They've Admitted It

But Still Insist They Did Nothing Wrong

The Québec Sureté (Provincial Police) have admitted that the three unwise men identified as police agents provocateurs by David Coles (bearded man in suit, right) were indeed members of the force.

From CBC.ca;
Quebec provincial police admitted Thursday that their officers disguised themselves as demonstrators during the protest at the North American leaders summit in Montebello, Que.

"At no time did the police of the Sûreté du Québec act as instigators or commit criminal acts," the police force said in French in a news release. "It is not in the police force's policies, nor in its strategies, to act in that manner."

"At all times, they responded within their mandate to keep order and security."

Police said the undercover officers were only at the protest to locate and identify non-peaceful protesters in order to prevent any incidents.

Ri-ight. I just have a few follow-up questions on this matter.

• Why have you been forcefully denying these men were police since Monday?
• Why was one of the men carrying a large rock in his hand?
• Why were they wearing identical bandanas?
• Why were the uniformed police in full battle dress, with batons and gas masks?
  

David Cole, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, said at the time, "[Our union] believes that the security force at Montebello were ordered to infiltrate our peaceful assembly and provoke incidents." It really looks like that to me too. And I'll tell you why.

The identical bandanas, unlike the boots (which were just unbelievable stupidity on the dumbass police's part) could be used so that the uniformed police could identify the provocateurs when the billy clubs started swinging. The gas masks indicate that the police were indeed expecting trouble, even though the demonstration was so peaceful that;

On Wednesday, the mayor of Montebello thanked police and protesters, praising the fact that there wasn't a single report of damage during the two-day summit.

I'm not the only one who has noticed these discrepancies. As Matthew Good reports;

Two NDP MP’s, Libby Davies of East Vancouver and Peter Julian of Burnaby-New Westminster, have sent a letter to Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day calling for an inquiry into the Montebello security allegations.

And from that letter;

Along with hundreds of other Canadian citizens who participated in the Monday protest, we were both alarmed at the enormous police presence. We are more shocked at the allegations that inside agents, appearing to be working with riot police, attempted to provoke a violent incident during the peaceful demonstration. Video and photograph evidence has led to many unanswered questions.

We're waiting for some answers. My previous post on this, with the YouTube video of the incident is here.

Related Links: This piece from the Ottawa Citizen has the Sûreté du Québec's statement and more reaction from David Coles.

TAGS: Montebello, Agents Provocateurs, SPP Summit, Bu$hCo™
Caught Red-handed