Last Wednesday, Jennifer Pawluck, a 20-year-old student, was arrested in Montreal for posting a picture on Instagram of a graffiti painting that depicted the city’s police commander, Ian Lafreniere, with a bullet hole in his forehead. Pawluck did not draw the anti-cop graffiti, which was plastered on a brick wall in Montreal’s Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighborhood — she simply snapped the picture and posted it.
It is true that Montreal has rather strict laws in place to fine and even arrest graffiti artists, but it is incredibly unfair to penalize someone for simply taking a picture of a contemporary form of art. Montrealers take pride in keeping Canada’s most European city looking clean and picturesque, but the idea that someone wishing to capture a creative image and share it on an Instagram account should be arrested is completely ludicrous. At a time when people around the world are participating in many protests and uprisings, we should be able to post, tweet, share and scream whatever we feel.
It seems that as time progresses and the authorities around the world see how empowering social media is, censorship and surveillance is on the rise. For example, the FBI has made it extremely clear that it intends to spy on Internet activity in real time instead of waiting for warrants.
So what happens to Pawluck? She is set to be tried in court on April 17 and will likely be charged with “uttering threats,” or “criminal harassment,” according to her attorney. A spokesperson for the Montreal police, Constable Dany Richer, told the CBC: “There are circumstances that surrounded the publication of this image, circumstances that we can’t reveal because it is still under investigation.”
It truly frightens me how such a modern and artistic act is still under investigation. What is there to investigate? A 20-year-old snapped a photo of some cool and worthy graffiti that ended up on Instagram — what is the big deal? If we take a step back and analyze this situation from a different perspective, all we see is a student who took a picture; how could this be a punishable act?
Jennifer Pawluck is just one case out of the rising number of censorship attempts being made by the authorities. This kind of extreme police intervention and examination is distasteful and does not belong in a society that values free speech.
Noah Eckstein is a contributing columnist. Email him at [email protected].