MONTRÉAL, Thursday November 25th 2004. It’s with great dismay that the COBP learned that Judge Joseph Tarasofsky, of the Cour du Québec, chose to send two accused from the March 15th 2000 case to prison.

COPB condemns Judge Tarasofsky’s decision to imprison two of the accused from March 15th 2000

MONTRÉAL, Thursday November 25th 2004. It’s with great dismay that the COBP learned that Judge Joseph Tarasofsky, of the Cour du Québec, chose to send two accused from the March 15th 2000 case to prison.

Éric and Dany both were hit with a sentence of 15 months of incarceration, for being found guilty of ‘participating in a riot’ at the end of the March 15th 2000 mega trial.

The 39 other accused found guilty in this ordeal all managed to avoid imprisonment. The majority of them received assorted conditional discharges with orders to perform 50 hours of community services.

Nevertheless, Tarasofsky wanted to make an ‘example’ with Éric and Dany after identifying them on one of the videos, taking part in ransacking a McDonalds’ during the March 15th 2000 demonstration.

COBP denounces the unjust and excessive punishment that Judge Tarasofsky inflicted on these two accused. Along with many other accused, Éric and Dany lost significant wages as they were forced to attend numerous weeks of the trial.

What will society gain by punishing them even further?

COBP points out also that people who commit violent crimes against others, often receive much less severe sentences. Even if it did provoke damages, the March 15th 2000 demo did not cause any harm to any person.

In the worst case, clients and workers of a few McDonalds’ experienced a few moments of fear. Given such, in the eyes of COBP, there is nothing in the behaviour of the two accused that can justify imposing such a severe sentence.

As well, COBP questions what was the impact of the article written by Christiane Desjardins, published in La Presse’s Thursday paper. The tone of the article clearly suggests that the Judge Tarasofsky was being soft with respect to the accused that were offered discharges.

This article minimalized everything that the accused endured during the 18 week mega trial of March 15th 2000. Could it have influenced Tarasofsky to be harsher towards Éric and Dany? For COBP, it is a possibility not to be disregarded.

One thing that is certain, is that COBP is offering all the support possible to the two political prisoners of March 15th 2000, to help get thru this difficult test which began today.

Collective Opposed to Police Brutality
c...@hotmail.com, (514) 859-9065