Montreal Police Shoots Protester With A Chemical Powder At Point-Blank Range (VIDEO)

The Huffington Post Canada, with files from the Canadian Press  |  Posted: 04/20/2012 5:42 pm Updated: 04/21/2012 2:51 pm

Montreal Police Shoot Protester Point Blank
Video footage posted online shows a protester being shot by a Montreal police officer with chemical irritant.

Footage of Montreal Police shooting a protester with chemical irritants at point-blank range, was posted online on Friday.

YouTube user Cunegonde Dufromage posted that the video was filmed at the Montreal Congress Centre, the site of today's protest.

The protests were aimed at Premier Jean Charest who was speaking at the Congress Centre. His speech was delayed by the demonstrations.

According to reports, the protest became violent, with objects being thrown and students making their way into the building before being forced out by police.

The Canadian Press describes the events:


While some protesters hurled objects and built barricades in the street with construction materials they'd found, police fought them off — at one point firing chemical irritants right into one young man at nearly point-blank range.

According to reports, a number of police officers and protesters were injured and arrests were also made.

Although mostly peaceful, a number of violent incidents have marred the long-running student protests in Quebec. Earlier this week things turned violent, with incidents of broken windows and a police officer being hurt. More disturbingly, Molotov cocktails were thrown at the offices of four ministers this week. Premier Jean Charest brought up these incidents when he spoke about the protests.

"I've had ministers' offices ransacked. We've had ministers who have had tanks of gas put on the grounds of their homes. Molotov cocktails in front of their offices. Death threats.

"And they refuse to condemn violence? In 2012, in Quebec? That's unacceptable," he said.

Correction: An earlier version of the story said the protester was fired at with a tear-gas canister, this has been corrected to indicate it was chemical power irritant.

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Footage of Montreal Police shooting a protester with chemical irritants at point-blank range, was posted online on Friday. YouTube user Cunegonde Dufromage posted that the video was filmed at the ...
Footage of Montreal Police shooting a protester with chemical irritants at point-blank range, was posted online on Friday. YouTube user Cunegonde Dufromage posted that the video was filmed at the ...
 
 
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12:39 PM on 04/22/2012
I'm so fed up of having my commute disrupted because of these spoiled brats!! Seriously! It's $300!! That just means they won't be able to afford their daily $5 coffees, restaurant meals and their smartphones! Get a notebook (you know, the type you need a PEN to use) instead of an expensive laptop for note taking. They could save even more by shopping at second-hand shops for clothing instead of all those teen-geared fashion stores. Oh, and they could forego their springbreak holiday getaways! We all found it odd that Montreal was so quiet during spring-break, no protests, no riots...not a peep for a week! Where were they all?
These kids are so used to manipulating their parents with their tantrums that they expect the government to bow to their demands instead of growing up and taking responsibility for what they think is important! You want something? WORK...at a job, not wasting your time and ruining your immediate future and the future of other students who actually have their acts together! Save your money instead of partying every week and wasting your college funds on WANTS instead of NEEDS!!! FOCUS is the key to success...focus your energy on your education not following a few disorganized, lawyer-wannabes.
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Kristopher Leang
training to take down the elite
04:53 PM on 04/22/2012
we can all see by your 0 fans, your ignorant assumptions (i am a student and hate coffee), havent been to a restaurant in who knows when and i also have a crappy old samsung phone. i havent been clothes shopping in 3 years.

maybe they were back visiting their family during their springbreak? like about 60% of students do at my university in Ottawa. you couldn't figure that out all on your own?

i can see by your sporadic rant you have some expertise in FOCUSING.. you got owned, by a lazy student who loves coffee and and goes spring break partying and throws tantrums apparently.. your a joke.
10:39 AM on 04/22/2012
So the kid tried to enter by force and got sprayed with pepper spray; this is not at all the same as the past stories from the U.S. that this article/video is obviously trying to draw parallels to.

I'm no fan of cops, but if you don't want a beat-down, don't be a stupid punk.
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Charismatron
03:25 AM on 04/22/2012
The cop was not being personally threatened or intimidated. His use of violence is uncalled for. The Police are present to serve and protect, to bring unstable situations under control--not agitate by producing violence and causing harm.

