Montreal

How Co-ops Are Transforming Quebec’s Food Deserts

November 30, 2022 RuIrene Pratka, Resilience. Create! Canada, Cooperatives, Food and Agriculture, Montreal, Quebec

Montreal, Québec, Canada - In French, the word for food processing is the same as the word for sweeping social change: transformation. Alex Beaudin dreams of doing both. Beaudin, 25, is the coordinator of Le Grénier Boréal, an agricultural co-op in Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan, a village of around 450 people in northeastern Quebec, 550 miles northeast of Montreal. Longue-Pointe is one of about 20 villages strung like beads on a necklace, between Route 138 and the vast St. Lawrence River. The highway and the river are the villages’ lifelines, and depending on either one for supply shipments — as the Nord-Côtiers do — can be maddening. Ferry service is unreliable; a damaged ship can cause weeks of disruption.

Members Of Haitian Community Occupy Justin Trudeau’s Office In Montreal

October 7, 2019 Staff, Ricochet.media Resist! Class Struggle, Haiti, Montreal, Occupy, Protests, Regime Change

Today Justin Trudeau’s office in the Montreal riding of Papineau was occupied by members of the local Haitian community, demanding a change in Canada’s policy towards the government of Haiti’s Jovenel Moïse. “Promises are being made and we want to hear from Trudeau that they will no longer support this corrupt, illegitimate government, and continue to allow, to let people die in Haiti,” Frantz André told Ricochet by phone, right after the nearly two-hour protest and occupation had concluded. “We occupied Trudeau’s campaign office in response to the killings and repression by the current Haitian government,” said André...

50,000 People March In Montreal To Demand More Climate Action

November 23, 2018 Staff, Cbc.ca Resist! Canada, Climate Change, Montreal, Protests

An estimated 50,000 people marched in Montreal to show their support for climate action on Saturday, as part of a wider campaign with sister marches happening in cities throughout Quebec. The march was organized by a group called The Planet Goes to Parliament. Spokesperson Nathalie Roy said that the movement was born out of increasing frustration from citizens during the recent provincial election campaign. "It started because we needed to channel the indignation we felt about the fact that, during the campaign, there was very little said about environmental issues — where we feel a true sense of urgency."

Police Station Attacked During Anti-Police Brutality Protest

April 8, 2016 Staff, www.rt.com Resist! Montreal, police brutality, Protests

By Staff of RT - A demonstration against police brutality in Montreal, Canada, led to cars being set alight in the streets and a police station being attacked. The protest was sparked by the death of a black man who was killed by a police rubber bullet last monthThe Wednesday demonstration was initially organized as a peaceful protest in response to the death of Jean-Pierre Bony, 46, who was shot by a police rubber bullet during a drug raid in March. He later died of his injuries.

Montreal Region Rejects Energy East Pipeline

January 22, 2016 Mike De Souza and Charles Mandel, www.nationalobserver.com Resist! Montreal, Pipelines, TransCanada

By Mike De Souza and Charles Mandel for National Observer - The city of Montreal and surrounding communities have come out swinging against TransCanada Corporation’s Energy East pipeline project. “Call a spade a spade,” Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said at a news conference on Thursday. “It’s a bad project.” Leaders from the 82 communities, which represent nearly four million people, released a report concluding that the pipeline wouldn’t respect their urban development plan since it would go through forests, wetlands and agricultural land.

Montreal’s Francophone Teachers Strike Against Austerity

October 10, 2015 Ashoka Jegroo, www.wagingnonviolence.org Resist! Austerity, Montreal, Strike

By Ashoka Jegroo for Waging Nonviolence, Thousands of Francophone teachers, along with students, parents, and other supporters, flooded Montreal’s streets for a one-day strike on September 30. The strike is the first of six planned by the Federation Autonome de l’Enseignement, or FAE, a coalition of eight of Quebec’s French-speaking teachers unions, as part of their negotiations with the provincial government over proposed cuts to education. “We are taking the streets today to tell the population and the parents that we are with them, and that their schools, teachers and their students, deserve more,” Nathalie Morel, vice president of the FAE, told CTV Montreal. “We deserve better.” Sylvain Mallette, head of the FAE, first announced the strike on September 8, and on Wednesday, around 34,000 French-language teachers walked off the job and marched on the streets of Montreal.

First Nations interrupt Energy East Pipeline Consultation

September 24, 2015 Christopher Curtis, www.montrealgazette.com Resist! Canada, First Nations, Montreal, Oil & Gas

By Christopher Curtis in Montreal Gazette - Police were called to a downtown Montreal office building Wednesday after indigenous protesters shut down a public consultation over the Energy East pipeline. Amanda Lickers says she was accompanied by about 25 people when she entered the meeting and interrupted proceedings. “We told them that a pipeline will not pass through unceded (Mohawk) territory,” said Lickers, whose family is from Six Nations of the Grand River, in Ontario. “This project is in violation of our Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) principals and it violates a law that predates the colonial occupation of Canada.” Though there are First Nations who support the $12 billion, 4,600 kilometre pipeline, a grassroots, indigenous resistance movement is gaining momentum across Canada.

