Richard Martineau wants to spew pro-genocide bile in Quebec’s biggest paper without being questioned. The fragility of this anti ‘woke’ commentator is simply embarrassing. But did Martineau break the law in lying to get me arrested?
On Saturday evening I was having ice cream with my four-year-old on Saint Denis Street. As Zuri finished her cone — with help from papa — Martineau and his wife Sophie Durocher, who is also a reactionary radio/television commentator, walked by. I immediately called out to Martineau and pulled out my phone to question the prominent right-wing pundit.
The pro-billionaire, ecocidal, anti-feminist commentator has been censured by the Quebec Press Council more than a half dozen times for a variety of misdeeds. As I discovered 15 months ago when I bumped into him on the other side of the same street, Martineau lies compulsively. At that time, I asked “What do you think about the genocide in Gaza?” and as I wrote in “Anti-Muslim columnist lies, claims victimhood over on-street interview”, Martineau “didn’t want to talk about it, murmuring about waiting for pizza. Thirteen seconds after I asked the question Martineau snatched my phone, keeping it until I became ever more vocal in demanding it back. He then started mimicking me mockingly when I stuttered in asking a follow up question. Subsequently Martineau lunged towards my phone twice.
Martineau has done a half dozen radio segments related to the incident, portraying himself as a victim while lying about my initial tone, language of communication, my distance from him and the time between my question and him snatching my phone. He had a Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) spokesperson on his program who labeled me an ‘antisemite’ and Martineau claimed, ‘it’s a good thing I wasn’t wearing a kippah, otherwise that guy would have physically attacked me.’ Another clip he produced was headlined ‘Richard Martineau attacked by a ‘crazy’ known for the wrong reasons.’”
Martineau was still posting about that interaction in recent weeks. As such, when I saw him on Saturday my first question was to ask about the status of his police complaint against me. He refused to answer about his lying ways and began filming (Durocher also filmed everything). Subsequently I asked about his support for genocide and Islamophobia.
As you can hear on my video, Martineau called the police claiming I was “hyper aggressive”. Presumably, he also said I threatened him, which is a belied by my (and I’m certain Durocher’s) video of the exchange. A minute after I walked away a police officer jumped out of a vehicle, saying I was being investigated for “threats”. Martineau and Durocher had followed me and my daughter halfway down the block and looked giddy about siccing the police on me.
At this point I yelled at Martineau for seeking to have me arrested. The police cuffed me in front of Zuri, which made her cry. With dozens witnessing the embarrassing scene, the police removed the cuffs and let me sit with her on the sidewalk as they investigated. Ultimately, four cop cars with six or seven police arrived. A white shirted — high ranking — officer joined the decision making, which included multiple phone calls who knows how far up the chain of command. After 20 minutes of holding me on the street, the cops charged me. They then detained me in the back of a cop car for 20 minutes as they processed the charge. Bored, but no longer upset, Zuri sat on the sidewalk with a police officer next to her.
What did Martineau tell the police? Who did he contact in the force?
My video of the interaction has nothing approaching a threat yet that’s what the initial cop said he was detaining me to investigate. (Unsurprisingly nearly forty-eight hours after the incident Durocher hasn’t released her video of the incident.) In fact, my video shows that rather than being ‘threatened’ or ‘harassed’ Martineau returns four or five metres to reengage me in conversation. Additionally, when I left with my daughter and walked the opposite way Durocher and Martineau had been travelling, they doubled back.
It’s against the law to file a false police report or lie to a 911 operator. As such, Green Party of Quebec leader Alex Tyrrell assisted me in submitting an access to information request to the Montreal police to find out exactly what Martineau told the dispatcher.
I have been charged with “criminal harassment” and had to sign conditions for my release saying I won’t communicate directly or indirectly with Martineau and Durocher and cannot have a firearm (I’ve never had one). I have a date in November to have my fingerprints taken and another to appear in court.
Irrespective of this ‘the process is the punishment’ harassment, there’s self-evidently nothing illegal about asking a prominent media personality — or anyone for that matter — a question on the street.
When Martineau suggested it was illegal for me to question him 15 months ago, University of Montréal law professor Frédéric Bérard published a long post noting: “The street and the sidewalk are public places, where the expectation of privacy is almost zero; 2) Martineau is a long-standing public figure; 3) It is certainly not pleasant to be filmed for the purposes of an impromptu interrogation about one’s silence in the face of a genocide (especially when one has relentlessly attacked Muslims, after 700 columns judged essentially Islamophobic by a master’s thesis evaluated by a university jury), but the fact remains that this is in no way criminal.”
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