Crane at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal / June 8th, 2020. Photo credit: Kristopher Crane.
In the weeks following the death of George Floyd, demonstrations, protests and riots have erupted not just in the United States and Canada but across the entire world. The people are clearly sick of police brutality and are willing to stand up to it and fight it wherever it rears its ugly head. This includes the city of Montreal, Quebec which has a long history of racial profiling within its police department, the SPVM (Service de Police de la Ville de Montreal).
Protesting against the SPVM and police brutality in general began in Montreal on Sunday, May 31st, with a massive march led by the Black Lives Matter movement through the downtown area. Things turned ugly late that night when heavily armoured riot police prevented the peaceful protesters from marching along the SPVM headquarters located on St. Urbain Street. The police launched tear gas at the protesters, while up the street looters who were not associated with the peaceful protest began to cause wanton destruction on Saint-Catherine Street, including stealing tens of guitars from Steve’s Music Store (though several of these instruments were later returned and the owner said that it was worth the guitars being stolen to address the issue of racism).
The protesting continued the following Sunday on June 7th in the same area, consisting of a large demonstration of several thousand people that turned into a march. The march eventually ended near Champ de Mars metro station when police officers on bicycles (a common sight in Montreal) blockaded a nearby ramp leading to the highway and one officer pepper-sprayed an peaceful protester, leading to subsequent brutalization of everyone at the march by the riot police who had surrounded the protesters on both sides of the street. The inciting incident was captured in a photo by William Wilson (via Instagram) as you can see below.
As chaos erupted many protesters attempted to leave the downtown area but were chased and ran out by the police forces. One such protester was Kristopher Crane, also known by his musician’s alias of Forest Wanderer. Crane, who is best known for his work as Nemophilist and the his variety YouTube channel, but also for his secondary ambient project Pretty Little Flowers and as the vocalist of black metal band Impaled Upon the Mountains, was shoved to the ground by SVPM riot police, resulting in a severe concussion and whiplash that has left him with serious short term memory loss, loss of balance, loss of motor skills, and nausea in the days since. He had also been subject to the effects of tear gas which left him temporarily blinded and with slight burn marks on his face.
Crane posted a lengthy diatribe to Facebook the following day describing the incident.
WARNING: THIS WILL PROBABLY PISS YOU OFF SO IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO EVERYTHING THATS GOING ON WITH PROTESTS DON’T READ IT!!
Yesterday there was a huge protest here in Montreal, Me and my room mate couldn’t attend the beginning of it due to business related to moving into a new place. We arrived at the very end when most people had tapered off but still a lot of people in attendance. we were peacefully watching a demonstration when we decided to leave and walk towards what we thought was another demonstration. When we got there shit hit the fan, Police began firing tear gas at the protesters making it painfully obvious they were trying to hit them with the cans, we were running as fast as we could and it was one of the most terrifying moments in my life. Anyway I got a face full of tear gas, blinding me and causing me to vomit twice. I was sitting on a ledge getting water poured in my eyes and coughing when a wall of riot police started to walk towards us on the street screaming for us to leave.( I only know this because I could hear them) we were sitting in a public area trying to give me first aid with an injury that they caused. I still couldn’t see so I was trying my best to walk away and leave, If I ran I would have surely slammed into something or fallen off of something.Luckily my room mates were there to kind of guide me. Anyway I got to the bottom of the hill and started to walk across a grassy area when HEAVILY ARMED AND ARMOURED riot police began running (once again i could hear their screaming approaching rapidly). I tried to see what they were doing by slightly turning around (still blind, I don’t know what I was thinking, I was blind) I felt two hands on my shoulders and I was air born (this cop was running at full speed). I hit the ground with tremendous force landing on my back. My neck snapped backwards and slammed the back of my head into the ground, knocking me out for a few seconds. When I came to I found I couldn’t walk, Trust me I tried. I started crawling, still blind, in fear thinking I was going to be shot with rubber bullets or beaten with batons but couldn’t stay conscious. when I came to ten seconds later or so I was being held up by the same girl that poured water in my eyes moments before and my room mates saying ”you are Kristopher Crane, that is your name, Can you hear us???”.The riot cop shoved a temporarily blind person with every bit of strength he had after seeing me walk down the hill stumbling blindly and trying to do exactly what they were telling me to do. After that an ambulance was called and I was put in back. I’ve had time to think this over, and I was a little apprehensive to make this status but I think my story needs to be told. Today my neck is killing me, my head is killing me. I also am getting very confused over very basic tasks. Not only did the police blind me like cowards but they horribly injured me like cowards. What if I had hit concrete?? I would be dead right now. What if the tear gas had permanently blinded me? I could forget ever really making films or music, skateboarding, writing my cook book, cooking in general, they would have stolen everything but my life from me. I know this is happening everywhere and there are huge issues to deal with in the world right now #blacklivesmatter but like I said I just wanted to share my story. Please share this as much as you want to raise awareness that police cannot keep doing this to people.
Later in the week a video surfaced on Twitter showing Crane from behind resting on the ground held up by Erin Faith (Ratpiss, Mistwalker) alongside Greg Ravengrave (Mistwalker, Ratpiss).
Several other protesters had arrived to treat the effects of the tear gas and paramedics were called to assess his injuries at two separate instances in the hours that followed. As of the time of this writing Crane has been to the hospital and been seen by nurses and doctors to assess the severity of his injuries and he is expected to make a full recovery within the next few weeks.
Crane, who is originally from Carbonear, had been living in the United Kingdom since 2017 and had recently moved to Montreal in January of 2020.
~ Akhenaten
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