Storming the gates: Firefighters & others raid city hall over pensions in Montreal
Extensive raw video above & below from Robin Edgar showing yesterday’s (Monday) protest by firefighters and supporters who stormed Montreal City Hall.
In a protest against proposed changes to pensions, angry firefighters broke into Montreal City Hall Monday night and vandalized several rooms, including the council chambers.
Before a council meeting, firefighters and supporters gathered outside holding signs and yelling.
The crowd then proceeded into council chambers just before 7 p.m., when the meeting was set to get underway, and councillors left the room, only to return to find papers had been thrown across the room.
Rene Bruemmer & Kalina Laframboise, Postmedia News
They tossed papers throughout the building and in council chambers five minutes before city council was scheduled to begin its evening session. They threw water at city councillors who refused to leave, blew horns and whistles, and hoisted a banner in council inscribed “Coderre Voleur.” (Translation – Mayor Denis Coderre is a thief.)
Several protesters ran upstairs, trying to find Mayor Denis Coderre as security guards shuttled him from room to room to evade their pursuers.
Union leaders deplored the acts afterward, but said they showed the depth of workers’ anger with the tone of negotiations over pension reforms proposed by the Liberal government.
The protesters left 20 minutes after they first streamed into the building, leaving behind a city hall littered with paper and drizzled in water, and councillors shaking their heads in disbelief.
Montreal’s chief of police criticized his own team for its lack of intervention during Monday evening’s pension protest at city hall.
Hundreds of municipal workers stormed Montreal city hall and trashed council chambers in a protest against Bill 3 — proposed legislation to change municipal pension plans.
No one was arrested.
On Tuesday, Marc Parent said he is “disappointed” in members of his team for allowing demonstrators to barge into council chambers.
