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Abel Gance

Abel Gance (born Abel Eugène Alexandre Péréthon; 25 October 1889 – 10 November 1981) was a French film director, producer, writer and actor. A pioneer in the theory and practice of montage, he is best known for three major silent films: J'accuse (1919), La Roue (1923), and Napoléon (1927).

Early life
Born in Paris in 1889, Abel Gance was the illegitimate son of a prosperous doctor, Abel Flamant, and a working-class mother, Françoise Péréthon (or Perthon). Initially taking his mother's name, he was brought up until the age of eight by his maternal grandparents in the coal-mining town of Commentry in central France. He then returned to Paris to rejoin his mother, who had by then married Adolphe Gance, a chauffeur and mechanic, whose name Abel then adopted.

Although he later fabricated the history of a brilliant school career and middle-class background, Gance left school at the age of 14, and the love of literature and art which sustained him throughout his life was in part the result of self-education. He started working as a clerk in a solicitor's office, but after a couple of years he turned to acting in the theatre. When he was 18, he was given a season's contract at the Théâtre Royal du Parc in Brussels, where he developed friendships with the actor Victor Francen and the writer Blaise Cendrars.

Silent films
While in Brussels, Gance wrote his first film scenarios, which he sold to Léonce Perret. Back in Paris in 1909, he acted in his first film, Perret's Molière. At that stage, he regarded the cinema as "infantile and stupid" and was only drawn into film jobs by his poverty, but he nevertheless continued to write scenarios, and often sold them to Gaumont. During this period he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, often fatal at that time, but after a period of retreat in Vittel he recovered. With some friends, he established a production company, Le Film Français, and began directing his own films in 1911 with La Digue (ou Pour sauver la Hollande), a historical film which featured the first screen appearance of Pierre Renoir. Gance tried to maintain a connection with the theatre and he finished writing a monumental tragedy entitled Victoire de Samothrace, in which he hoped that Sarah Bernhardt would star. Its five-hour length, and Gance's refusal to cut it, proved to be a stumbling block.

With the outbreak of World War I, Gance was rejected by the army on medical grounds, and in 1915 he started writing and directing for a new film company, Le Film d'art. He soon caused controversy with La Folie du docteur Tube, a comic fantasy in which he and his cameraman Léonce-Henri Burel created some arresting visual effects with distorting mirrors. The producers were outraged and refused to show the film. Gance nevertheless continued working for Film d'Art until 1918, making over a dozen commercially successful films. His experiments included tracking shots, extreme close-ups, low-angle shots, and split-screen images. His subjects moved steadily away from simple action films towards psychological melodramas, such as Mater dolorosa (1917) starring Emmy Lynn as a neglected wife who has an affair with her husband's brother. The film was a great commercial success, and it was followed by La Dixième Symphonie, another marital drama featuring Emmy Lynn. Here Gance's mastery of lighting, composition and editing was accompanied by a range of literary and artistic references which some critics found pretentious and alienating.

In 1917, Gance was finally drafted into the army, in its Service Cinématographique, an episode which proved futile and short-lived, but it deepened his preoccupation with the impact of the war and the depression which was caused by the deaths of many of his friends. When he parted company with Film d'Art over a shortage of funds, Charles Pathé stepped in to underwrite his next film, J'accuse (1919), in which Gance confronted the waste and suffering which the war had brought. He re-enlisted in the Service Cinématographique in order to be able to film some scenes on a real battlefield at the front. The film made a powerful impact and went on to have international distribution.

In 1920, Gance developed his next project, La Roue, while recuperating in Nice from Spanish flu, and its progress was deeply affected by the knowledge that his companion Ida Danis was dying of tuberculosis; furthermore, his leading man and friend Séverin-Mars was also seriously ill (and died soon after completion of the film). Nevertheless, Gance brought an unprecedented level of energy and imagination to the technical realisation of his story, set firstly against the dark and grimy background of locomotives and railway yards, and then among the snow-covered landscapes of the Alps. He employed elaborate editing techniques and innovative use of rapid cutting which made the film highly influential among other contemporary directors. The finished film was originally in 32 reels and ran for nearly nine hours, but it was subsequently edited down for distribution. A modern reconstruction from five different versions, available on DVD, is nearly four and a half hours long, and an almost seven hours long restored version was shown at the 2019 Lumière Film Festival.

In 1921, Gance visited America to promote J'accuse. During his five-month stay he met D. W. Griffith, whom he had long admired. He was also offered a contract with MGM to work in Hollywood, but he turned it down.

After a brief change of pace for Au Secours! (1924), a comic film with Max Linder, Gance embarked on his greatest project, a six-part life of Napoléon. Only the first part was completed, tracing Bonaparte's early life, through the Revolution, and up to the invasion of Italy, but even this occupied a vast canvas with meticulously recreated historical scenes and scores of characters. The film was full of experimental techniques, combining rapid cutting, hand-held cameras, superimposition of images, and, in wide-screen sequences, shot using a system he called Polyvision needing triple cameras (and projectors), achieved a spectacular panoramic effect, including a finale in which the outer two film panels were tinted blue and red, creating a widescreen image of a French flag. The original version of the film ran for around 6 hours. A shortened version received a triumphant première at the Paris Opéra in April 1927 before a distinguished audience that included the future General de Gaulle. The length was reduced still further for French and European distribution, and it became even shorter when it was shown in America. This was not the end of the film's career however. Gance re-used material from it in later films, and the restoration of the silent film at the beginning of the 1980s confirmed it as his best known work.

Sound films
Gance embraced the arrival of sound with enthusiasm, and his first production was La Fin du monde (1931), an expensive science-fiction film (first planned in 1913/14 ) about the imminent collision of a comet with the Earth. Gance himself played the leading role. The film was a critical and commercial disaster, and thereafter the creative independence which Gance had enjoyed in the previous decade was seriously curtailed.

Gance continued to be a busy film-maker throughout the 1930s, but he characterised most of the films made during this period as ones that he did "not in order to live, but in order not to die". In 1932 he tried to demonstrate his credentials as a reliable and efficient director by filming a remake of Mater dolorosa which he completed within 18 days and within budget. Among the other 'commercial' works that followed were Lucrezia Borgia (1935), with Edwige Feuillère, and Un Grand Amour de Beethoven (1937), with Harry Baur. One of the more personal projects that he was able to undertake was a new version of J'accuse! (1938), not so much a remake of his 1919 film as a continuation of it, and conceived as a warning against the new war that he saw impending. His next film Paradis perdu, a melodrama about the First World War, proved successful when it was released after the Fall of France in 1940.

Gance then filmed a popular melodrama called Vénus aveugle, which he saw as an allegory of the current state of France and a message of hope directed to the ordinary French people in their time of misfortune. That year, Gance was denounced as a Jew, and was trying to get his name removed from the list of non-aryens forbidden to practice their profession. At the feat of pursuing his work, Gance complied with the Vichy government and was among those who saw Philippe Pétain as the means of the country's salvation. In September 1941 Vénus aveugle had its first screening in Vichy, preceded by a speech in which Gance paid tribute to Pétain. After completing one more film, Le Capitaine Fracasse, Gance eventually fled to Spain in August 1943, citing growing hostility from the German authorities in France, and he remained there until October 1945.

After the war, his difficulties in getting support for his projects increased, and thus he made few films. The historical melodrama La Tour de Nesle (1954) was his first film in colour, and it provoked some revival of interest in his work, with critics such as François Truffaut making the case for Gance as a neglected auteur of genius.

Gance returned to Napoleonic spectacle with Austerlitz (1960), and made a further historical pageant in Cyrano et d'Artagnan (1963), before moving into television for his final works, also on historical subjects.

