518 arrested as Montreal police kettle demonstrators. A peaceful evening march that began with people festively banging pots and pans in support of protesting students ended in the early morning hours with police using the controversial “kettling” tactic on a crowd of demonstrators and arresting 518 people.
After another night of trouble, the education minister said today she was hopeful students and the government could resume talks on the issues that have sparked the protests. Montreal wasn’t the only city to have roundups Wednesday night. There were also mass arrests at student protests in Quebec City and Sherbrooke. Kettling is a tactic widely used in Europe where riot cops surround demonstrators and limit or cut off their exits. It has been widely criticized because it often results in the scooping up of innocent bystanders as well as rowdies. The Montreal demonstration was the 30th since the student protest against tuition fee increases began more than three months ago.
Mr. “It also shows that peaceful civil disobedience works. 15 cases in which courts have chided Tories on prison-transfer decisions. The Federal Court of Appeal has ruled that Public Safety Minister Vic Toews didn’t give adequate reasons when he rejected a bid by a Montreal trucker jailed in the United States to serve the rest of his sentence back in Canada.
The April judgment is the 15th time a Canadian court has criticized Mr. Toews or his two Conservative predecessors, Peter Van Loan and Stockwell Day, for failing to provide a proper explanation why they wouldn’t allow a Canadian held in a foreign prison to be transferred to their country of citizenship. The court ordered Mr. Toews to review again the application by Yves LeBon, saying that the minister's rejection was “neither transparent nor intelligible.” In 14 previous occasions, the Federal Court found that either Mr. 1. Ruling by Mr. 2. Ruling by Mr. . “... 3. Ruling by Judge Reilly: “The minister’s decision must be set aside when it fails to explain why the transfer should be denied. 4. 5. Ruling by Madam Justice Danièle Tremblay-Lamer: “This is problematic. Protesters storm Montreal university, gang up on students in class.
Protesters stormed into a university, many of them with their faces covered by masks, and worked through the hallways Wednesday on the hunt for classes to disrupt.
The chaotic scene, which made some international news reports, came in a climate of heightened tension Wednesday as the provincial government was considering emergency legislation to crack down on student protests. The intrusions were orchestrated by protesters seeking to enforce their declared strikes. They resented the fact that some students had used legal injunctions to return to school. Carrying a list of scheduled classes, about 100 hard-core protesters marched through pavilions at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Making noise with drums and whistles, they made their way through the main UQAM building, splitting up on a number of occasions as they searched for ongoing classes. A few dozen entered a contract-law class at one point. A few men even grabbed two female students by the arm, telling them to get out.
Auditor blasts lack of transparency in doling out generous G8 funds. The Conservatives hid their true intentions from Parliament when they funneled $50-million in discretionary spending in the riding of Treasury Board President Tony Clement and shielded the spending from normal checks and balances.
In her final report to Parliament, Auditor-General Sheila Fraser comes down hard on the so-called G8 Legacy Infrastructure Fund, saying the “government was not being transparent about its purpose” as its obtained approval for the funding. The controversial program was 10 times more generous than similar initiatives tied to previous summits of world leaders in Alberta and Quebec. While $50-million in federal funds were disbursed in Mr. Clement’s riding and surrounding areas, there was not a single civil servant involved in approving the 32 projects. As such, normal rules applying to such federal spending, designed to guarantee transparency and accountability, were not followed.