There's a justice system in place for dealing with illegal activity. The Police bring people to justice, they do not dispense it in the form of unwarranted violence.
10:40 AM on 04/22/2012
Forced entry is a form of violence.
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Kristopher Leang
training to take down the elite
04:54 PM on 04/22/2012
forced entry?? through those unlocked doors.
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Charismatron
02:23 AM on 04/26/2012
In that case, so is tearing open a sealed envelope.
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Mike vdB
Get involved, always question, don't just exist.
08:53 PM on 04/21/2012
No pity for him. There is a difference between peaceful protesting and being an agitator.
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Charismatron
03:26 AM on 04/22/2012
What was the protester doing that disqualifies him as 'peaceful', exactly, since you seem to have been there and quite familiar with the situation?
08:11 PM on 04/21/2012
These "STUDENTS" rioting at a school....listen, I don't kick myself in the nuts when I'm mad at my neighbor!
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Charismatron
03:28 AM on 04/22/2012
Why quote the word 'students'? Do you think these are homeless, unemployed paid faux activists bused in by foreign agents and not actual students?
04:11 PM on 04/22/2012
I put " " around students with good reason. I've watched interviews online and television and read almost every online newspaper. With all that info it seems obvious that "most" have moved past the point of openess or will to learn or apply what they"ve learned. I even heard a quote from one of their "leaders" saying"they cant stop us because of the law". I think they need to sit back regroup and learn where they went wrong...maybe we're both right here but I have a 15yr old and would have cautioned him long ago.
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Manu1
06:46 PM on 04/21/2012
This person was a protester, and he has the RIGHT to protest, are we in DEMOCRACY OR NOT? He was NOT threatening and in fact we can see CLEARLY that he was backing off... Is Quebec turning into a dictatorship or WHAT????
06:55 AM on 04/22/2012
No, we are not in a democracy, we have to give up our democratic rights in order for our financial system to operate well. We have to keep feeding the top 1% of the population.
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06:43 PM on 04/21/2012
So, should the officer have let the student enter the building or confronted him physically? Doing so would have resulted in a greater confrontation with a greater number of students causing greater damage and injury to all involved. Instead, the individual attempting to trespass was deterred at the point of entry and other potential trespassers were forewarned what similar actions would be confronted with. I fail to see the error on the part of the police in this situations, especially as they had already physically removed and arrested a number of protestors who were illegally trespassing.
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Charismatron
03:32 AM on 04/22/2012
What you fail to see are the options before the Police in this instance or is it your opinion they have one option which is to simply attack? The officers could have resorted to the use of physical violence as a last resort. Before that, they could have accosted the protester in any variety of ways--they are trained professionals, not idiots.

But, these days, it's become expected that the Police will deliver order through force, as your post clearly implies.
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06:57 AM on 04/22/2012
Mmmm...I fail to see how they could have confronted a crowd of people without putting their lives in danger. In a mob, if an officer had stepped out from inside the building they would have been vastly outnumbered. One rock and the cop is down and swarmed. Hell it wouldn't take the rock. Cop steps out from building, confronts individual and rest of crowd swarms doors. IF the cops were to come out of the building in force, they would provoke the crowd. This kid is provoking the cops.

The video does not show the context of the situation. These individuals were removed from the premises and told to leave. The person in question is testing the mettle of the officers inside the building and their seriousness about their efforts to keep individuals out of the building. He found out.

ACtually police are less brutal now than they were in the past. They use rubber bullets now. I think the agressiveness of protests has also increased over increasingly nbulous causes.

When blacks sat in the streets, or marched to protest for civil rights in the south in the 1960s they were fighting for freedom from oppression. The response from the police was heavy handed, often resulting in death, but they were fighting for freedom.

These kids are breaking into malls and disrupting civil society in all forms, including the classes of their peers because they want to continue to pay an abnormally low rate for education, one that is proportionally
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Kristopher Leang
training to take down the elite
04:59 PM on 04/22/2012
charismatron's post clearly demonstrations how your argument sums up the sheeple accept force as the norm mentality. thanks for proving a point.
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09:43 PM on 04/22/2012
No. Sorry. But sometimes detterent is required for the safety of all involved. If you read my post above, any other action taken in this case would have resulted in more damage or arrests as the police would have responded to provocation with provocation and the police would have lost control. The TRUE sheeple are incorrect to assume that force should never be used and forget that the flock of humanity needs to be tended.

