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The Killing of Fredy Villanueva 8th Anniversary

By N Oji Mzilikazi

9 August 2016

The heavy snow and icy cold of winter can be so overwhelming, extended, and depressing, when summer arrives, Montrealers are about extracting as much heat and fun as is possible from its short stay.

Saturdays, especially when steaming hot, tend to be lazy days; days where persons want to do nothing except to “lime,” chill, hang-out, kick back, “shoot the breeze,” play dominoes, play cards, barbecue, play in the park, be in the park, watch girls go by or simply have a cold one in one’s backyard with family and friends.

It was on one such day, smack dab in the midst of summer — Saturday August 9, 2008, to be precise; a confluence of events brought a premature end to summer — for numerous residents in Montreal North…

 

From my forthcoming: The Killing of Fedy Villanueva: Policing, Race Bias & Media Complicity In Canada.

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Reading Police, Police Unions The Riot Act

Reading Police, Police Unions The Riot Act

Coddled for too long

By N Oji Mzilikazi

Originally published in the Montreal Community Contact Volume 23, Number 06 March 21, 2013

When I saw Yves Francoeur, head of the Montreal Police Brotherhood on television last week calling for the firing of city manager Guy Hébert, over a report that Hébert tried to get Montreal Police Chief Marc Parent fired, and for independence between police work and politics, I had to laugh – at the irony, his brazenness, the duplicity, the underlying politics, the idiocy.

And had flashbacks to Yves Prud’homme, a former head of the Montreal police brotherhood, who called for the removal of Police Chief Alain Saint-Germain. Also Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association (union), who called for the resignation of Sid Ryan, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour…