The demonstration against the mask held Sunday in front of the national Assembly was visibly not following the rules of distancing.
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July 30, 2020 13h26
Updated at 14: 21
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Demonstration against the mask, Québec: intervention difficult, justifies the police
Jean-François Néron
The Sun
The protest against the wearing of the mask held Sunday in front of the national Assembly was visibly not following the rules of social distancing in effect. Confessed to the police of Quebec, an intervention to put an end to it could cause more problems than the event itself.
“There is a complexity of intervention with people who show in this context (of a pandemic),” said, in substance, the director of the service de police de Québec, Robert Pigeon, on the sidelines of a press conference held on Thursday.
According to him, to deliver statements of offence or to apprehend the protesters to stop the infringement would have been able to “bring something to the level of health. It involves a number of risks,” he says.
They were between 2000 and 3000 people on Sunday, according to the police service. During the event, two of the participants, Jean-François Mongrain, and Jean-Guillaume Tremblay, have embraced the journalist of VAT, Kariane Bourassa, live on television. They are now facing a charge of assault even if they say that their gesture was a “good faith”.
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In this regard, the director of Pigeon is forbidden not to have acted at the time of the reported incident. “Even before the lady made a complaint, it was in a process to identify these two people to consider the issuance of a report of the offence-general.”
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During the demonstration against the mask to Quebec, two of the participants, Jean-François Mongrain, and Jean-Guillaume Tremblay, have embraced the journalist of VAT, Kariane Bourassa, live on television. They are now facing a charge of assault even if they say that their gesture was a “good faith”.
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In the same breath, the director does not exclude the intervention of the police should there be another event with a “variation” of the health rules in force. For example, if participants are “in a deliberate way other people’s lives in danger”, does it give as an example. A line is obviously difficult to draw.
“We are not encouraging this kind of event there. We appeal to the civic-mindedness of citizens who are required to keep a distance of two meters when it is possible” keep it to remember.
The minister of public Safety, Genevieve Guilbault, confirms that his department is considering “a way to strengthen and clarify law enforcement measures.” The task ahead was difficult, because it must reconcile the right to demonstrate and the health rules imposed by Quebec.
“I agree with the right to protest. Nobody puts that in question. We don’t want to get into a debate that would challenge this one right. How can we clarify things ? Currently, the possibility of intervention is not necessarily clear in the decrees.”
Ms. Guilbault ensures that the clarity sought is not the group of friends in a “park, which stands at 1.7 m”, but rather the protesters, such as those gathered Sunday.
“This is an event by way of derogation can be displayed to the public health rules that carries himself on the instructions of public health. It is necessary to be able to equip themselves to intervene.”
