He then stands in front of the consulate, usually flanked by other protesters, and chants the Ukrainian national anthem over a wireless speaker while shouting support for a country invaded by Russia in February. The anthem is preceded by the sounds of sirens and gunshots so people inside the consulate can hear what it’s like in Ukraine, Sasseville said. And even though he tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, the anthem was still being played on Monday as his fellow protesters took over the daily ritual. Everything was going as planned until Sacheville’s phone rang. It was Claude Fournier and Fournier’s sister-in-law who called to say something had gone terribly wrong.

A fight over the speaker

Sasseville, Montreal councilor for the Peter-McGill district of the Ville-Marie municipality, went to his doorstep. Sasseville’s friends told him that a man from the consulate was harassing them. The man insisted they stop playing the anthem and threatened to throw their speaker to the ground. “Which he did,” said Chaseville. But Fournier, who has been protesting in front of the consulate since the start of the war, found the broken speaker and continued to play the anthem. Claude Fournier, a renowned Canadian filmmaker, says a man threw his Bose speaker on the ground in front of the Russian Consulate before physically assaulting his sister-in-law. (Sharon Yonan-Renold/CBC) “He was basically saying, ‘Get out of here or I’ll get you out of here!’” Fournier said. “At one point I confronted him and he said, ‘I’m giving you five seconds to get out of here or else!’ Fournier is 91 years old and has a pacemaker. He decided it wasn’t safe to stand up to the man. He entered the street. His sister-in-law pulled out her phone and tried to film the fight, but the man chased after her, Fournier said. “He grabbed her and held her down. And he tried to take her phone. So she started yelling,” Fournier said.

The designs of the intrepid protestors are back

They called the police. Officers arrived about five minutes later and took witness reports. According to a spokesman for the Ville de Montréal Police Service (SPVM), officers responded to a call at the consulate, but no complaint was filed. The spokesman said there is no law against playing music on a public sidewalk. Fournier said the man who confronted them spoke French like a Quebecer and wondered if the man had been hired to intimidate the protesters. It wasn’t his first altercation with consulate officials, he said, and he suspects it won’t be his last. Sasseville says he will continue to display Ukrainian flags in his home as long as the war continues. (CBC) He plans to be better prepared when he returns to play the anthem at noon Tuesday, he said, this time with a camera at the ready and the speaker taped to him rather than to the ground so it can’t be easily thrown. “It was a little scary, especially because I wasn’t prepared for it at all,” Fournier said. “[Tuesday] it will be okay because I will proceed differently.” He will continue to fight for Ukrainians because, he explained, whatever happens here, “is nothing compared to their suffering.”

We continue to fight for Ukraine

Sasseville said his friends, interrupted by the collision, never completed the ritual. So after they left, he went out to his car which was parked on the street. “Even though it was raining, I rolled down the windows and played this recording of the Ukrainian national anthem three times,” Sasseville said. “They have to understand, we’re not going to stop doing what we’re doing because they threaten us.” Sasseville has been demonstrating almost daily in front of the Russian Consulate since March. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press) Sasseville said a consulate employee also assaulted him in early June and filed a complaint with Montreal police.
But he is undaunted. As long as the war continues, he said Ukrainian flags will be displayed in his home and the national anthem will be played every day by him or his friends. “No threat from the Russians will stop me,” he said. He said the intimidation must stop and is therefore in contact with Canada’s Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, insisting that the consulate and all its employees be expelled from the country. “It’s unacceptable. You have citizens who have pledged to show their opposition to a genocidal war and you have employees from a consulate attacking them,” he said. “They’re not just killing people in Ukraine. They’re attacking Canadians.” In a written statement, the consulate said none of its staff were involved or even present during the demonstration. “We feel we are not entitled to comment on what appears to be a dispute between Canadian residents,” the statement said.