Just because we believe in something, it does not advance our rights above the rights of others. If you believe in the charter, you would recognize this.
06:09 PM on 04/21/2012
I don't think he should have got popped in the face like that esp at such close range. I was understanding and even supportive of the students at first but now they're just resorting to violence and their msg is getting lost. Also, i think many of the activists are not students, just there to be part of a protest, and sadly that takes away from what the students are trying to say. Same thing happed at the g20, the anarchists got involved and the msg got lost.
05:58 PM on 04/21/2012
HAHAHA what a bunch of losers, can we hold another referendum but this time the rest of Canada gets to vote to kick Quebec out?!!
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Manu1
06:42 PM on 04/21/2012
It feel so good as a neo-Quebecer and neo-Canadian to be part of the same great country and to learn that I'm such a loser... Thank you for showing me how the ROC is a much morally superior part of the country than my own.... Love you too!
10:42 AM on 04/22/2012
Glad you've learned that much at least. Welcome to Canada.
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turkeylurky
Just keepin it real........
05:21 PM on 04/21/2012
Students have a right to demand ever more taxpayer money and if the Government doesn't "listen", then students, and others who take more than they give, have the right to turn violent and destroy public property.
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Doogs62
To see by faith is to shut the eye of reason
05:30 PM on 04/21/2012
Just as they have the right to be forced out of school because they can't afford the tuition for their final year. Also since when did students get taxpayer money "gratis". I'm still paying off my so-called taxpayer money and the interest that they are collecting on it. Of course I'm sure you would prefer the young are raised to be ignorant and ill-informed, it will make your neo-conservative propaganda that much easier to force down their throats.
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turkeylurky
Just keepin it real........
05:38 PM on 04/21/2012
Au contrare, mon ami.
I, my kids, and my wife, all have undergraduate and graduate degrees.
06:12 PM on 04/21/2012
the students could do what i did, go to work, save the money and then go back part time. having a piece of paper from a university doesn't make you smart, and it doesn't make you more employable. it's a myth that we all need a university degree to get a job.
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04:31 PM on 04/21/2012
They used non-lethal force, to protect the congress centre and those within it. Obviously the police were barricading themselves within the doors (woman holding literature on the window, multiple police officers visible past the doors), and this man chose to cross the line. Police were absolutely in the right. At least someone captured this on video so we can all enjoy.

Don't worry about him, he will live to keep on with his anti-social behavior in the future.
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Charismatron
03:37 AM on 04/22/2012
People who fought similar battles in the past are why you have an enjoyable life today.
His anti-social behaviour today is increases someone's chances of receiving a higher education tomorrow.
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04:21 AM on 04/22/2012
How can you sit there with a straight face and dare to compare the civil rights sit ins, coal miners strikes, and women's suffrage movements. Those are some real heroes that deserve more veneration nowadays. Compare that to what theses wannabees and clowns are trying to protest.

All this hullabaloo over 300 dollars? On an already over subsidized tuition? The cheapest in the Country? Please, give me your problems! No one will be denied an education because of it. Are these people going to require spoon feeding all there lives? How petty can they get.
04:01 PM on 04/21/2012
As 1984 by George Orwell describes: There is the high, middle, and low class. The middle class seeks power and uses the low class to usurp power from the high class. The middle class becomes the high class and the low class remains the same.
03:38 PM on 04/21/2012
"More disturbingly, Molotov cocktails were thrown at the offices of four ministers this week."

You've got a ways to go to disturb me.
02:08 PM on 04/21/2012
People aren't happy. That's all there is to it. This isn't an isolated event, it's happening all over Canada and the world. People are fed up with corruption and injustice, and since peaceful protest has proven even on massive scales (Occupy movement, G8/G20), to be not only ignored, but met with police brutality, violent protest or even revolt is quickly become the only avenue we have left to save ourselves from oppression.

Those of you who disregard and discredit those who are out there fighting for our rights and freedoms are just as bad as the police and politicians. One day you're going to wake up realize what you had a hand in, and you'll deserve to live in the world you helped create. I only regret that I'll have to live with your choices, too.
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Thalin Lea
02:38 PM on 04/21/2012
I strongly agree .
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yishai ettebe
02:41 PM on 04/21/2012
Police brutality happens, when protests don't listen. Police tell people not to cross the line and people cross it.

If you want oppression, go to North Korea. Now you will understand the true meaning of oppression.
03:56 PM on 04/21/2012
Protest violence happens when the government doesn't listen. The people tell the government to not to cross a certain line, and the government crosses it.

Using the argument that people shouldn't push back against oppression in Canada because North Korea is so much worse makes about as much sense as telling robbery victims not to press charges because at least they weren't stabbed.
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Charismatron
03:38 AM on 04/22/2012
Citing North Korea is accepting the oppression at home on the condition its worse someplace else. It's a fool's errand.
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Colin Speth
A Claymore for your thoughts
11:38 AM on 04/21/2012
Does anyone have a gif made of this yet? I'd enjoy watching this on an endless loop.
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JPalka
05:29 PM on 04/21/2012
Just go to several protests in a row, try to "cross the line" next to that police that holds the canister. Remember, go back.