Bill to Criminalize Protests -- Desperate Appeal for Police Powers to Eliminate Resistance
Demonstration in front of Quebec National Assembly, Quebec City,
April 2, 2026
On April 2, as 10,000 people gathered in front of the Quebec National Assembly in response to the call from community organizations for the Quebec government to end anti-social policies, the members of the Quebec National Assembly passed Bill 13 by a majority vote. Bill 13, An Act to promote the population's safety and sense of security and to amend various provisions, now becomes law. The bill was introduced on December 10 by Ian Lafrenière, a former police and military officer, and Minister of Public Security.
The Coalition Avenir Québec is acting like an old tyrant refusing to face its impending demise. It is frantically scrambling to protect the oligarchs' control over decisions made in the National Assembly against the growing opposition of the working class and people to handing over Quebec's natural and human resources to wealthy private interests.
Bill 13, An Act to promote peace, order, and public security in Quebec, specifically targets protests. It prohibits demonstrators from participating in peaceful gatherings within 50 metres of an elected official's residence. It authorizes a member of a police force, based on so-called reasonable grounds, without defining what these grounds are, to search a person and their surroundings. It prohibits the possession, during a demonstration and "without a valid reason," of "an object or substance that may be used to interfere with the physical integrity of a person or to threaten or intimidate a person or that may cause damage to property."
Further, Section 6 of Chapter 2 stipulates: "No one may expose to public view, in particular by wearing, disseminating, posting or displaying it, any object identifying an entity entered on the list of entities with a criminal purpose drawn up by the Minister [of Public Security] that exhibits one of the following symbols or names:
"1. a symbol, such as an emblem, an insignia or a representation, used by the entity or associated with it or a symbol that could be mistaken for such a symbol; or
"2. the name of the entity or another name, such as an abbreviation or acronym, used by the entity or associated with it or a name that could be mistaken for any of those names."
The police powers allow the minister to decree with impunity what constitutes an entity with criminal intent -- and thereby criminalize those associated with it. This will not halt the momentum and movements of the people marching forward in a project of nation building that serves them and affirms and defends the rights of all.
The people's ongoing actions to put an end to imperialist war and to the militarization of the economy, to economic insecurity, to the plundering of natural resources and to the destruction of public services are what "promote the population's safety and sense of security."
Shame on the Coalition Avenir Québec government and those who supported the law. The people of Quebec will not forget this.
Quebec City, April 2, 2026
This article was published in
Volume 56 Number 23 - April 24, 2026
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/TML2026/Articles/T560233.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca