SPVM Kettles Protesters at Daycare Demonstration

Special IssueJade Nordstrom — Published April 1, 2014

The demonstration, organized by Arc-en-Ciel Daycare as part of their daily outdoor exercise routine, was broken up by police after only an hour as the protesters began to march down Peel St.

A statement by the Montreal police said the demonstration was in violation of bylaw P-6, which requires that organizers submit a route ahead of a protest and prohibits participants from covering their faces.

The protesters were surprised when they were kettled, despite not submitting a route to the police and the fact that many participants wore scarves over their faces.

“We’ve done this a bunch of times,” said Lucy Leclair, a teacher at Arc-en-Ciel and an organizer of the event. “Like, we were out literally every day last week. We’ve never had a problem before.”

The demonstration began with a short round of tag and the building of a couple snowmen, but the police only declared the event illegal when protesters began to march.

As the protesters moved south on Peel St.—towards the Arc-en-Ciel building, the headquarters for the event—an officer announced over loudspeaker that the protest was illegal under bylaw P-6 and told the crowd to disperse. However the protesters stuck together, continuing their march, and were quickly kettled by police.

“What, they wanted me to send a bunch of four-year-olds off by themselves?” asked Leclair incredulously. “And we weren’t going to stay outside. We’d been out there for an hour already. It’s cold!”

“I want my mommy,” said Sara Rigby, one of the demonstrators, through her sobs while still in the kettle.

Leclair was the only person arrested despite the high number of detentions. A spokesperson for the SPVM explained that they didn’t want to arrest any minors because “it’s like, a lot of paperwork.”

Leclair told reporters she planned on organizing more demonstrations in the future.

“Next time we’ll just stay in the backyard.”

NOTE: This is spoof content. All characters and events in this article—even those based on real people—are entirely fictional.