This past week, the Independent Student Inquiry made available to the Daily, Le Delit, and the Tribune a set of eight documents from the Montreal police regarding the events of Nov. 10. Multiple police officers completed the documents, giving individual accounts of events. The Tribune has compiled the information to provide insight on the events of Nov. 10, specifically the use of tear gas on the McGill campus.

All information and quotations below have been translated from French.

5 p.m. Police were asked to perform crowd control manoeuvres at McGill University, and at the intersection of University and Milton. They reported around 200 “aggressive students and non-compliers.” Another report by Sergeant Martin Destrempes estimates around 400 individuals.

One officer, Mike Brown, recounts that a group of approximately 10 students started to resist police efforts. Some sat on the ground while others started to grab the shield of a police officer. He prepared to use tear gas.

5:15 p.m. At the east exit of the McGill campus and the intersection of Milton and University, Officer Brown used tear gas. 

“This action had the desired results,” he wrote in the report. “The individual released the shield and left with friends. He was bothered since he was coughing and rubbing his eyes.”

Sergeant Bruno Bolduc’s report gives further information regarding the use of tear gas toward protestors. He confirms Brown’s use of tear gas on the individual who grabbed the police shield.

A second usage of tear gas was described at the intersection of Milton and University.

“When we were making an advance on the south side of the road, there was a pocket of resistance that was using signs with pieces of wood and were pointing at the line of police officers,” Bolduc writes. “So, I used [tear gas] at this moment. The result was the same; the crowd distanced itself from our line.”

Sergeant Martin Destrempes describes observing a group of 25 individuals who refused to disperse. He describes the group as being made up of mostly men, aged 18-25. “I saw multiple individuals in this group push police officers with their hands against their shields, yelling at the police with their hands in the air and then hitting and grabbing the police and their equipment.”

He reports that the police gave at least 10 verbal warnings in both French and English for the protestors to move back. Following the verbal warnings, police are described as using their shields to push back the protestors as well as using batons to put pressure on the arms and shoulders of protestors.

All of this occurred at the upper level of the steps in James Square. Destrempes then reports that “considering that they found themselves on the highest level, and given that if the police officers effectively pushed the protestors they would fall to the lower level of the stairs and cause certain injury, I brought out my container of chemical irritants [section blanked in report] and I sprayed the group.”

Destrempes called for the arrest of these individuals, however they dispersed too quickly into the larger crowd and he was unable to proceed with their arrest.

6:30 p.m. The police operation ended.

In total, these documents reveal the use of tear gas in at least seven different instances by multiple police officers.

One document titled “Use of Chemical Irritants­—crowd control” reveals that the use of tear gas was authorized at 1:30 p.m. that day. In addition, it states that a total of 10 individuals were injured from these events.