François Legault wants Valérie Plante to get her house in order.
Speaking to reporters in Quebec City on Nov. 26, the premier talked about the violent demonstrations over the previous weekend in Montreal, where fires were started, and Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) officers were assaulted at a joint demonstration in support of Palestine and protesting a visiting NATO parliamentary assembly.
“These thugs, they will be punished, they will be arrested. There will be consequences for what they did, for what they are doing now in Montreal.” After the National Assembly passed a unanimous motion condemning the violence, Legault said it’s time for the mayor of Montreal to deal with demonstrators who set fires, smashed windows, and attacked police officers.
“A lot of Quebecers are appealing to me, but it is not the Quebec government or the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) that remains responsible for the territory of Montreal. It is the City of Montreal, it is the SPVM.”
A visibly frustrated Legault said he spoke with Plante earlier in the day, “and I told her, it’s time to restore order in Montreal, and I offered to send the SQ. There has to be a very clear message sent to these thugs, that they are going to be punished.
“I expect that there will be a lot more than three arrests in the coming days,” Legault said.
Three arrests were made Friday for obstruction, assaulting a police officer and mischief.
Quebec’s public safety minister François Bonnardel told French-language television the number of arrests will rise, among “rioters and anarchists” who participated, and reiterated what the SPVM has said for more than a year, that arrests are typically more easily made after an incident rather than in the midst of chaos, which could inflame a situation.
That strategy in particular has angered many Montrealers, who have noted that the dissuasive effect of a robust police response during incidents has been all but invisible over the last year.
On the weekend, SPVM chief Fady Dagher said he’s also confident more arrests will be made, and that the groups responsible for the chaos are very well known to Montreal police, who will be going over abundant surveillance camera footage over the next days and weeks.
Also on Tuesday, Bonnardel—along with Westmount-Saint-Louis MNA Jennifer Maccarone and three other opposition —introduced a motion, affirming that the National Assembly strongly condemn the violent acts and antisemitic acts that took place during the demonstrations of Nov. 21 and 22 in Montreal; condemn any attack targeting the Jewish community; condemn “any form of support for Hamas”; and recalls the right to demonstrate freely and peacefully.
“Finally, that it reiterates, as unanimously stated on Oct. 3, 2024, that the National Assembly does not condone civil disobedience.” The motion passed 103 to 0.
On Friday night, just a few hours after police restored order, Montreal Opposition Leader Aref Salem said “Like many, I feel bad for my city tonight. These intolerable acts serve no cause. The right to protest does not justify chaos. For its part, the Plante administration’s silence resonates, aggravating Montreal’s wounds.”
Plante posted on social media on Nov. 23, that “the outbursts of last night’s demonstration are shocking and have no place in a peaceful metropolis like Montreal. Neither chaos, violence or mayhem against shopkeepers are tolerated and I thank the SPVM who made several arrests yesterday.”
Then on Monday, the mayor tried to quell some of the growing criticisms of her management of the city’s unrest for more than a year, saying, “Antisemitic gestures, destruction, violence and brutality against the police or fellow citizens have no place. It’s not how to express yourself.”
She says, “shameless thugs” broke windows, set cars on fire and wreaked havoc, adding, “it’s the last thing we want to see, and the last thing we want in a city like Montreal,” before praising the SPVM and their high level of training and skills in crowd control and handling rowdy demonstrations. “I am proud of the police we have here in Montreal,” she said. “And the work will continue.”
Plante said that over several months, she has read comments “and received messages from families, from communities, Arab-Muslim, but also from the Jewish community, and I think we must reiterate, as I have always done, that acts and words we heard during the weekend that were clearly antisemitic have no place in Montreal.”
Plante’s comments also came two days after Rabbi Adam Scheier of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, who was standing silently filming a demonstration downtown as he drank coffee from the Second Cup—as a show of support for the coffee chain, which quickly cut ties with a Jewish General Hospital franchisee due to her antisemitic expressions amid a prior protest—was asked by police to leave the area for fear that the presence of a kippah-wearer would incite demonstrators.
The right to demonstrate is a constitutional right, Plante affirmed, “but not to the detriment of a community that is made to feel that they do not belong.”
Rioters, she said, were there to provoke. “They are known to police… and the demonstration was no longer about housing, the economy or support for Palestine.” They exploited the situation, she said, infiltrating a demonstration “where there were citizens, parents with strollers and children. These were professionals… and they stole the demonstration from people who came out of conviction and did so peacefully.”