Montreal Police Dismantle Downtown ‘Right To Housing’ Camp

May 23, 2015 Presse Canadienne, www.montrealgazette.com Resist! Housing, Montreal, Police

The camp had been set up in a park next to the headquarters of the Montreal police department close to Place des Arts, following a march through downtown streets. The goal of the demonstration was to alert the public to the lack of affordable housing and the plight of the homeless. FRAPRU blames the Quebec government of lowering the number of new social housing units to 1,500 from 3,000 in its latest budget. The group blames Ottawa for progressively reducing the budget geared toward social housing. Police had issued an ultimatum soon after the arrival of the protesters, asking for the removal of the tents. About 15 tents remained up and police moved in to remove them. The removal was not met by resistance but three people were arrested for obstructing police.

Montreal Police Disperse Hundreds Of Protesters W/ Tear Gas

April 11, 2015 RT, www.rt.com Resist! Canada, Education, Montreal, Police, Student Activism

Riot police in Montreal used tear gas and flash-bangs to disperse hundreds of students rallying in the city’s downtown in protest against the Quebec government’s austerity measures. Following dispersal, barricades have been put up at Montreal’s Carré Phillips and protesters are regrouping, according to various reports on the ground. The march began downtown as demonstrators gathered at Dominion Square on Friday night. The rally was declared illegal at 9:15 p.m. local time. Within the next 30 minutes, the riot squad was dispersing students from St. Catherine Street. Tear gas and stun grenades were repeatedly used, prompting students to scatter and run away.

Aggressive Police Response To Quebec Anti-Austerity Protest

March 29, 2015 Canadian Press, www.news.nationalpost.com Resist! Austerity, Montreal, Students

MONTREAL – A student group is denouncing the police after a protester was shot in the face with part of a tear-gas canister at an anti-austerity demonstration. Naomie Tremblay-Trudeau told various media Friday she is considering legal action against the police after video of her being shot at point-blank range in Quebec City circulated on YouTube. Camille Godbout of the ASSE student group says it wasn’t an isolated incident. She said a police dog attacked a protester earlier this week in Quebec City and that another demonstrator was injured after being allegedly struck by a police baton in Montreal.

Montreal Students Announce Strike

March 23, 2015 Jennifer Baker, www.revolution-news.com Resist! Montreal, Quebec, Strike, Student Activism

The Montreal Gazette reported that organizers of the protest said this will be one of several demonstrations to be held over the next few months. “Today, we’re proud to launch a raucous spring,” said Fannie Poirier, spokesperson for the Spring 2015 protest committee. “Austerity measures have been presented as the lesser of evils to confront a deficient economy. But what we’re seeing … is a massive impoverishment of the population, full-frontal attacks on working conditions and a loss of security for society’s most vulnerable people.” The official spokesperson for student group ASSÉ, Camille Godbout, said more than 50,000 students will officially be on strike as of next Monday to protest against the provincial government’s austerity plan.

Anonymous Wages War On Montreal Police

January 16, 2015 Hack Read, www.hackread.com Resist! Anonymous, Homelessness, Montreal

The online hacktivist Anonymous has sent a threatening message to the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SMPV) and Montreal police against bulldozing of a homeless camp set up by Anonymous in Viger Square for OpSafeWinter. In retaliation Anonymous has called for occupy Viger Square movement in which a protest will be held against police activity against homeless people. Anonymous has also asked its supporters to bring with them protective gear such as gas masks, material for building barricades, and anything else that might be useful in defending the encampment should it be attacked by the SPVM (Montreal Police).

Montreal Protest Law Is Being Defeated By Ongoing Protest

October 27, 2014 Macho Philipovic, www.montreal.mediacoop.ca Resist! Canada, Civil Disobedience, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Law, Montreal

After longstanding speculation about whether Montreal’s anti-protest by-law P-6 can more effectively be challenged at theballot box or in the courts, a court decision released on Thursday suggests that the answer is neither: sustained mass action and solidarity in the streets itself may be straining the court system to the point that P-6 will become unenforceable. On Thursday 23 October 2014, Judge Gilles R. Pelletier of the Municipal Court of the City of Montreal dismissed the cases of twenty-seven self-represented people who had been detained and given P-6 tickets at a demonstration on 21 April 2012. The cases were not dismissed because the judge recognized a violation of the protesters’ rights to assembly, expression, or protest, but because there were simply too many cases for the system to effectively process. Pelletier ended his decision by suggesting that P-6 cases are at risk of bringing the rest of the trials heard by the court to a crawl.

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