political significance. This would give law enforcement a political role, influencing the message of social demands. Relinquishing the power to express popular discontent would jeopardize the ability to defend social rights currently under attack," says Rocky Raccoon, co-spokesperson of the CLAC.
Paddy Tinerehr co-spokesperson of the CLAC, adds: "Rights are best defended by asserting them! That’s what 67 grassroots organizations are doing by refusing to give up their right to demonstrate to the goodwill of the SPVM.”
Press Point & “Action”
Monday, April 22, 2013, 10am
in front of the Palais de justice
(corner of St-Laurent & Notre-Dame)
Monday, April 22, 2013, 10am
in front of the Palais de justice
(corner of St-Laurent & Notre-Dame)
Solidarity against police repression in Montreal:
We will not submit to municipal by-law P-6
With this public declaration, we assert our opposition to by-law P-6: we will continue to demonstrate without negotiating our demo routes with police, and we will systematically challenge all tickets that arise from this by-law.
The past year has been marked by an escalation of police repression against political protesters in Montreal. As our political movements take to the streets in larger numbers, with more frequency and militancy, we are attacked more brutally and arbitrarily than ever, with batons, pepper spray, tear gas, sound grenades, and rubber bullets. Our friends are mass arrested, humiliated, kettled, and in many cases badly injured.
Within this context of police escalation against political protesters, the Montreal police (SPVM) are attempting to normalize another practice: arresting demonstrators before they can even begin to demonstrate, or even gather to demonstrate. Three times within one week - March 15 on the International Day Against Police Brutality; March 18 before a planned night demo; and March 22 on the anniversary of student strike protests - the Montreal police stopped demonstrations before they could begin by surrounding protesters with riot police and arresting them en masse, in the hundreds. One clear goal of the police tactic is to scare demonstrators, and potential demonstrators, from taking to the streets
The SPVM can't be bothered to make criminal charges. Instead, they use municipal by-law "P-6" which makes demonstrations that don't provide an advance itinerary to thepolice to be a contravention of the by-law. A municipal by-law offense is not a criminal charge, it's the equivalent of a parking ticket. However, the P-6 offence was raised to more than $500 ($637 with fees) for a first offence last May in the context of the student strike movement.
The P-6 by-law prohibits “obstructing the movement, pace or presence” of citizens who are also using public space at the same time. How can we take the streets without obstructing vehicular or pedestrian traffic? Moreover, the P-6 by-law demands not only communicating demo routes in advance, but also the approval of our routes by thepolice. This is the equivalent of giving the police the arbitrary power to refuse our routes if they judge them to be too disruptive, and also to prevent marching to locations that have been chosen as political “targets.”
We refuse to negotiate with the police our freedom of expression, our right to demonstrate and our right to disrupt the existing social, political and economic order that we consider profoundly unjust and illegitimate.
Part of the response is in our hands, as part of grassroots, autonomous community organizations. There is no obligation to provide the police our demo routes, and the Montreal police in particular, who abuse their authority with impunity, don't deserve any accountability from us. Instead, we're accountable to each other, and the social movements we come from. We always retain the right to protest spontaneously, and with demo routes that reflects our needs and demands.
In the face of police repression, let's take back the streets with our weapons of solidarity and support.
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Press conference called by the Anti-Capitalist Convergence of Montreal (CLAC) with the participation of endorsing organizations.
67 grassroots community groups in Montreal are announcing their intention to not respect the anti-protest municipal by-law.
Public Statement: Solidarity against police repression in Montreal: We will not submit to the municipal by-law P-6 (below or linked here: http://www.clac-montreal.net/en/against-P6)
info@clac--montreal.net
438-875-7243
www.clac-montreal.net
Media Contacts:
Rocky Raccoon & Paddy Tinerehr,
spokespersons for the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC)
E-mail: info@clac-montreal.net
Web: http://www.clac-montreal.net/en/against-P6
This public statement is endorsed by:
La Convergence les luttes anticapitalistes (CLAC)
Anarchopanda pour la gratuité scolaire
Action Anti-Raciste / Anti-Racist Action (ARA)
Alliance des étudiants et étudiantes en beaux-arts à Concordia (FASA)
Apatrides anonymes
Artivistic
Assemblée populaire et autonome de Hochelaga-Maisonneuve (APAQ-Hochelaga)
Assemblée populaire autonome de Montréal (APAM)
Assemblée populaire et autonome du Plateau Mt-Royal (APAQ-Plateau)
Assemblée populaire et autonome de Villeray (APAQ-Villeray)
Association étudiante de service social de l'Université de Montréal (AÉSSUM)
Association facultaire étudiante des arts (AFEA-UQÀM)
Association facultaire étudiante de science politique et droit (AFESPED-UQÀM)
Association facultaire étudiante des sciences humaines (AFESH-UQÀM)
Association pour la liberté d’éxpression (ALÉ)
Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ)
La Belle Époque
Centre Social Autogéré (CSA)
Centre de travailleurs et travailleuses immigrants (CTI)
Centre des femmes d'ici et d'ailleurs
Centre des femmes de Verdun
Cinema Politica Concordia
Coalition Justice pour les victimes de bavures policières
Collectif de la Marche des lesbiennes de Montréal / Montreal Dyke March Collective
Collectif opposé à la brutalité policière (COBP)
Collectif de solidarité anti-coloniale / Anti-Colonial Solidarity Collective
Collectif Volatile Works
Comité logement Ahuntsic-Cartierville
CKUT Steering Committee
La Cuisine du peuple
Dignidad Migrante
L'Ensemble de l'insurrection chaotique
Les Frères et Soeurs d'Émile-Nelligan
Front d'action populaire pour le réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU)
Graduate Student Association (GSA) at Concordia
Guet des Activités Paralogiques, Propagandistes et Antidémocratiques (GAPPA)
Independent Jewish Voices-Montreal
Justice climatique Montréal / Climate Justice Montreal
Maille à Part
Midnight Kitchen at McGill
Montréal-Nord Républik
Mouvement Action-Chômage de Montréal (MAC)
99%Media
Organisation populaire des droits sociaux de la région de Montréal (OPDS-RM)
People's Potato at Concordia
Personne n’est illégal / No One Is Illegal-Montréal
La Pointe Libertaire
POPIR-Comité Logement
Profs contre la hausse
Projet Accompagement Solidarité Colombie (PASC)
QPIRG Concordia
QPIRG McGill
RadLaw McGill
Ras-le-bol, soupe populaire de l'UQÀM
R.A.S.H. Montréal
Réseau de la Commission populaire / People’s Commission Network
Résistance citoyenne de Québec
Société Bolivarienne du Québec
Solidarité sans frontières
Stella
Student Print Association at Concordia
Syndicat des étudiant-e-s employé-e-s de l'UQÀM (SÉTUE)
Syndicat étudiant du Cégep de Marie-Victorin (SÉCMV)
Tadamon
2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy
Union communiste libertaire (UCL)
Université Populaire des Sciences de l'Information (UPopSi)
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