Another one of the three activists arrested last week, when the Jacques Cartier Bridge was closed for hours during a protest against fossil fuels, has been granted a conditional release.
Jacob Pirro, 24, of Montreal appeared before Quebec Court Judge Lucie Jonas at the Montreal courthouse on Tuesday where he agreed to follow a series of conditions to be released. Pirro is alleged to be one of two men who scaled the bridge after 5 a.m. on Oct. 22 and remained at the top for hours. The protest caused traffic chaos, especially on the South Shore, when the Sûreté du Québec closed the span in both directions.
Pirro and two other people — Olivier Huard, 47, and Michèle Lavoie, 39 — were arrested when the protest came to an end. All three were charged with mischief by preventing people from using the bridge. Pirro and Huard were also charged with resisting arrest. Last week, a lawyer who represented all three in court said Lavoie was acting as a liaison between the climbers and the police.
While the protest was underway, a spokesperson for the protesters said Pirro was part of a group of activists called Last Generation Canada and Huard was part of a group called Collectif Antigone. Last Generation Canada said the protest was staged to call on the federal government to sign the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, which calls for an end to the expansion of fossil fuel extraction.
Both groups said in a statement Tuesday that Huard “started a hunger strike on Saturday morning, demanding his immediate release with no conditions, and is consequently being held in isolation.”
Initially, the Crown opposed the release of all three and they were ordered detained for a bail hearing to be held on Oct. 31. The Crown changed its tune on Friday when it agreed that Lavoie could be released. The same was done for Pirro on Tuesday.
Pirro agreed to not be in the presence of the co-accused unless it is for a meeting with a lawyer, or lawyers, in the case involving the Jacques Cartier Bridge and in a case at the municipal courthouse in which Pirro and Huard are set to have a five-day trial in November. In that case, Piro and Huard face charges related to a protest held in Montreal in 2022.
Pirro is also not allowed to possess weapons and he is not allowed to participate in protests while his case is pending. An unusual condition prohibits him from possessing any equipment used for climbing.
Huard is still scheduled to have a bail hearing on Thursday. He has a criminal record involving a breaking and entering charge he pleaded guilty to in 2014 for taking part in a protest in a regional park in the Lac-St-Jean region in 2013.
After Pirro appeared on Tuesday, prosecutor Annabelle Sheppard told reporters the Crown objects to Huard’s release because he represents a potential for reoffending and that a well-informed member of the public would lose confidence in the justice system if he is released.
Also on Tuesday, Parti Québécois MNA Pascal Berubé said in a release that his party would present a motion in the National Assembly stating that while the Legislature recognizes the freedom of expression in the province, “this freedom of expression must be exercised in such a way as not to put public safety at risk.”
The same release notes “that the recent blockage of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge on Oct. 22 notably caused an increase in cancellations of medical procedures, including at the CHUM, which had to cancel a total of 437 appointments.”