Laval police caught muddying cars in apparent Bill 3 protest

Laval police are investigating after a video was posted to Facebook that showstwo of their squad cars racingthrough a muddy construction siteand spatteringa third cruiser parked nearby.

Charles Ledoux posted the video on August 1. He wrote that he filmed the incident at 6 a.m. and that the cruisers repeated the actionthree times. The video has since been taken down.

The officers were dirtying their cars in an apparent protest against the Quebec governments proposed pension reform legislation, Bill 3, wroteLedoux, who added that thespeed limit at the construction site was 10 km/h.

Municipal workers across Quebec have been employing pressure tactics to protest against the proposed legislation, which would see municipal employees and cities evenly splitthe cost of pension plan deficits.

Municipal Affairs Minister Pierre Moreauhas pegged the deficits atnearly $4 billion across the province.

• Quebec aims to reform pension plans of municipal workers
• Quebec municipal employees stop work to protest pension bill
• Montreal police call in sick to protest pension reforms

In Montreal, those tactics includepolice plastering their squad cars with anti-Bill 3stickers and ditching their uniforms, instead donningred baseball caps and camouflage pants.

Force investigates, union empathizes

Laval police confirmed toCBC News that the squad cars are theirs and saidthey are investigating the actions seen in the video.

Laval police Chief Insp.Andre Python saidit's too soon to know if the officers involved will face disciplinary action.

He said the apparent misconduct in the video is not indicative of the force as a whole, adding that the service expectsofficers tocarry out their duties with professionalism.

Marc Ranger, spokesman fora coalition representing thousands of unionized municipal workers from across Quebec, said he couldn't condemn the actions captured in the video.

"Right now our membership are pissed off about [Bill 3]. They have the sense that it will steal their pension fund. So people are not only upset, but they're mad," he said.

"If the government doesn't change Bill 3, this could get worse," he added.