Shocking Footage Showing Rioters Rampaging Through Downtown Montreal
There were 5 arrests and significant damage to businesses and public spaces.
Last night we reported about a protest happening across several neighbourhoods in the southern part of Montreal, around Lionel-Groulx Station and on Sainte-Catherine downtown.
The protest was part of a chain of international May Day manifestations that happened today to fight capitalism, class inequality, and labour rights.
According to the SPVM, five arrests were made for "various offences and criminal acts," as well as several cases of mischief.
The SPVM anticipated the protest with the tweet above, then proceded to track the movement of the group as they moved through the city.
Many reporters were on the scene, taking video footage of the countless officers as they attempted to deal with the protestors turned rioters.
It is not entirely clear if the group that was originally at Lionel-Groulx continued into the city, or if there were, in fact, two different groups out around the same time. Regardless, the damage that was done is undeniable.
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The protest was largely under the name of anti-capitalism and as I mentioned above, it is not uncommon for these kinds of demonstrations to happen on the 1st of May.
Other notable cities that saw large protests-turned-riots yesterday or last night include Paris, Seattle, and Berlin.
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There was a fair amount of damage left in the wake of this demonstration, which begs the question: what was the point?
While I am always behind a protest, we have to flex our rights and demonstrations allow us to do just that - flex our freedom of speech and our freedom to peaceably assemble.
So while these anti-capitalists were just flexing their rights, they crossed the line by getting violent and destructive... and I'm left wondering what they accomplished.
The tweet below, sent out by the SPVM, indicates the arrests mentioned above. If there is any more information on the nature of these arrests and their outcome, we will update this space.
That last one is just for fun...
Did you experience any of this chaos last night?