Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante apologized on Twitter Tuesday morning for the wrongs suffered by people arrested en masse by the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) in the past decade. The same morning, representatives of the collective actions won in February against the City had made the express request at a press conference.

“The right to demonstrate is fundamental and we will always defend it, assured the mayor of Montreal Valérie Plante Tuesday noon on Twitter. This is why I reiterate the apologies of the City of Montreal to the people who demonstrated in 2012 and whose rights were violated by the old P6 by-law, repealed by our [administration]. »

A more “sincere” public apology had been demanded that morning by class action representatives against the City of Montreal at a press conference held at the University of Quebec in Montreal.

“We don’t want excuses on the cheap,” said Sandrine Ricci, representative of one of the 16 class actions that won their case against the City of Montreal by an amicable agreement on February 22.

She demanded a more “sincere” public apology than the one attached on the City of Montreal’s website, in a hard-to-find one-paragraph statement.

The municipal administration reiterated to La Presse its recognition of the right to demonstrate. “[This right] is fundamental and our administration has always been committed to defending the freedom and safety of citizens who express their point of view,” the mayor’s office was told.

The P6 regulation, which notably obliged demonstrators to provide their itinerary and prevented them from covering their faces (adopted by the administration of Gérald Tremblay), has moreover been repealed by the Plante administration, we remind the firm.

“That evening, it was among other things my right to safety and my right to integrity that were violated, but also our right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and association, which been bullied,” Isabel Matton testified Tuesday. On May 20, 2012, the then daycare educator participated in a nighttime demonstration at the corner of Sherbrooke and Saint-Denis streets in Montreal.

The demonstration took place within the framework of the maple spring in opposition to the increase in tuition fees, but also to the new special law 78 of the Charest government, adopted two days earlier. This controversial law limited, among other things, the right to demonstrate.

Speaking to the media, Ms. Matton said she is still living with the after-effects of the unlawful arrest she suffered that evening: “I feared for my safety. I was blinded by cayenne pepper, I breathed tear gas for the first time, I heard a sound bomb explode right next to me. I was scared. […] I received shield blows, while I cried, in tears, to the police to stop hurting me, ”she describes.

“We were detained for hours, overnight, without access to water, toilets, food, while the police taunted us, threatened some of them to give us a ticket if they urinated on the public road, she continues. We were told that we deserved how we were treated. »

Today, she still has nightmares. “I was afraid to go out to protest. I’m still afraid to protest,” she said.

The six representatives of various class actions decided to speak on Tuesday, because they believe that the City of Montreal must also state what it plans to do to ensure that the SPVM changes its practices.

Remember that under the agreement signed in February, nearly 3,200 people will share $6 million, or compensation of approximately $1,500 per person.

Beyond the financial amount, it is the symbolic significance of this legal victory that matters, explain several representatives gathered at UQAM.

“The purpose of the class action was not to reduce our fundamental rights to a sum of money, but to bring the City to fully assume the consequences of its undemocratic management of the demonstrations. Apologies only make sense if they are clearly, explicitly and publicly expressed and owned,” they said in a press release.

Representatives referenced the 2017 public apology by former Montreal mayor Denis Coderre regarding police roundups of LGBTQ communities, from 1960 to 1990.