Translating the printemps érable

May 27, 2012

Original French Text: http://tvanouvelles.ca/lcn/infos/regional/montreal/archives/2012/05/20120527-182354.html

A “local inquiry” was opened to determine why certain police officers of the Montreal police (SPVM) posted to the protest Saturday night were photographed and filmed wearing colored tape on their anti-riot helmets, hiding their service numbers.

For an agent not to identify themselves with the help of their service number constitutes an infringement on article 5 of the police code of ethics, which stipulates “the police officer must not omit to wear a prescribed mark of identification during relations with a member of the public”.               

“It was known and, effectively, the police officers were informed,” maintained Daniel Lacoursière, the spokesperson for the police service of the city of Montreal. He was content to clarify that “this inquiry” was managed “locally” by the district stations concerned.

M. Lacoursière claimed not to know how many police officers were involved, which stations they were associated with and which measure will be taken.

As of Saturday night, hundreds of Internet users had a video clip as well as a photo circulated on social networks showing some police officers whose anti-riot helmets showed colored tape both in front and in back.

Translated from the original French by Translating the printemps érable.

*Translating the printemps érable is a volunteer collective attempting to balance the English media’s extremely poor coverage of the student conflict in Québec by translating media that has been published in French into English. These are amateur translations; we have done our best to translate these pieces fairly and coherently, but the final texts may still leave something to be desired. If you find any important errors in any of these texts, we would be very grateful if you would share them with us at translatingtheprintempsderable@gmail.com. Please read and distribute these texts in the spirit in which they were intended; that of solidarity and the sharing of information.