An anti-capitalist protest turned violent in Montreal on Wednesday night, leading to one police officer and one citizen injured, along with damaged property in the city’s downtown.
The protest began to escalate around 5:45 p.m. when masked demonstrators threw rocks at police, smashed business windows with street signs and sprayed graffiti on walls.
SPVM spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant told reporters that Montreal police used “chemical irritants” to disperse the crowd and the situation is now under control.
Around 8 p.m. certain demonstrators “committed acts of mischief on businesses” and “armed assault.”
The smoke bombs deployed by police as part of the “dispersal operation” occurred near de Maisonneuve and Robert-Bourassa Blvd. in Montreal’s downtown core.
The crowd was cleared shortly after 8:30 p.m.
May Day, a day marked to remember the victories achieved by worker activism and solidarity, has regularly been the subject of violent protest by left-wing extremists in Montreal over recent years.
Arrests were made at the Montreal May Day protest in 2022 and during the 2019 protest riot squads were deployed after demonstrators set fires on Ste. Catherine Street. Similar incidents occurred the year before in 2018 as well.
Both citizens and police officers have been injured at each of these events.
