Quebec police admit they infiltrated protest

CanWest News Service | August 23, 2007

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.

A spokesperson for the police force refused to further comment on the statement.

Protesters have accused police of planting agents outside the Chateau Montebello to instigate violence during Monday’s demonstration.

A prominent labour official pointed Wednesday to video made available on Youtube and photographs of three burly men, dressed as “Black Bloc” anarchists, standing out in the midst an otherwise peaceful sit-in adjacent to Surete du Quebec and RCMP riot squads.

The video shows the three black-clad bandana-wearing men being singled out by union organizers and the crowd. Other protesters started pointing at them and crying “police.”

One of the three men is seen shoving and swearing at Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers Union of Canada, who is angrily confronting the trio, demanding they put down the rocks, remove their bandanas, and identify themselves.

After being backed into a corner against a line of provincial police officers in riot gear, they try to force themselves through the police line and are arrested while the crowd cheers.

“People have the right to peacefully protest something they don’t like,” said Coles this week, demanding answers from Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Quebec Premier Jean Charest.

“They think that they have the right to infiltrate us as they’ve done before. But to be packing large boulders, they were going to do something with those rocks and it wasn’t peaceful.”