Last night's state of emergency at CMAQ has been rescinded. The situation is calming down, but injury and arrest reports mount.

INJURY AND ARREST REPORTS MOUNT AS SITUATION CALMS DOWN

By Cliff Pearson, co-chair
Green Party of Dallas County
Dallas, Texas USA

(QUEBEC CITY, Quebec) - The state of emergency declared last night for the headquarters of CMAQ, the Quebec Independent Media Center, has been rescinded.

At approximately 10:44 p.m. EDT, members of the Quebec Legal Collective, a group of attorneys volunteering their services to protesters, arrived at the newsroom in case CMAQ personnel required legal assistance.

At approximately 11:00 p.m. EDT, approximately 20 riot police fired rubber bullets down the stairs into the CMAQ foyer, injuring one activist. He suffered wounds to his leg and was treated at the scene by medics. CMAQ staff and reporters responded to the police assault by barricading the doors.

By 11:06 p.m. EDT, the police retreated down Rue Cote d'Abraham to confront protesters.

At 11:24 p.m. EDT, CMAQ had to block the doors with clothes and blankets to prevent tear gas -- presumably fired at the activists -- from seeping into the newsroom.

At 12:57 a.m. EDT, CMAQ reporters confirmed via eyewitnesses that the Medical Center had been tear-gassed by riot police. The clinic was moved to the CMAQ building.

As of 1:29 a.m. EDT -- Sunday, April 22, 2001 -- CMAQ staffers confirmed that the young man shot in the throat with a plastic bullet last night is in critical but stable condition at St. Foy Hospital in Quebec City, Quebec.

Other reports of serious injuries and police brutality continued to mount all last night and this morning and afternoon. People who had attended the previous protests in Seattle, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia continue to insist that the situation here is worse than all prior protests.

One of the more serious reports is that a man suffered eye injuries after being struck in the face by shrapnel from an exploding tear gas canister.

The Quebec Legal Collective reports confirmation that more than 30 canisters of "noxious gases," such as tear gas and pepper spray, were fired in various places in the city last night.

Besides gassing, many of the acts of police brutality include the firing of rubber and plastic bullets at protesters. Quebec Legal Collective observers have collected whole bullets and shells from the ground.

The legal team also reports the use of metal "bean bags" shot from police weapons. Additionally, there is one confirmed report of a man with a broken arm hit by a tear gas canister reportedly fired at close range (less than one meter, or two feet).

As for arrests, the Quebec Legal Collective confirmed -- by receiving calls from jailed prisoners themselves -- a total of 430 arrested protesters. Of these, 250 were arrested between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m last night.

Most of the arrests took place near Rue St. Joseph and Rue de l'Couronne. These streets are several city blocks from the security perimeter and are supposedly in designated "green" zones -- areas of low-risk of arrest, where no illegal behavior was to take place.

Some of the protesters arrested yesterday and Friday have been released. The charges are varied, and are mostly for minor infractions such as criminal mischief and "being suspect," a dubious term that does not appear to be a legal criminal charge.

Patrick Deschenes, the missing roommate of my Canadian host, has still not been positively located. But at approximately 8:00 a.m. EDT, our host, Sarah Gognan, was told that others of her friends arrested in the same incident are now out of jail. These friends confirmed that Mr. Deschenes is in the jail.

Jaggi Singh, the activist reported kidnapped by police on Friday, is still in jail and police say he will not be released until Wednesday, April 25, 2001. Police have not said why he will be detained so long.

At 1:30 p.m. EDT this afternoon, an attorney from the Quebec Legal Collective came to the CMAQ newsroom to announce that he is filing a class action lawsuit on behalf of those who have suffered civil rights abuses and police brutality. He is looking for victims of police brutality to interview.

The Quebec Legal Collective reports they have received more than 30 reports of people being detained on the streets and questioned by riot police.

They also report they have spoken with and received reports that many vans, buses, and cars have been stopped. Reports include incidents of police unlawfully demanding identification from all passengers in cars, unlawful searches of people on the street who are not under arrest and do not consent to the search, and the ticketing of people who have tear gas masks -- none of which are illegal acts under the Canadian Charter of Government.

Additionally, the Quebec Legal Collective reports numerous eyewitness reports of over a dozen "targeted arrests" of protesters. Police have made targeted, pre-planned arrests of specific people, without regard to their current actions -- presumably as "preventive arrests."

For example, the legal team reports three police cars pulled up on the side of the road, jumped out and tackled a person to the ground. In another situation witnessed by legal observers, two undercover police vans picked up three people as they were walking peacefully by a gas station.

Finally, the legal team reports that more than 300 people from the United States were turned back at the border attempting to enter Canada. People turned back had their personal belongings (including phonebooks, literature, and journals) photocopied and were interrogated about their political beliefs and activities before they were turned away. Over 15 people were detained at the New York and Vermont borders and have not yet been released.

Actions today are decidedly calmer so far. Activists are apparently centering their attention around "solidarity protests" outside the Orainsville prison, the Quebec City facility where those arrested last night are currently jailed. Protesters are shouting outside the prison walls for the unconditional release of all the remaining protesters who are imprisoned.

There are no scheduled actions planned for the security perimeter fence, as there were yesterday, but there are reports of tear gassings at Rene Levesque near the site of yesterday's initial fence destruction. CMAQ independent reporters have been dispatched to investigate.

More details as they become available. Minute-by-minute reports continue to filter in to the CMAQ newsroom.

Reporting from the protest in Quebec City, I'm Cliff Pearson, Quebec IMC.