Court rules that Anarchopanda can keep his head

Montreal has a controversial bylaw, P-6, that bans masked protesters in a demonstration and also demands that organizers of any protest file a route of the demonstration with police for it to be legal.

Quebec Superior Court Justice, Chantal Masse, struck down the mask restriction entirely. On the issue of filing a route the justice said that if the demonstration was planned and people were invited a route had to be filed but if the demonstration were spontaneous it was not feasible to file such a route. The bylaw banning masks was passed several years ago on May 18, 2012.

The former Montreal mayor, Gerald Tremblay, introduced P-6 after weeks of protest after the Charest Liberal Quebec provincial government planned to raise university fees. Masks and covered faces were becoming common and protests were often violent. Fines for breaking rules were increased under P-6.

In a protest the following year Anarchopanda, the informal mascot of the 2012 protest, lost his head, which was seized by police. The protests were in part fueled by the new bylaw. The person in the Panda costume, Julien Villeneuve, was fined:The man under the costume, a philosophy professor at the Maisonneuve College, received two $637 fines after he was caught in a kettle — a police manoeuvre to control protesters.A few days later, Villeneuve launched a fund-raising campaign, "Pandaction", to fight the bylaw, a campaign which led ultimately to the ruling that Anarchopanda could keep his head during demonstrations. The protesters won in a separate case as well in which the protesters challenged the right of the city to use the Highway Safety Code to prevent demonstrations.

Villeneuve said he was delighted at the court ruling and said he was optimistic that many protesters still facing stiff fines under the bylaw would see their cases dropped. Villeneuve said he thought that the costume would actually calm tensions with the police. Villeneuve said: "It's a lot easier for a panda to pacify than just a random dude walking in the streets." He said that there good reasons to wear a mask at a protest. Some protesters fear repercussions at their workplace if seen at a demonstration and others fear how recognition might affect their personal life.

Montreal Mayor, Denis Coderre, said he had not yet read the decision. He said that everyone had the right to freedom of expression but wearing a mask and providing authorities with an itinerary of a protest route have nothing to do with that right. He claimed he could not say whether the City of Montreal would appeal the ruling.

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Montreal police seize head of protest Panda

On Friday night, April 5, Montreal police seized Anarchopanda's head during a demonstration against a municipal bylaw. Montreal police said that the head was taken because the law forbids the wearing of masks during demonstrations.

Daniel Lacoursiere said the mask was also taken because it "is considered to be an exhibit and could be used in court." The man under the head, Julien Villeneuve, whose head was left intact, is a philosophy professor at Maisonneuve College. He has already received two fines of $637 each as he was caught by police. He was fined both for a wearing a mask and participating in an illegal protest. Back on March 22nd he was only fined for taking part in an illegal protest. The bylaw being protested, P-6, are the guidelines imposed on protesters who demonstrate in Montreal. Protesters object to many of the provisions of the bylaw including the filing of a route itinerary some time before the protest. The bylaw also prohibits the wearing of masks. Anarchopanda's head in police eyes is a mask and that is why it has been seized as an exhibit. In a kettling tactic the Panda was corralled along with 279 others who were each assessed the $637 fine for participating in an illegal assembly.

Anarchopanda has become an icon of the Quebec student protest last spring. His first appearance was on May 8, 2012. The professor under the head, tries to create a buffer between police and students in order to avoid violence at demonstrations. He describes himself as an anarcho-pacifist. In an interview with the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir, Villeneuve said: "If peaceful students deserve to be beat with police batons, pepper sprayed, shot with rubber bullets or flash grenades for demonstrating, so do I."

Villeneuve chose the Panda suit because it was what he thought was the nicest and cheapest costume he could find on eBay China. Before buying the Panda suit, he had tried to use what he calls his "human skin" as a buffer between police and students but he finds that the Panda suit is more practical and less paternalist. There has been no word from the Chinese embassy protesting police brutality in removing the head of a giant panda