The annual Demonstration Against Police Brutality, held every March 15th since 1997, has traditionally been organized by the Collectif opposé à la brutalité policière (COBP), but is now the initiative of the Collectif 15 mars. This year’s annual demonstration takes place on March 15th 2024, at Beaudry Metro Station, in so-called “Montréal” (Tiohtià:ke), at 5 p.m.
The Collectif 15 mars recognizes that so-called “Canada” is an unceded indigenous territory and a meeting place for several indigenous nations and different peoples, including the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation which is the caregiver of the lands and waters on which the Collectif 15 mars organize.
The Collectif 15 mars is an autonomous group of activists from diverse backgrounds, united by a central position: opposition to police intervention – brutal or otherwise. The collective opposes racial, social and political profiling. The collective calls for an end to police stop-and-search, mixed squads (social workers and police officers) and the presence of private security agencies in the public space.
The annual March 15 demonstration stems from the International Day Against Police Brutality (JICBP), launched on March 15, 1997, jointly by the COBP and the Black Flag Collective (Switzerland), following the “beating of two young people aged 11 and 12 in Switzerland the previous year” (1). The Collectif 15 mars recognizes the COBP’s historic contribution to the JICBP and to the legal defense of many people in the courts, but has no connection with the COBP.
The Collectif 15 mars believes that it is necessary to perpetuate the militant tradition of the annual Manifestation against police brutality. To do so, it wants to reach out to more communities and create links with various organizations. It’s goal is to reinvent, even reorient this militant tradition.
The area around Beaudry Metro Station is particularly targeted by police presence and mixed squads. There are issues of “social cohabitation”, where privileged classes are disturbed by those who frequent the public space. “Social cohabitation” is associated with issues of cohabitation between the unhoused and the housed people (2). In reality, these are social inequalities engendered by capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy and housing crises. The solution is not police intervention, mixed squads or private security agencies.
CALL FOR SOLIDARITY
The Collectif 15 mars supports the Ligue des droits et libertés (LDL) in its campaign to ban police street checks in so-called “Quebec”. As the LDL points out, police stops violate the rights and freedoms protected by the charters of so-called “Quebec” and so-called “Canada”. Police officers do not have the power to carry out stops in so-called “Quebec”. There is no evidence that police stops are necessary to ensure public safety. The Collectif 15 mars believes that police stops, which are aimed more towards Black, Indigenous, and people of color, people experiencing homelessness, people struggling with mental health issues, sex workers and drug users, must end (3).
The Collectif 15 mars supports the Coalition pour le définancement de la police, representing 80 community groups and activists, which proposes reinvesting the police budget in community services (4). Not only is this approach necessary, but it is also a position supported by many scientists. There is now a consensus that the police funding model needs to be rethought (5).
The Collectif 15 mars supports the Réseau d’aide aux personnes seules et itinérantes de Montréal (RAPSIM), the largest regional homelessness coalition in Quebec, which maintains that mixed squads, including the Équipe mobile de médiation et d’intervention sociale (ÉMMIS), are detrimental to public safety (6).
The Collectif 15 mars is opposed to the increase granted to the SPVM in the City of Montreal’s municipal budget for 2024, which represents $33.8 million (totaling $634 million given to the SPVM). The largest percentage of the City of Montreal’s Budget 2024 and PDI 2024-2033 (18.3%) is earmarked for “urban security” issues (7). Thanks to this abusive increase, the SPVM plans to hire 225 additional police officers in 2024 (8).
The Collectif 15 mars opposes the arming of special constables at the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), which legitimizes the use of weapons and repressive tools to “defuse the behavior of people in crisis”. Last September, the STM authorized its constables, already equipped with telescopic batons, to use pepper spray gel. In 2022, the company recorded 322 interventions where “the use of force was necessary”, including nine uses of the telescopic baton (9).