Throughout his life Gance kept returning to Napoléon, often editing his own footage into shorter versions, adding a soundtrack, sometimes filming new material, and as a result the original 1927 film was lost from view for decades. After various attempts at reconstruction, the dedicated work of the film historian Kevin Brownlow produced a five-hour version of the film, still incomplete but fuller than anyone had seen since the 1920s. This version was presented at the Telluride Film Festival in August 1979, with the frail 89-year-old director in attendance. The occasion brought a belated triumph to Gance's career, and subsequent performances and further restoration made his name known to a worldwide audience.

Abel Gance married three times: in 1912 to Mathilde Thizeau; in 1922 to Marguerite Danis (sister of Ida); and in 1933 to Marie-Odette Vérité (Sylvie Grenade), who died in 1978. Gance died of tuberculosis in Paris in 1981 at the age of 92. Abel Gance was interred in the Cimetière d'Auteuil in Paris.

Reputation
Gance wanted himself to be seen as "the Victor Hugo of the screen", and many assessments have recognised the ambition, the ingenuity and the sweeping romanticism of his films. Some, such as Léon Moussinac in the 1920s, have pointed to the contradictions in his work between creativity and cliché, the "abundance of original treasures and of banal mediocrity and of poor taste".

One thing that has always been acknowledged is Gance's innovations in the techniques of the cinema. As well as his multiscreen ventures with Polyvision, he explored the use of superimposition of images, extreme close-ups, and fast rhythmic editing, and he made the camera mobile in unorthodox ways – hand-held, mounted on wires or a pendulum, or even strapped to a horse. He also made early experiments with the addition of sound to film, and with filming in colour and in 3-D. There were few aspects of film technique that he did not seek to incorporate in his work, and his influence was acknowledged by contemporaries such as Jean Epstein and later by the French New Wave film-makers. In the assessment of Kevin Brownlow, "...with his silent productions, J'accuse, La Roue, and Napoléon, [Abel Gance] made a fuller use of the medium than anyone before or since".

Another aspect of Gance's work which has drawn comment from critics is the political stance and implication of his life and films, particularly his identification with strong military leaders. Whereas J'accuse in 1919 suggested Gance's pacifist and anti-establishment attitude, the reactions to Napoléon in 1927 saw greater ambivalence, and some commentators even judged it to be an apologia for dictatorship. This strand of criticism of Gance's reactionary politics has continued through later assessments of him; it has also noted his ardent support for Pétain in the early years of World War II, and subsequently for Charles de Gaulle in the 1960s. Others have regarded these political interpretations as secondary to Gance's mastery of exuberant spectacle, which frequently had a nationalistic focus. As one obituary concluded, "Abel Gance was perhaps the greatest Romantic of the screen".

Jury
Abel Gance was a member of the jury for Miss France 1938.

He was also a member of the jury for the 1953 Cannes Film Festival, with Jean Cocteau as president.

title: Abel Gance


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Talk:Demographics of the Philippines

Problems with age structure and population pyramid
This edit, which made cosmetic changes to unsupported information about age structure in the infobox, caught my eye. I noted that the Age structure section of the infobox, which the edit modifies, does not specify a validity year. I did a quick comparison of the figures given there with the figures given in the Population pyramid of the article, which also do not give a validity year, and found that these two sets of figures in the article did not agree with one another.

The table in the Population pyramid section cites this source in support. The cite for that says, "Retrieved December 4, 2015.". The source itself is titled "2018 United Nations Demographics Yearbook", but gives no figures for the Philippines on the linked web page. Some exploring beginning at the cited web page leads to this page, a search page defaulting to Afghanistan from which it is possible to search for information about the Philippines. Searching there is a bit confusing but, by searching for the Philippines and the year 2015, I was able to see figures labeled 2019 as a "Source Year"; those figures did not agree with either of the two aforementioned sets of figures in the article.

Would it be possible to get this cleaned up a bit? Perhaps the two sets of figures in the article could be brought into agreement and the source of those figures might be cited in support. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 09:53, 21 February 2020 (UTC)

Why is the demographic data so poor?
Why is the demographic data so poor?

