MONTREAL – Municipal workers in Montreal protesting the province’s pension reform have granted themselves permission to burn down the city’s famed l’Hotel de ville as well as several other borough halls throughout the city.
“I’ve got a permit right here,” said municipal clerk Éve-Marie Charbonneau handing the recently created documents over to police officer and fellow protester Marc Chamberlain. “This has been signed by a city clerk and is effective immediately.”
A new by-law also permits municipal workers to vandalize public property, assault municipal politicians and be eligible for overtime if protests are more than an hour long.
While Mayor Coderre protested the affront to civil democracy, municipal unions were quick to defend this abrupt change in by-laws by citing the new by-laws.
“They’re only following the legislation; we have nothing to do with this,” said Alex Dorion, union chief of the Associations des pompiers de Montreal who will be overseeing the controlled burn.
At press time, members of the police force became confused on who was protesting and bludgeoned several of their own members.
