from Press TV



Around 500 people took to the streets in the city of Montreal to participate in the 17th annual anti-police brutality march.

Police used horses, pepper-spray and kettling tactics to disperse the protesters. Early reports also said that scores of people were arrested.

“Before the march even began, they just ran to the crowd for no apparent reason and then since there was chaos they took that a reason to just charge into us with their batons and shields,” one of the demonstrators told Press TV.

Meanwhile, many believe that the worst acts of violence during marches in Montreal are committed by the police forces and not the demonstrators.

“They just brutalize us every time for nothing, we’re just walking the streets, they just start pushing us and everything else,” said another protester.

Canadian police is also accused of raping and abusing aboriginal women.

In a scathing report released on February 13, Human Rights Watch documented numerous accounts of women and girls in the province of British Columbia’s indigenous communities finding themselves in a constant state of fear.

The report also documented a number of disturbing allegations of rape and sexual assault at the hands of police.

The Canadian police also use force against students who have been protesting across Quebec since February 2012 in a bid to add up pressure on the provincial government to drop a plan to increase tuition fees.

Some of the demonstrations have turned violent, with many students detained during clashes with police.