HALIFAX—Halifax Regional Police arrested two people during a May Day rally on Tuesday night, but a group at the event says undue force was used by some of the officers who showed up.

According to a statement released on the Industrial Workers of the World Halifax’s Facebook page late Tuesday night, some members of the group were allegedly pushed forcefully off the street during the march.

A video of the incident posted by the group shows about a dozen adults and children marching down Gottingen St. followed by police vehicles and officers on foot.

A man is seen being pushed off the street by police in the video.

“As the group broke out into a collective singing of Solidarity Forever, the Halifax Regional Police intervened with officers on foot, in multiple cars and at least one large van, drew non-lethal weapons without provocation and physically forced the workers off the street,” the post reads.

“In response to the celebration of collective worker solidarity, more officers arrived on the scene than there were marchers, and shut down the road for longer than it had been occupied by the march.”

The statement goes on to say that two people were arrested.

Brad Vaughan, correspondence secretary for the group, said in an interview Wednesday that the annual march has followed the same route for the last several years without incident.

“I think that commands delivered by police officers need to comply with the basic expectations of democracy and workers’ rights to express political dissent in the public sphere and I don't think that police have any right to escalate to violence or conduct arrests in a situation in which people are lawfully exercising their democratic right,” he said.

A police statement released Wednesday morning says that officers asked protesters to move to the sidewalk. Most of the group complied but several declined before two people were arrested for breach of the peace.

Police note that those arrested were released from custody a short time later.

In an interview Wednesday, Halifax Regional Police Insp. Dean Simmonds said when asked about the allegations being made, that any concerns of the public should be directed to the HRP’s public complaint process.

“What I can say is our daily interactions are the foundation of our relationship with the public, it consists with their trust within us and whenever a situation unfolds in this manner it is a matter of concern for us,” Simmonds said.

He wouldn’t get into specifics on how the protest was handled by officers, but said they were there because the situation “escalated into safety concerns for themselves and others in the area.”

Read more about: