Since they took ownership of the three undercover "protesters" at Montebello, the Quebec Provincial Police (and probably others we don't know about) have been dancing as fast as they can. But it's a complicated dance with a lot of steps: first both the RCMP and the SQ denied there were undercover cops at the protest; the SQ fessed up to having some undercovers around but wouldn't say if they were the guys in the video (stall, stall); the SQ admitted that the guys in the video were SQ undercover cops, but said they weren't there to cause violence. The rock one of them was carrying was a prop, or or or maybe it was given to the cop by a protester, or or maybe it was a pet rock, or or... maybe it... protester... cop... the thing... or SQ... anarchist... RCMP... oh hell, I don't know!!! Shut up! They'll look into it:"The SQ did not answer questions on whether the RCMP was involved in the summit incident or whether the Quebec police received political orders to infiltrate the protesters. But the police force did say it will conduct its own internal investigation of the incident."
A supporting actor in this little theatre of the absurd, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, entered stage right yesterday and said the whole thing was SOP, the undercovers were caught because they weren't being violent, and everyone should shut the fuck up and file a complaint with the appropriate police department's appropriate complaint department, and -- oh, look over there, it's a bright shiny thing. The whole undercover instigator cop thing is so overrated; no need to worry about creeping authoritarianism, just cops trying to heat things up a little, just like... oh, I don't know, like they were in Genoa. But surely it could never escalate into something like that.
We are owed an explanation, and the police and government won't be forthcoming with one unless we keep on their asses about it and force a formal investigation. These people aren't our bosses -- we are their bosses. They're our employees. They work for us, not the other way around. We have not only the right, but the responsibility to demand the truth and a full accounting of what procedures they use to suppress or discredit dissent, and at whose behest.
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