Looting in Montreal after peaceful protest turns violent

Protests in Montreal on Sunday began with peaceful demonstrations at 5 p.m. outside police headquarters on St. Urbain Street, but they turned violent, and then the looting began. The protest was in reaction to the deaths of George Floyd as well as the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet.

As has happened in so many cities across the continent over the past week, the peaceful demonstration turned to violence, and after that, violence turned to looting. Shop windows were smashed, and people stormed in to commit mass acts of left.

The protests and violence in Montreal Sunday night resulted in 11 arrests.

Some of those breaking into shops decided to steal guitars. People can be seen jumping through shop windows and emerging with musical instruments, to the sounds of shouting, whoops and hollers.

The march moved from St. Urbain down to St. Catherine Street, in the heart of downtown Montreal. Earlier in the action protestors set a barricade on fire. Tear gas and pepper spray was thrown by police.

Police moved in on protestors, who had been throwing things at them.

These events led Montreal police to declare that the gathering was illegal.

As they marched through downtown Montreal prior to the violence, protestors could be heard to shout "F*ck the police."

Floyd's life was taken one week ago in Minneapolis at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin. Regis Korchinski-Paquet died when she fell from her balcony in Toronto, after police had entered her 24th floor apartment, on May 27.

The Montreal action was organized by Justice for Victims of Police Killings, and was in solidarity with those protests that have been a nightly occurrence in many US cities since May 26, the night after Floyd's death.

Protestors gathered in Toronto on Saturday, and marched to police headquarters there.

Chauvin, the officer directly responsible for Floyd's death, and his actions that fateful night one week ago, has been widely rebuked and condemned by civilians, politicians, and law enforcement. The video that circulated online of him with his knee pinned against Floyd's neck, while Floyd was detained against the pavement, has led to this outrage.

Chauvin was charged with murder and manslaughter last week, and has since been moved to a maximum security prison.