Panda Suit-Wearing Philosopher Defeats Montreal’s Anti-Protest Law in Court Rumble

A municipal bylaw that prevented Montreal protesters from wearing any kind of face coverings has been struck down by a Quebec superior court after its constitutionality was challenged by an anarchist panda.

The controversial provision, which also required protest organizers to provide police with a detailed itinerary, was put in place in the summer of 2012 in the midst of explosive student protests against tuition fee hikes.

At the height of the unrest, protesters and police in riot gear squared off in confrontations caused by and/or leading to violence, vandalism, and mass arrests. Montreal City Council's response,bylaw P6,was widely criticized for giving police too much power all the while restricting protesters' civil liberties.

"I have a lot of respect for the police who must assure security of the people," said then-interim mayor Michael Applebaum, who is now in court facing unrelated fraud and conspiracy charges, but that's another kettle of fish.

However, it was the topic of kettling—the coercive crowd-containment method—along with other repressive police tactics that drove Montreal philosophy professor Julien Villeneuve (aka Anarchopanda) to join the fight.

"I was for the cause, and I was participating in some of the protests before," Villeneuve told VICE. "But for me it's when actual physical violence started happening, when students were wounded and a student lost an eye, that's when I became more directly involved."

Villeneuve initially donned a panda suit in an effort to calm the tensions between protesters and police. "The costume was part of a tactic to try to act on the police at that time, to help make the protests a bit more safe for students," he said.

The getup turned him into the movement's de facto mascot, a role Villeneuve took a step further when he launched his legal challenge of P6 in June 2012.

Today's court decision, which ruled that the ban on masks and face coverings was excessive, arbitrary, and an affront to freedom of expression, is largely Anarchopanda's victory.

The court also partially dismantled the clause forcing protesters to provide police with a map of their travels, acknowledging that some protests could be spontaneous. This part of the decision is a compromise Villeneuve is anxious to see play out on the streets.

"I still think protests should not be repressed until they're riots," he said. "If people commit criminal acts, I can't blame the police, I can't fault the police for trying to arrest them."

Class action lawsuits related to the protests are still in court, and Villeneuve is optimistic they will also play out in the protesters' favour. "It's part of a lot of other [cases], we've been winning a lot in the couple of years," he said. "I hope there's a growing consciousness in the City of Montreal and maybe at the SPVM that their strategy is not working, might cost them a lot of money, and involves a lot of waste of resources that might be better put elsewhere."

Villeneuve says he will continue to stand up for protesters' rights. "People [who don't protest often] need to understand that being charged by police, being injured, being kettled for a long time wo access to water or to toilets, being handcuffed, that's one part of repression. But then you have to defend yourself and that requires a lot of time a lot of energy a lot of money, often and that's also part of repression because all the energy you spend on that is energy you don't have for other aspects of your life including activism."

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