A video filmed during a protest in Victoriaville, in the Canadian province of Quebec, shows a policeman aiming at a crowd with a gun followed by an image of a protester on the ground, with blood staining the back of his head. According to the protest’s organisers, these images prove that Quebec police shot at protesters’ heads with plastic bullets. We spoke to the person who filmed this video.

For more than three months now, students have been protesting against a 75 percent hike in tuition fees, ordered by Quebec Premier Jean Charest. Their movement gradually spread to include the country’s unions, who more largely reject the austerity measures imposed by the current government. According to experts, this may well be the biggest protest in Quebec’s history.

This video was filmed by William Ray, who explained that he filmed three sequences just a few seconds apart. He says he stopped his camera when the police fired, in order to help the wounded student. These images cannot prove whether the student on the ground was hit by a police bullet.



As with many of the recent protests, the one in Victoriaville quickly descended into violence , with the police spraying protesters with tear gas and protesters throwing stones. Both sides have reported numerous injuries. This time, however, protest organisers said that “police repression escalated”, and have accused the police of putting protesters’ lives in danger by using plastic bullets. Three protesters were seriously wounded on Wednesday, notably Alexandre Allard, a university student who suffered a head injury. As of Friday, May 11, he was still in the hospital.

On this slowed-down version of the video, a policeman can be seen taking aim at 0'5 seconds. According to protesters, a colleague to the right of the policeman is showing him where to shoot.

For the first time since the Victoriaville protest, Quebec’s police admitted during a press conference Thursday that Allard’s injury may have been caused by a projectile shot by one of its officers. Until then, the police had denied having wounded three young men, one of whom lost the use of an eye.

However, the security minister has said no investigation would be launched until it was firmly established that Allard’s injury was caused by a policeman.