Stockwell Day, Canada’s Public Safety Minister told the opposition  to disappear today. Liberals had asked for a police probe, into the three disappearing protesters at Montebello; the NDP asked for a public inquiry.
Day rejected both parties requests.

“I’ve made the inquiries and there was no RCMP that were involved as far as those three individuals go,” Day told reporters after making a crime-prevention announcement in Winnipeg.

“If people have concerns … there is a complaints process for the RCMP. There is also one for the Surete du Quebec. This incident happened in Quebec, so I imagine people could also file under that complaints process.”

Shortly after he made his public statement the police began to talk. Sort of.

Surete du Quebec:

The Quebec provincial police acknowledged in a statement Thursday that their agents had infiltrated protesters demonstrating during the recent North American leaders summit in Montebello, Que. but denied that they acted as “agent provocateurs” to instigate violence.

“They had the mandate to spot and identify violent demonstrators to avoid the situation from getting out of hand,” the Surete du Quebec said in a statement. “The police officers were identified by demonstrators when they refused to throw projectiles.”

“At no time did the Surete du Quebec police officers act as agents provocateurs or committed criminal acts,” the statement adds.
English translation of full statement

Nothing from the RCMP.
Police admit they put undercover plainscloths officers in crowds.
In cop speak, they infiltrate.
In cop speak, they got identified.

So, the three disappeared were Surete du Quebec officers ‘infiltrating’, but they werent doing any ’agent provocatuer’ stuff when they got caught.

I think the term ’agent provacateur’ has gotten the powers that be a bit tongue-tied.

August 22, 2007

“I confirm (to) you that there are no agents provocateurs in the Surete du Quebec. . . It doesn’t exist in the Surete du Quebec,” said Const. Melanie Larouche.

Stockwell Day may be able to tell MP’s to disappear, however he has suggested Canadians complain to the police.
Those that were present at Montebello have different things to say than the rest of us. 
We can complain about the lack of transparency, the lack of communication, the lie, the behavior of three men who infiltrated.

You can register a complaint regarding the Montebello undercover police at the Quebec Justice Ministry site. The complaint form is .pdf
Fax: 418 646-4449
Phone: (toll free)  1 866 528-1370

For US and international readers:
The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) are Canada’s federal police force. They work in all provinces and territories, and police 8 provinces and 3 territories, as well as municipalities that do not have a local force in those regions.

Ontario and Quebec have their own provincial forces, the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) and the Surete du Quebec (Quebec Provincial Police).

“the diffusion of a video extract on Internet site Youtube.com


6 Responses to “Montebello - bootgate - police admit they were ‘protesters’”

  1. 1 RossK 

    And one of the things I find interesting in the official Surete communique is the suggestion that their non-provocative agents of provocativeness carry projectiles but do not launch them.

    Or some such thing.

    (it’s up at my place with a bad translation).

    .

  2. 2 BD 

    “The police officers were located by the demonstrators at the time when they refused to launch projectiles.”

    Or some such thing.:^)

  3. 3 Dr.Dawg 

    Essentially, the cops are claiming that they were identified by the protesters when they refused to throw their rocks.

    Here’s what’s unclear to me. They were deep in the Green Zone at the time, some distance from the hotel. What rock-throwing was taking place in the vicinity? And if they were there to ensure non-violence, as is now being claimed. why didn’t they arrest the kids throwing the rocks, if throw the rocks they did? Instead they ran away. Does this seem likely?

  4. 4 RossK 

    Dr. Dawg–

    According to David Akin, in his CTV report Wednesday, yes it did take place in the Green Zone. He made a specific point about that to the anchormodel.

    I think that could mean something, don’t you think, about intentions, etc?

    .

  5. 5 Sherm 

    Ha ha ha…

    I shouldn’t laugh, but the fact they were exposed and were so inept is funny.

    What bothers me is that they did appear to try to incite violence by carrying rocks. The protesters were middle-aged, middle-class boomers - they picked the wrong crowd. With only four arrests during the summit, the ‘violence’ that was expected just wasn’t that violent.

    Furthermore - is the Quebec force taking the heat for someone higher up?

    Hurray for YouTube - it is changing democracy.

  6. 6 Bene D 

    If I’m understanding correctly, the Green Zone was supposed to have been the family friendly area, best to ask someone who was there - here is an excellent photo essay blog.

    http://yayacanada.blogspot.com/2007/08/montebello-village-under-seige.html

    There are pictures of people sitting down getting shoved back.

    Dr. Dawg: Police have already lied, they have their way of looking at protests, citizens have theirs. If I’m understanding correctly, summit organizers were not happy the Council of Canadians chose to go to the perimiter fence with the petitions instead of just handing them over, I dont’ have the source for that…

    Sherm, I honestly don’t know, given inter-agency p***ing contests there would be the usual tension, rivalry and territorialism police groups engage in.

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