2 arrests made after environmental protesters block Jacques-Cartier Bridge

Quebec provincial police say two people were arrested after protesters climbed the Jacques Cartier Bridge Tuesday morning, which led to traffic being fully halted in both directions.

The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) says the two individuals arrested will meet with investigators, and they could be facing mischief charges. There were no reported injuries.

The bridge was reopened to traffic around noon, after about seven hours.

“We closed the structure completely to make sure the individuals as well as authorities were safe,” SQ spokesperson Camille Savoie told reporters.

“We thank the population for their patience and trust,” the SQ said in a news release shortly before noon.

According to the Antigone Collective, which is made up of “experienced activist climbers,” two activists climbed the structure of the bridge connecting Montreal to the South Shore around 5 a.m.

Once at the top of the bridge, the climbers unfurled a red banner that read: “Oil is killing us.” The message was written in French and English.

By 10:35 a.m., SQ officers and firefighters were at the top of the bridge with the protesters. They began their descent roughly an hour later.

“Calmly, everyone got down,” Savoie said. “It wasn’t an operation that could get done quickly. It was done gradually to ensure safety.”

Initially, one lane of traffic was maintained towards Montreal, but the situation quickly forced authorities to completely close access to the bridge in both directions as a safety measure.

According to SQ spokesperson Sergeant Benoit Richard, it would have been impossible to maintain an open lane on the bridge during the operation.

“If it takes 10 minutes, it will take 10 minutes, but if it takes longer than that, we will make sure that everyone stays safe,” said Richard.

Montrealers mixed about protest

Some motorists were left frustrated by the closure.

“There’s always a problem with these roads,” said Raffael Longo. “My only way to work is the Jacques-Cartier Bridge. Now I have to go to the tunnel, but it’s going to take me hours. So it’s really, sometimes it’s ridiculous.”

“I don’t know if it’s the best way to protest,” said another Montrealer.

Others, however, were more sympathetic given the cause.

“If they are at the point of blocking the road, it’s because it’s important,” said Marie Émilie Gagné. “The government have to know what’s happening. So for me, it’s just something, I have to take the metro, (instead) of taking the bridge. So it’s just something I have to do. But for them, it’s the environment. It’s very important for me too. So I quite agree with what they’re doing right now.”

Added Dave Plante: “I’m sure it’s disruptive for some people getting to work, but that’s kind of the idea of a protest. Especially for climate change, which is going to be affecting us in a lot more ways than just a little problem to commute.”

Bonnardel under fire for comments

Quebec’s elected officials were less understanding.

Environment Minister Benoit Charette questioned how the protesters went about getting their message across.

“Completely unjustifiable and totally reprehensible,” he wrote on X. “These people do nothing to help the environment. They only frustrate people.”

Quebec Public Security Minister François Bonnardel also denounced the protest.

“This kind of civil disobedience is not a way to make yourself heard,” he wrote on X. “It is a selfish way to attract attention and only demonstrates a great lack of judgment and respect on the part of the organizers for Quebecers.”

Bonnardel also took aim at news organizations “giving airtime to these extremist groups” because it “(proves) them right and (encourages) them to do it again.”

That latter part of Bonnardel’s statement was later itself denounced by the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec (FPJQ), which called his words “unfortunate,” “disturbing,” and “one more example” of the “lack of understanding” of some elected officials of the role that journalists play in society.

“He’s completely mistaken about the target, it’s obvious that it’s the job of journalists, of the media, to report and give an account of an event that affects the daily lives of thousands of people,” said FPJQ president Éric-Pierre Champagne.

Five years since similar protest

On Facebook, the Antigone Collective pointed out that a similar stunt took place in 2019 to denounce the federal government’s “inaction” in the fight against climate change.

It argues that, in the five years since, the climate emergency has worsened and that the federal government “has taken no meaningful action” to reverse this trend.

Also on Facebook, when a user criticized the Collective for “disturbing ordinary workers who have no power,” the group responded: “All other means have been tried. It is urgent that the message be heard. Oil is killing us and climate change is already disrupting the lives of thousands of people.”

The group Last Generation Canada was also taking part in Tuesday’s protest. It is demanding the federal government join the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, “to stop the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030 and to support and finance other countries to make a rapid, equitable and just transition.”

“They’re doing this together with Last Generation Canada and Antigone Collective to demand real climate action from the federal government,” said Last Generation Canada spokesperson Laura Sullivan. “They’re demanding that Canada implement a National Emergency Management Agency and they’re demanding that Canada back the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty to end fossil fuels by 2030.

“That’s why these people climbed up this bridge today, to raise the alarm on this and to break through the status quo.

“They’ve written to their MPs. They’ve signed petitions. They’ve marched — hundreds of thousands of people were marching just here in Montreal in 2019 and nothing has changed. This crisis has just escalated.”

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The two groups are also calling on Ottawa to create a national emergency management agency to respond to climate disasters, such as wildfires and floods, and are calling for the closure of Enbridge’s 9B pipeline, which carries oil from Western Canada to Quebec.

On Oct. 8, 2019, three Extinction Rebellion activists also climbed the structure of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, which forced the closure of traffic lanes for more than an hour. The three protesters were then arrested.

–With files from La Presse Canadienne