The Collectif 15 mars is opposed to the ÉMMIS brigade, which in 2023 received an envelope of $50 million, spread over five years and financed equally by the Ville de Montréal and the government of so-called “Quebec”. Of this amount, ÉMMIS will receive $10 million in 2024 (10). Supported by the Société de développement social de Ville-Marie, the broker behind several mixed squads, ÉMMIS is increasingly taking the place of the SPVM, attempting to alleviate the overload of calls relating to “social cohabitation” issues. The ÉMMIS, wrongly presented as an alternative to mixed squads and police intervention, was set up and operated thanks to the collaboration and support of the SPVM (11). Few, if any, community organizations are governed as such. The Collectif 15 mars is opposed to the deployment of the ÉMMIS in the various boroughs of the metropolis of so-called “Quebec”.
The Collectif 15 mars recognizes the knowledge and experience of street workers, who are better suited to develop a relationship of trust and support with people in public spaces. The Collectif 15 mars demands that the budget envelope earmarked for the ÉMMIS be transferred to them.
The Collectif 15 mars supports the Nous ne serons pas sages coalition, including the Pink Bloc, TRAPs, Queer McGill and the Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ), which is mobilizing against the Comité de sages of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) (12).
The Collectif 15 mars stands in solidarity with all 2SLGBTQIA+ people, including trans, non-binary and two-spirited people, all community members who are undocumented or have precarious status, all Black, Indigenous & people of color and all unhoused people, who are increasingly repressed, questioned, arrested and prosecuted.
No to funding of the police and the mixed squads ! No to the presence of private security agencies in public spaces ! No to police stops and over-solicitation of people in public spaces !
See the March 15th 2024 signatories
- Collectif opposé à la brutalité policière, Bilan de 15 manifs le 15 mars à Montréal pour la Journée internationale contre la brutalité policière, https://cobp.resist.ca/sites/cobp.resist.ca/files/15x15_mars_brochure.pdf
- Table de quartier et corporation de développement communautaire du Plateau-Mont-Royal, Savez-vous c’est qu’est la cohabitation sociale, https://www.instagram.com/p/CtzYpDLvnOo/
- Ligue des droits et libertés, Déclaration à signer – Pour l’interdiction des interpellations policières (street check) au Québec, https://liguedesdroits.ca/declaration-interdiction-interpellations-quebec/
- Defund the police, Vision et demandes, https://defundlapolice.com/fr/vision-demandes
- L’Institut de recherche et d’informations socioéconomiques, Réinventer le financement de la police au Québec, https://iris-recherche.qc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Budgetisation-de-la-policeV7.pdf
- Réseau d’aide aux personnes seules et itinérantes de Montréal (RAPSIM), Innovation ou extension de la répression ? Perspectives des intervenantes sur les escouades mixtes à Montréal, https://rapsim.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/rapport-sur-les-escouades-mixtes-20-sept-2023.pdf
- Ville de Montréal, Budget 2024 et PDI 2024-2033 de Montréal, https://montreal.ca/articles/budget-2024-etpdi-2024-2033-de-montreal-59532
- Le Devoir, Plus de policiers et moins d’heures supplémentaires en vue au SPVM, https://www.ledevoir.com/politique/montreal/801999/budget-spvm-continue-augmenter
- Radio-Canada, Les constables spéciaux de la STM seront munis de poivre de Cayenne en gel, https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2013960/constable-speciale-metro-stm-poivre-cayenne-intervention-prevention
- Radio-Canada, L’équipe de médiation sociale EMMIS poursuivra sur sa lancée à Montréal, https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1956047/emmis-equipe-prevention-sociale-ville-montreal-budget-subvention ; Ville de Montréal, Budget 2024 et PDI 2024-2033 de Montréal, https://portail-m4s.s3.montreal.ca/pdf/budget_2024_faits_saillants_web.pdf
- Société de développement social, [Communiqué] La Ville de Montréal bonifie l’Équipe mobile de médiation et d’intervention sociale (ÉMMIS), https://sds.social/communique-la-ville-de-montreal-bonifie-lequipe-mobile-de-mediation-et-dintervention-sociale-emmis/
- Nous ne serons pas sages, À propos, https://pas-sages.info/a-propos