Montreal police brutality video used by right-wing media to push anti-lockdown agenda

On Saturday, a video of Montreal police detaining and beating a man in Jeanne-Mance Park was posted on Twitter. No context was provided, but the video appears to clearly capture an excessive use of force, given the number of officers detaining one person and the severity of the blows.

pic.twitter.com/JeVYgZTNCl
— ag (@agnes_reiss) April 11, 2021

The video was later picked up by staff at Canadian right-wing media organization Rebel News as evidence of excessive enforcement of public health rules related to the pandemic. However, the person who posted the video, Agnes Reiss, said that the Jeanne-Mance Park incident had nothing to do with COVID restrictions.

.@RebelNewsOnline is using a video I shared on Twitter to push an anti-mask, anti-vax, anti-lockdown message. They did not consult the original poster of the video. If they had they’d know this has nothing to do with covid restrictions. I don’t fuck with covid-deniers. Fuck off.
— agnes (@agnes_reiss) April 11, 2021

Staff at Rebel News were involved in a Montreal police intervention of their own in the Old Port, where they were illegally gathered on an AirBNB boat. Their own video shows them antagonizing police officers before being briefly detained. According to the SPVM, no arrests were made on site though police broke up the gathering and are filing a report with the Crown Prosecutor’s Office, as CTV reported.

Rebel News Media are milking this footage and exaggerated claims about their interaction with Montreal police (as well as the SPVM’s legitimately bad reputation) in their campaign of anti-lockdown indignation.

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