Protesters sing Carré St-Louis blues

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by George Maddux

If you're going to hold a protest, don't hold it at the place where many potential protesters are banned. Otherwise it might fizzle out, as did a planned rally at Carré St-Louis scheduled last Friday. Demonstrators were condemning a police action the week before, which resulted in 60 arrests during a police operation on the picturesque common. Around 75 of the 500 predicted protesters made it to last Friday's rally.

Among those officially unable to attend was jazz bassist Adrian Vedady, who had been tossed into a Crémazie jail cell overnight for rubbernecking the brouhaha while walking his hound. "I was there watching the arrests. I was thinking they shouldn't be hitting these kids that hard. We all felt they were using too much force," says Vedady, whose spectatorship led him to be charged with illegal assembly, a crime punishable by two years less a day imprisonment. Vedady and others arrested have been ordered to keep 100 metres away from the park on St-Denis until their case is heard.

Paul Chablo, commander of Station 38, defends the controversial operation, which he says started when a group of 30 beer-swilling rebels refused to leave the park, telling two bicycle patrolmen: "It's our park tonight and we're staying." Defence lawyer Denis Poitras plans to plead not guilty for the dozen he's representing in the case he expects will come before a judge in the fall. "Right now, the charges seem completely unreasonable. The defendants weren't bothering people. But they're young people and punks. Some people don't like that but that's not a reason to arrest them."