Katie Nelson
Katie Nelson, slammed to the ground for confronting undercover cop
At least four undercover police officers were caught attempting to infiltrate a protest this week, and one of them reportedly pulled a gun on protesters when he was confronted about his identity. According to The Link Newspaper, one Concordia student, Katie Nelson approached an undercover officer suspiciously and asked him about his identity, and he reacted by slamming her to the ground. The young girl ended up being hospitalized as a result of the attack.

Nelson and another protester by the name of Zachary Savard told The Link that one of the officers pulled a gun on them when he was confronted about being an agent.

"As we came to them, they just took a gun out, and said move," Savard said.

Meanwhile, other undercover agents on the scene grabbed a random protester from the crowd and drug him to a parking lot where they arrested him.

A spokesperson for the Montreal police department admitted that there were plainclothes officers at the scene of the protest, and said that this is a "method" sometimes used by the department.

The protests were attended by hundreds of people who had a number of different grievances ranging from police brutality to budget cuts.


In most cases, political protestors are nonviolent and do everything they possibly can to avoid clashes with the police. Demonstrators are well aware that they are outmatched and are only assembling in groups and taking to the streets as a way of promoting their political ideas - this is the essence of free speech. This is an extremely powerful political freedom, which is why it is met with such hostility from the establishment. Almost every single time there is a public protest, the authorities are unsympathetic and use heavy force to discourage protests from taking place in the future. However, they don't attack the mob with guns blazing because they know it will further expose their oppressive nature and add credibility to the revolutionary movement.

So agent provocateurs are used to instigate physical altercations between activists and authorities. Agent Provocateurs are people that work for the authorities, but pretend to be a part of an anti-establishment mob. While undercover, these agents commit acts of violence and vandalism to give the police a pretense to use force against the demonstrators. Once the agent smashes one window or throws one rock on behalf of the group they have infiltrated, the authorities are able to send in the cavalry and turn the demonstration into a war zone.