A Facebook posting by a Montreal city councillor is causing outrage with condemnations from residents, at least one fellow councillor and even the mayor is distancing herself.
“To those who do civil disobedience, I say, thank you,” Coun. Christine Gosselin wrote on Facebook Wednesday night.
The comment comes on the heels of two protests Wednesday. Several people scaled the Jacques-Cartier Bridge to bring attention to the risks of climate change and dozens of others blocked traffic on René-Lévesque Boulevard.
Traffic was brought to a stand-still in both cases and police arrested dozens of people.
“Pushing people to doing this kind of disobedience, no I don’t think it’s right,” Montreal resident Sergio Leyva told Global News.
Marvin Rotrand, Montreal’s longest-serving city councillor, condemned Gosselin’s words.
“Civil disobedience is only acceptable in the rarest cases, and in my estimation its usually in the cases of genocide, systemic racial discrimination, but it should never put the general public in jeopardy,” Marvin Rotrand, who represents the Snowdon district in NDG, told Global News.
READ MORE: About 30 climate protesters arrested in downtown Montreal
Gosselin didn’t reply to repeated requests by Global News for comment.
Mayor Valérie Plante, who is a member of the same party, is distancing herself from Gosselin’s comment.
In a statement to Global News, Plante wrote:
“I consider this way of doing things is absolutely not productive, in addition to endangering the safety of people and the first responders.”
Some people may ask Gosselin to explain herself at the next city council meeting on Oct. 22.
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