Rebel reporter battles censorship efforts of Montreal police in court

Yanky Pollak, one of our Rebel journalists, has returned to court to challenge some of the tickets he received while covering the curfew imposed in Montreal in 2021. 

During the pandemic, it was the province of Quebec that put in place the toughest measures. One of these restrictions was a curfew between 6 am and 8 pm that began on January 9, 2021, as a 28-day action, and finally ended after 139 days. 

On the weekend of April 24 - April 25, Yanky Pollak was on the Montreal streets during the evenings reporting on the curfew.

This is the event that happened on April 25, when @Yanky_Pollak was repeatedly ticketed during the curfew while doing his job. https://t.co/KFNB96wxuP

— Alexandra Lavoie (@ThevoiceAlexa) February 3, 2023

He had a lot of interactions with the same police officer during those two days. That same policeman wrote three of the four tickets Yanky received over the weekend. One was for noise, two were for jaywalking, and one was for failing to obey. This seemed to be an attempt to silence and prevent Mr. Pollak from doing his job properly.

For the jaywalking ticket case, @Yanky_Pollak mentioned that the street was closed by the police.

He mentioned that the policeman had his identification cards and his exemption paper, which made it impossible for him to do his job as a journalist.

— Alexandra Lavoie (@ThevoiceAlexa) February 3, 2023

Yanky left Florida the second week of January to attend his hearing. Most of them have been rescheduled due to a lack of time.

Recently, Mr. Pollak was virtually present at a hearing as he lives in Florida. The policeman involved in most of these tickets was there as well as the interpreter.

The judge postponed the verdict until April 4 to have more time to examine all the evidence of the case.

Thanks @ThevoiceAlexa

April 4 we will know https://t.co/HXV0snSTsb

— Yanky (@Yanky_Pollak) February 3, 2023

In this report, Yanky's lawyer Amelie Levasseur gives us an update on the situation and Yanky gives us his impression of the hearing.