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Canadian Press via Toronto Star - Aug 21, 2007
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/248608

Police accused of using provocateurs at summit

Canadian Press

OTTAWA Protesters are accusing police of using undercover agents to
provoke violent confrontations at the North American leaders' summit in
Montebello, Quebec.

Such accusations have been made before after similar demonstrations but
this time the alleged "agents provocateurs" have been caught on camera.

A video, posted on YouTube, shows three young men, their faces masked by
bandannas, mingling Monday with protesters in front of a line of police
in riot gear. At least one of the masked men is holding a rock in his
hand.

The three are confronted by protest organizer Dave Coles, president of
the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. Coles
makes it clear the masked men are not welcome among his group of
protesters, whom he describes as mainly grandparents. He urges them to
leave and find their own protest location.

Coles also demands that they put down their rocks. Other protesters
begin to chime in that the three are really police agents. Several try
to snatch the bandanas from their faces.

Rather than leave, the three actually start edging closer to the police
line, where they appear to engage in discussions. They eventually push
their way past an officer, whereupon other police shove them to the
ground and handcuff them.

Late Tuesday, photographs taken by another protester surfaced, showing
the trio lying prone on the ground. The photos show the soles of their
boots adorned by yellow triangles. A police officer kneeling beside the
men has an identical yellow triangle on the sole of his boot.

Kevin Skerrett, a protester with the group Nowar-Paix, said the photos
and video together present powerful evidence that the men were actually
undercover police officers.

"I think the circumstantial evidence is very powerful," he said.

The three do not appear to have been arrested or charged with any
offence.

Police confirm that only four protesters were arrested during the
summit two men and two women. All have been charged with obstruction
and resisting arrest.

Veteran protester Jaggi Singh, who is helping to circulate the video as
widely as possible, said all four of those arrested are known to
organizers and are genuine protesters.

"But we see very clearly in that video three (other) men being
arrested... How do (police) account for these three people being
taken in, being arrested? Where did they go?" Singh said.

"I have no hesitation in saying they were police agents... and they
were caught red-handed."

Singh, a member of the Montreal-based No One is Illegal, believes the
agents were meant to provoke a confrontation and give the police an
excuse to use some of their "toys," such as tear gas and rubber bullets.

"To a certain extent it's self-fulfilling logic. You provide police
with this kind of equipment and they end up using it and one way to
justify it is to plant some people that toss a rock or two."

Neither the RCMP nor the Surete du Quebec would comment on the video or
even discuss generally whether they ever use the tactic of employing
agents provocateurs.

"I cannot answer your question because I don't have the information,"
said Const. Kane Kramer, a spokesman for the RCMP at the summit.

***

CBC - Aug 22, 2007
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2007/08/22/ot-police-070822.html

Undercover cops tried to incite violence in Montebello: union leader

YouTube video shows union leaders trying to push back masked men

CBC News

Organizers of the protests at the North American leaders' summit in
Montebello, Que., say they have video that shows police disguised as
masked demonstrators tried to incite violence on Monday.

The YouTube video shows Dave Coles, president of the Communications,
Energy and Paperworkers Union, ordering three masked men back from a
line of riot police.The YouTube video shows Dave Coles, president of
the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, ordering three
masked men back from a line of riot police. (CBC)

About 1,200 protesters were in the small resort town near Ottawa as
Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with U.S. President George W. Bush
and Mexican President Felipe Calderon at a two-day summit to discuss
issues under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America
pact.

The video titled Stop SPP Protest Union Leader stops provocateurs,
posted on YouTube Tuesday, was shown at a news conference held
Wednesday in Ottawa by protest organizers, including Dave Coles,
president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, who
appears in the video.

In the footage filmed Monday afternoon, three burly men with bandanas
and other covers over their faces push through protesters toward a line
of riot police. One of the men has a rock in his hand.

As they move forward, Coles and other union leaders dressed in suits
order the men to put the rock down and leave, accuse them of being
police agents provocateurs, and try unsuccessfully to unmask them.
Continue Article

In the end, they squeeze behind the police line, where they are calmly
handcuffed.

In this handout photo provided by CUPE, police and protesters clash in
Montebello on Monday. Union leaders say photos and video taken by
protesters raise troubling questions about police actions during the
summit.In this handout photo provided by CUPE, police and protesters
clash in Montebello on Monday. Union leaders say photos and video taken
by protesters raise troubling questions about police actions during the
summit. (CUPE/Canadian Press)

"The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union believes that the
security force at Montebello were ordered to infiltrate our peaceful
assembly and to provoke incidents," Coles told reporters. "I think the
evidence that we've shown you today reinforces the view."

Coles showed photographs of the masked men's and police officers' boots
taken during the handcuffing, in which they appear to have identical
tread patterns on their soles.

He also questioned why other activists have been unable to identify the
three men whose images have been broadcast worldwide and demanded to
know who the masked men were.

"Do they have any connection to the Quebec police force or the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police or are they part of some other security force
that was at Montebello?" Coles asked, adding that he wants to know how
the Prime Minister's Office was involved in security during the
protests.

He suggested that the government might want to provoke violence in order
justify its security budget for the summit and discredit protesters.

"They want to defuse our questions ... by trying to make it look like
some radical group trying to create a confrontation," he said.

The RCMP has refused to comment, while Quebec's provincial force has
flatly denied that its officers were involved in the incident.

It said it is not releasing any names as no charges were laid.
Retired police officer believes masked men were cops

Meanwhile, a retired Ottawa police officer who was formerly in charge of
overseeing demonstrations for the force said he questions who the
masked men really are, after viewing the video.

"Were they legitimate protesters? I dont think so," said Doug Kirkland.

"Well, if they weren't police, I think they might well have been
working in the best interests of police."

He added that if the situation was as it appeared, he did not approve
of the tactic. "It's pretty close to baiting," he said.

On Wednesday, the mayor of Montebello thanked police and protesters,
praising the fact that there wasn't a single report of damage during
the two-day summit.

The Security and Prosperity Partnership pact, signed in 2005, is
intended to forge closer trade and security links between the countries.

Opponents say negotiations about the agreement are secretive and
undemocratic, and the treaty itself erodes Canada's control over its
natural resources, security and defence.

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