Montreal

An agreement in principle has been reached regarding land in Oka, Quebec that was claimed by the Mohawk community of Kanesatake.

On May 18th, Canadian labour leaders announced at a press conference that they will hire Abousfian Abdelrazik in defiance of United Nations security council sanctions against him.

On April 1, 15,000 people assembled in the business district in Montreal at the call of more than 95 unions, popular, feminist and student groups.

Of particular concern to organizers and marchers was the announcement that "user-fees" for healthcare would be introduced in Quebec. Increases are proposed for tuiton and hydro-electricity rates.

Close to 500 people marched in Montreal, on Monday, March 15, the International Day Against Police Brutality.  The march began at 5pm, and was declared to be illegal just after 6pm, when demonstraters began throwing bottles at police and setting off fireworks.

On Saturday, March 13, a Montreal police station was vandalized anonymously.

According to the Montreal Gazette, about 20 hooded individuals dressed in black and carrying rocks, baseball bats and, in at least one instance, a hammer, damaged 11 squad cars, slashing tires and smashing vehicle windows and the vehicles' computers.

The windows of the police station in St. Henri were also broken and painted with grafitti slogans including FTP and ACAB.

The Conservative government has nominated Gérard Latulippe as the new president of Montreal-based human rights group Rights and Democracy. Latulippe has been criticized by Muslim organizations for his past statements on Islam and immigration to the Quebec reasonable accomodation commission.

Dany Villanueva, the older brother of Fredy Villanueva, who was killed by the Montreal Police in August 2008, has learned that the Canada Border Services Agency will begin the process of trying to deport him from Canada, by attempting to remove his permanent residency status.

The Hour is reporting that

A coroner's inquest into the police shooting death of Fredy Villanueva has been indefinitely suspended by the Quebec Court judge overseeing the case.

 

Turbulence surrounding the inquiry increased in the past few weeks as the Villanueva family and two other men shot by police at the time, Denis Meas and Jeffrey Sagor Metellus, all pulled out of the inquiry, having lost faith in the process.

 

In Montreal, a press release from the squatted Autonomous Social Centre says that on Saturday afternoon, riot squads

brutally evicted the people occupying [the] building at the corner of St-Patrick and Atwater...  [A]bout a hundred people took this building in order to set up the Autonomous social center in a permanent space.