Globe Editorial, 24/08/07, Blown cover
Post
In years past, it would have been dismissed as the sort of conspiracy theory that professional protesters are fond of. But this is the YouTube era. And courtesy of a video posted on that website this week, claims that police sent agents provocateurs into protests at the North American summit at Montebello, Que., turned out not to be so fanciful after all.
In the video, three young men are seen conversing with unionists in front of a police line. While most of the demonstrators are casually dressed, the three interlopers are clad as "Black Bloc" anarchists, complete with black bandanas serving as masks. One is carrying a rock.
When union leader Dave Coles implores them to drop the rock and take off their masks, they refuse; when accused of being police officers, they don't deny it. As the other demonstrators grow irate, the three men sheepishly amble into a police line and are handcuffed.
Curiously, there was no record of their arrests. No other protesters knew who they were. And the three men were wearing the same boots as the police officers.
Having initially brushed off questions about the incident, the Sûreté du Québec finally acknowledged yesterday evening that the three men were officers. But it denied they were there to provoke, insisting they had "the mandate to spot and identify violent demonstrators to avoid the situation from getting out of hand."
If the Sûreté is telling the truth, its ineptness was staggering. Sending agents posing as violent anarchists into a crowd of middle-aged unionists seems straight out of a film parody of police tactics.
But could the force really have been so comically inept? Or were the infiltrators there, as Mr. Coles has alleged, to stir up trouble so police could move in?
Neither scenario is appealing. But if it is the latter, this is a scandal on the level of the Mounties' pepper-spraying of protesters at the 1997 APEC summit. And given that the RCMP was working alongside the Sûreté at Montebello, it must also be asked whether it was complicit in this plan.
Whatever the strategy, the summit will be remembered for police behaving badly while demonstrators remained peaceful. Now, a full investigation is needed to determine just how bad this really was.
In the video, three young men are seen conversing with unionists in front of a police line. While most of the demonstrators are casually dressed, the three interlopers are clad as "Black Bloc" anarchists, complete with black bandanas serving as masks. One is carrying a rock.
When union leader Dave Coles implores them to drop the rock and take off their masks, they refuse; when accused of being police officers, they don't deny it. As the other demonstrators grow irate, the three men sheepishly amble into a police line and are handcuffed.
Curiously, there was no record of their arrests. No other protesters knew who they were. And the three men were wearing the same boots as the police officers.
Having initially brushed off questions about the incident, the Sûreté du Québec finally acknowledged yesterday evening that the three men were officers. But it denied they were there to provoke, insisting they had "the mandate to spot and identify violent demonstrators to avoid the situation from getting out of hand."
If the Sûreté is telling the truth, its ineptness was staggering. Sending agents posing as violent anarchists into a crowd of middle-aged unionists seems straight out of a film parody of police tactics.
But could the force really have been so comically inept? Or were the infiltrators there, as Mr. Coles has alleged, to stir up trouble so police could move in?
Neither scenario is appealing. But if it is the latter, this is a scandal on the level of the Mounties' pepper-spraying of protesters at the 1997 APEC summit. And given that the RCMP was working alongside the Sûreté at Montebello, it must also be asked whether it was complicit in this plan.
Whatever the strategy, the summit will be remembered for police behaving badly while demonstrators remained peaceful. Now, a full investigation is needed to determine just how bad this really was.
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