A night at the Casino
—or not

Apparently the Casino de Montreal hates making money. So we get to the casino, and I’m not going to sit here and type lies to the readers of the Mirror, but we had had a few pops. Nothing noticeable mind you, but somehow the security guards did notice. The security swarmed us not five seconds after we had exited our vehicle and were yelling at us to go back home. This begs the question, does the casino actually not like making money?

Upon swarming my five buddies and I, these security guards, or should I say the ringleader of these guards, told us that there was no way we were getting into the casino tonight and that we should come back in 24 hours. We, really wanting to gamble, questioned his authority to refuse us entry. He proceeded to make up a whole story about how the lady at the front—you know, the ladies with the orange things in their hands waving you into the parking lot—well she apparently caught wind of our rowdiness with her superman hearing and ability to see through dark windows and metal and radioed in to the guards to refuse us entry. So after this act of superhuman proportions, we were in fact swarmed and we never got in.

I cannot understand the reasoning behind this act by the casino, a place that is designed to suck money out of the people who frequent it. I can understand if someone is slurring drunk and cannot comprehend what is going on around him, but we were nowhere close to that. We even calmed down and laid out an argument for them to prove that we were not close to rowdy and just wanted to gamble. They were not buying it; well, I should rephrase, he was not buying it. The ringleader was not backing down from his decision, even though his cronies were cracking jokes with us and not really denying us anything, just following the rule laid down by the apparent bigwig.

I don’t blame these other men for backing up who I can only assume was their boss, but how big can an ego be? This is a place that feeds on people like us, who might be a little impaired and might take a bigger risk than a person who is fully capable of seeing the odds clearly (they never could have known this, but our designated driver happened to be the best odds man we were with). So why kick us out? Was it all ego from the guy who thinks he spotted something? It has to be, right?

I don’t think that there is something bigger going on here beside the fact that the guard thought he saw a bunch of “drunks” that might be a problem for someone inside later, but it has to be put out there that people were refused entry to the casino. The casino’s bottom line—do not make any sort of noise when you walk from your car to the entrance of the casino. Silent money has more value to them than people trying to have fun.

>>VINCENT COLLETTI

The OPUS police

I was leaving a metro station tonight, and four fare inspectors waited at the exit to check everyone’s Opus card and/or ticket receipts. I wanted to ask why they needed to check the cards, so I waited until everyone else had been processed through. The inspector who approached me began in French, but when I said that I spoke English, he accommodated me, which I appreciated.

However, before showing my card, I asked repeatedly “Why do you need to see my card.” He commented that it was so that they could see where I had entered the metro and at what time it had occurred. I repeated the question and he repeated that answer. Eventually, some of the other inspectors came up to me, and declared that they had the power to arrest me if I refused to show my card when ordered. Two of them demanded to see my card. I asked to see their identification. The inspector talking to me pointed to the name sewed on his suit, which said only one name and no identification number. I asked if they had any further identification to provide, and they refused to show any. They returned to ordering me to show my card, all four surrounding me now. Only after I showed them the card did they tell me that some people had jumped over the metro turnstiles and this was why they needed increased surveillance.

I intend to ask the STM and the Montreal police the following questions: are fare inspectors considered police officers, having the same powers of arrest and detain? If not, what authority do they have, and for what action? Do they have the right to demand identification and proof of purchase? If and when I’m approached and/or arrested, what rights do I have as a citizen? What protocols are they required to follow? If I’m detained, what rights do I have? What can I expect? Will this show up on a criminal record? After being detained, how can I file complaints if my civic rights have not been respected?

I believe in law and order, but I’m suspicious of increases to police powers—and especially of surveillance.

>> JOSEPH MCKEOWN

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