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Protesting Police Brutality in Montreal

From the FLQ crisis in the 60s to the student marches of 2012 the people of Quebec have a long history of social uprising and civic dissent.

If there's one thing Montrealers love as much as hockey and gravy-covered cheese-fries, it's protesting. From the FLQ crisis in the 60s to the student marches of 2012 the people of Quebec have a long history of social uprising and civic dissent. But amongst all the free-tuition pot-clanging and hockey playoff rioting, one particular annual protest has the Montreal Police (also known as the SPVM) on high alert.

Montreal's Anti-Police Brutality March was started in 1997 and has since spread to Switzerland, Germany, England, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Nigeria, the US and Mexico where every March people take to the streets to protest police brutality and oppression. In Montreal this usually means a few windows broken, vandalised news vans, and a lot of unhappy law enforcement in riot gear. Ever since Quebec's controversial P6 bylaw was enacted in 2012, the cops—armed with new unrestricted powers, controversial tactics, and larger budgets—have been selectively cracking down on protests, this one in particular. We decided to visit this year's event to find out what exactly goes down.

@lindsrempel