P-6 BYLAW: QUÉBEC SUPERIOR COURT INVALIDATES THE PROVISION ON MASKS AND RECOGNIZES THE RIGHT FOR SPONTANEOUS PROTESTS TO NOT DISCLOSE AN ITINERARY (Press Release)

By: Julien Villeneuve, Standing Committee for the Support of Demonstrators (SCSD)
Originally published on: June 22 2016
Original French text here: https://www.facebook.com/Anarchopanda/posts/885912131520663

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Montreal, June 22 2016

P-6 BYLAW: QUÉBEC SUPERIOR COURT INVALIDATES THE PROVISION ON MASKS AND RECOGNIZES THE RIGHT FOR SPONTANEOUS PROTESTS TO NOT DISCLOSE AN ITINERARY

This ruling (see link) has landed four years after Anarchopanda pour la gratuité scolaire filed an application for unconstitutionality, following the Tremblay administration’s amendments to the P-6 bylaw at the height of the student protests of 2012, presumably the result of a political order by Jean Charest’s Liberal government.

The ruling confirms article 3.2 of the bylaw, which prevents face-covering by any participant in an assembly, gathering or march in the public space “without reasonable cause”, as being “excessive, unreasonable and arbitrary”. It has also been deemed unconstitutional according to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as it infringes freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly.