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With her punk look and dyed hair, Jennifer Paquette has been a fixture at demonstrations in downtown Montreal for years.

Known as Bobette on the street, the 33-year-old circus artist participated in student strikes in the spring of 2012 and organized protests against police brutality and capitalism.

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As a political activist, she often carried a megaphone and belted out slogans chanted by protesters.

Her rabble-rousing caught the attention of a group of Montreal police officers from downtown Station 21 who kept tabs on her at marches and crossed paths with her at a club on St-Denis St., where she organized punk shows.

Between 2012 and 2014, she says she was harassed because of her ideals and her participation in marches. “They would spot me at the demonstration and say: ‘Hey Bobette, on va te poigner et tu vas passer au cash (we’re going to grab you and you’re going to pay),’ ” she told the Montreal Gazette in an interview.