Thursday, August 23, 2007

So what was the rock for?

Hat tip to Buckdog.

Quebec provincial police admitted Thursday that their officers disguised themselves as demonstrators during the protest at the North American leaders summit in Montebello, Que.

However, the police force denied allegations its undercover officers were there on Monday to provoke the crowd and instigate violence.

"At no time did the police of the Sûreté du Québec act as instigators or commit criminal acts," the police force said in French in a news release. "It is not in the police force's policies, nor in its strategies, to act in that manner."

"At all times, they responded within their mandate to keep order and security."

Police said the undercover officers were only at the protest to locate and identify non-peaceful protesters in order to prevent any incidents.

'I got a rock'

See:

Montebello protesters stop blatant police provocateurs before they can engineer a riot

The Disappeared

6 comments:

RossK said...

Cliff--

Have done a google translation of the official Surete du Quebec release...

the rocks were, apparently, to trick 'em and they also suggest that it was only when they wouldn't throw them that the non-provocateur/provocateurs were unmasked

(which of course is completely at odds with Mr. Coles yelling at them to 'put the rocks down!' over and over and over again.

Surete thing, in both official languages at my place.

RossK

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Cliff said...

Yeah, weak and insulting at the same time. Not a great combo as an explanation.

Mike said...

Coles should press assault charges after the one buddy shoved him...

RossK said...

Good point Mike.

Others, including Canadian Cynic if I remember correctly have been calling for that.

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Here's a crazy flyer, not-really-thought-out-fully-yet, thought*....What if they chose Quebec precisely becuase the QPP is known to be willing to pull this kind of stunt (see Quebec City 2001)?

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*which is precisely what I figure comment threads are for (kinda like playing sloppy drums before recording the track for real).

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Alison said...

'K, as long as we're all sharing demos, here's an idea I left at Ross' place.
At the end of the Nanaimo Canadians YouTube, you can see the police disperse immediately after they pick up their three guys - they just walk away abandoning their line.

What if that police line had been set up for no other reason than to pick up those three provos? That would mean the three were merely in transit to the pick-up when they happened to pass through Coles' watch. Where'd they come from with their rock?

Cliff said...

Or they were waiting for those three to start something so they could mow down that specific line of union representatives and Council of Canadians members...

Regardless, no other violence at Montebello can now be laid at the feet of the protesters without the caveat that the police were caught infiltrating the protesters with guys carrying rocks.

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