Sunday, July 01, 2018

La Meute Protest in Montreal

I'll update as information becomes available.




















Evidence of this can be found on a post by the leader of La Meute on their public Facebook page:






The anti-fascists appear to be having some fun:




As of 4:30 pm (Eastern Time), La Meute and their allies appear to be slinking away.




Finally....



And with that I'm going out to enjoy some bbq and a good book.


UPDATE: This is a report from one of the people who participated in the counter-protest that prevented La Meute and the other hate groups from moving beyond the block they were trapped in.
Anti-immigrant racist group fails to demonstrate on the streets of Montreal 
Anti-racists, chanting "Refugees Welcome!", succeed in blocking La Meute 
July 1st, 2018, Montreal -- This is a personal report-back from today's successful anti-racist mobilization against the anti-immigrant, xenophobic group La Meute. The Islamophobic racists attempted to demonstrate in Montreal today along with their allies, the Storm Alliance, and a relatively new far-right group called Independence Day (led by the former head of Quebec's Ku Klux Klan, lest there be any doubt about the political affinities of these racists). 
The La Meute leadership promised weeks ago that today's demonstration would be their largest and best yet. In their words: "Nous croyons que ce sera la meilleure manif de notre histoire (We believe this will be the best demonstration in our history)." 
La Meute failed. 
Only about 150 of their members were able to mobilize from all over the province to Quebec's major metropolis, Montreal, on a holiday Sunday. They were not able to march anywhere on Montreal's streets, as they intended. They were forced, instead, to spend hours baking in the sun, or hiding in the shade, pinned in on St-Antoine Street West, between de la Cathédrale and Peel, in front of the federal Immigration Canada offices. 
Their (by all appearances) "whites-only" demo was surrounded by riot police and, on either side of St-Antoine Street, a total of more than 200 anti-racists held both sides of the streets, defiant, and refusing to allow any attempt by La Meute to march. 
Essentially, the self-described "best demo in our history" involved La Meute members stuck behind police lines, limited to one block for three hours until they dispersed under police escort. Some of their buses were apparently also vandalized. One attempt by La Meute security to get by police lines and try to take the streets was met by chants, an anti-racist smoke grenade, and some well-aimed projectiles. La Meute members were forced to retreat. They never tried to take the streets again. 
While La Meute were going through industrial quantities of sunscreen and grudgingly listening to chants in support of migrants, refugees and Muslims, members of Solidarity Across Borders had earlier in the day finished a Border Caravan at the Roxham Road crossing, building solidarity with migrants at the border regions, and also leaving signs encouraging irregular migration at the border (photos here: www.facebook.com/CiteSansFrontieres/posts/1726697020718284). 
The Citizenship and Immigration Offices on St-Antoine Street has also been the site of countless demonstrations by the migrant justice movement in Montreal for two decades, ranging from pickets, vigils, protests and occupations by a multitude of groups opposing deportations and detentions and calling for Open Borders, Status For All, and a Solidarity City. Unlike the delusions of La Meute, Immigration Canada actually serves to limit and prevent migration, and deserves to be opposed for that reason. 
All in all, today was a satisfying, meaningful mobilization by anti-racists in Montreal. There are clearly many challenges in the long term struggle to decisively defeat the xenophobic, racist, far-right in Quebec, but today racists were blocked from marching on Montreal's streets, despite their close collaboration with cops. 
-- Jaggi Singh (personal report)
- For background and info about anti-fascist organizing in Montreal, including context about far-right, anti-immigrant groups like La Meute, visit Montreal Antifasciste: 
web: https://montreal-antifasciste.info/
fb: www.facebook.com/MontrealAntifasciste/ 
- For more info on migrant justice organizing in Montreal, and ongoing organizing against deportations and detentions, and for Open Borders, Status For All and a Solidarity City, visit Solidarity Across Borders: 
web: www.solidarityacrossborders.org
fb: www.facebook.com/CiteSansFrontieres/



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