Photo by the always great William Wilson.
During the 13th edition of the Grand Prix Cycliste Montréal, the sporting event invited controversial individual Sylvan Adams, a Canadian-Israeli billionaire to participate in the event. He is a donor to the New Democratic, Conservative and the Liberal parties of Canada. He has gone on the record supporting the genocide in Palestine. He has also contributed various equipment and resources to the IDF. Backlash ensued.
The event forced his team, Israel Premier Tech, to change much of their symbolism. Despite the visual changes, the team participated in the event prompting protesters to plan 22 actions. None of them were fully successful, although the protesters were able to gain visibility.
This Friday, I will be in Ottawa for the march on Ottawa, where people will converge on Parliament to protest the genocide. On Saturday, I will hopefully attend another protest around trans rights. Things are likely to get violent at this protest.
As of writing, here are the violent incidents which occurred at the Grand Prix.
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Early on in the day, violence broke out as the police assaulted protesters. The SPVM implemented arbitrary regulations not supported by fact or law that people were unable to wave flags near the race. When the violence broke out, police shoved and assaulted protesters. One nearly had his head curb stomped, as is visible in this video.
More violence broke out after the day was done, instigated once again by police. It was short lived.
There were many occasions on the front lines where specific commanders were looking to start fights, and aggressed protestors holding signs up. The protesters responded poorly, and took the bait. Instead of backing down, the protester yelled back at the commander (who has, on more than one occasion, pepper sprayed both Will and myself.) In the end, despite tensions being exceptionally high, neither side instigated any physical aggression.
Paint was thrown on a participant with a water baloon, although I have not seen footage.
Two arrests (as far as I’ve been told) occured.
One, a woman, was arrested for waving a flag. She has bruising on her arms from the police treatment. They let her go soon after.
The second was an individual who was assaulted by the police, pinned down and then detained. They were released soon after.
During an action by several well known activists, the group was violently dragged across the ground and thrown. Several activists stood in the middle of the cyclist route going uphill, covered themselves in fake blood, and laid down on the ground as a statement about folks being murdered in Palestine, and the complicity of those in the race. The police panicked, and were unprepared for the action. Of the four or five police there, they ran into the road, and dragged these protesters across the ground, likely harming several of them in the process. Afterwards, dozens of police officers were called to the scene, resulting in a ratio of around 4:1 police to protester.
This weekend there is likely to be more violence in Montreal, with an anti-trans protest, and the counter protestors who will show up. In 2024 the same protest occured. Only people who were counter protesting were assaulted by police. The violence was intense enough that it resulted in the “trans day of vengeance.” The police were extremely violent at the trans day of vengeance.
We will update you as events unfold.