Dissecting riot culture

Anarchist academic Marc-André Cyr examines Quebec’s fondness for smashing stuff

ONE IN A LONG, ACTION-FILLED TRADITION:
Anti-police-brutality day 2008

by CHRISTOPHER HAZOU

Whether motivated by political ideology, social grievances or simply drunken stupidity, torching cars and trashing local businesses has long been something of a tradition in Quebec.

Some of the more well known Quebec riots include the Conscription Crisis of 1917, the now legendary Rocket Richard riot of 1955, and the St-Jean-Baptiste Day protests of 1968. More recently, violence following an aborted Guns ’n’ Roses concert in 1992, the Stanley Cup riot of 1993 and protests against the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001 have all made international headlines.

This year alone has witnessed a (perhaps premature) hockey riot, the annual tradition of the anti-police brutality fracas and the civil unrest unleashed by the killing of Freddy Villanueva by Montreal police—including another incident this past weekend. But while it might seem like Quebecers are more eager than most to put a brick through a window at the slightest provocation, anarchist and UQÀM political science doctoral student Marc-André Cyr believes we’re no different than any other big city—with one possible exception. “Perhaps the one thing that is unique about Montreal is the Stanley Cup riots, which have a certain cultural aspect to them,” he observes.

Cyr, who’s studying the history of riots in Quebec as part of his degree, examines the phenomenon with a free workshop, “The Mysterious Riot,” at the Carrefour d’éducation populaire de Pointe St-Charles (2356 Centre), on Monday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m.

Hockey inspired mayhem and rowdy rock fans aside, Cyr says that most riots are an expression of discontent by the disenfranchised. “Some riots are just reactionary, like the ethnic riots that accompanied the [1990] Oka Crisis,” he says. “But it’s also an effective method of action used by the poor. And it’s a universal phenomenon because poverty is universal.”

Cyr says that the definition of what qualifies as a riot is often subjective, and that the word itself is politically loaded, frequently used by the powers that be to discredit legitimate protest. He says it was this element of subjectivity, in part, that drew him to the topic in the first place. “Riots have an individual aspect that I find very interesting,” he says. “What is a riot? It isn’t necessarily an easy question. They can be violent, they can be festive, and they can be incongruous, but there’s always something unique and original about them.”

Surveying the record of rioting in Canada and elsewhere, Cyr argues they can be an effective, if unruly, way of making social progress. “The influence of rioting in history is considerable,” he says, citing the sometimes violent demonstrations by American civil rights and anti-war protestors in the 1960s. “We can analyze riots, as we can analyze other tools used by activists, like demonstrations or petitions. They’re rational acts, and we can try to understand them.”

Of the recent rioting sparked by the killing of Freddy Villanueva, Cyr warns against ignoring the underlying cause. “The recent protests in Montreal North were a cry against racism by the young. The shooting of their friend was too much for them,” he says. “We have to listen to what rioters have to say, because in each riot there’s a message. It’s not always easy to grasp at first, but there’s always a message.”

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