Examples 1: Section "Population pyramid" says cohorts 0–4, 5-9 and 10-14 are all over 10 millions, so need on average over 2 million births per year. However, births "Year by year" never show over 1.8 million births per year.

Example 2: In the "Year by year" table, the total population grows over the last year clearly more than the natural change. However, Philippines is an emigration country, so population increase should be below the natural change.

BenF 213.127.112.179 (talk) 11:17, 3 January 2022 (UTC)

 * Regarding example 1, it seems like the data is old and from the UN, not the Philippine government. It could use an update. --Glennznl (talk) 12:17, 3 January 2022 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Demographics of the Philippines


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China Mobile

China Mobile is the trade name of both China Mobile Limited and its ultimate controlling shareholder, China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd., is a Chinese state-owned telecommunications company. It provides mobile voice and multimedia services through its nationwide mobile telecommunications network across mainland China and Hong Kong. China Mobile is the largest wireless carrier in China, with 945.50 million subscribers as of June 2021. China Mobile was ranked #25 in Forbes' Global 2000 in 2023.

China Mobile Limited is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It is the world's largest mobile network operator by total number of subscribers. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue.

, China Mobile Limited's total market value stood at HK$965 billion, which is the largest red chip company.

History
Incorporated in 1997 as China Telecom (Hong Kong) Limited, China Mobile was born from the 1999 break-up of China Telecommunications Corporation. This company continues to provide mobile services, however.

In May 2008, the company took over China Tietong, a fixed-line telecom and the then third-largest broadband ISP in China adding Internet services to its core business of mobile services.

In October 2014, Nokia and China Mobile signed a $970 million framework deal for delivery between 2014 and 2015.

China Mobile is among the state entities which contribute to the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, which was established in an effort to decrease China's reliance on foreign semiconductor companies. The fund was established in 2014.

In December 2021, China Mobile announced that its international arm would cease operations in Canada due to national security concerns by the Canadian government.

U.S. sanctions
In November 2020, President Donald Trump issued an executive order prohibiting any American company or individual from owning shares in companies that the United States Department of Defense has listed as having links to the People's Liberation Army, which included China Mobile. On 31 December 2020, the New York Stock Exchange announced that it would suspend trading in China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom from 7 to 11 January 2021 and start the delisting process, causing stock values to drop. On 4 January the decision to delist was suddenly reversed; two days later, the NYSE said that the delistings would proceed. In the aftermath of the delisting, the company announced its decision to raise up to US$8.8 billion ahead of the Shanghai stock exchange listing, according to an official Weibo post by the company.

In March 2022, the Federal Communications Commission designated China Mobile's U.S. subsidiary, China Mobile International USA, a national security threat.

Ownership and control
A state-owned enterprise directly controlled by the government of the People's Republic of China and also a public company which is listed on the NYSE and the Hong Kong stock exchanges, China Mobile has dominated Chinese mobile services since its inception for civilian and military purposes. According to the United States Department of Defense, the company has links to the People's Liberation Army. , China Mobile controls the vast majority of its domestic mobile services market with a 70% market share. China Unicom and China Telecom have 20% and 10% shares, respectively.

The company likely enjoys substantial protectionist benefits from China's government but also experiences frequent government intervention in its business affairs. Government control is maintained through a presumably government-owned holding company, China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd. (formerly: China Mobile Communications Corporation; CMCC), that owns 100 percent ownership of China Mobile (HK) Group Limited, which in turn holds over seventy percent ownership of China Mobile–the remainder being controlled by public investors. Established in 2000, CMCC is China Mobile Ltd's current parent company.

Rural services

China Mobile was one of six state-owned companies that implemented the Connecting Every Village Project, which the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology began in 2004 to promote universal access to telecommunication and internet services in rural China. The MIIT required that China Mobile and the other state-owned companies build the communications infrastructure and assist in financing the project. 135 million rural households had used broadband internet. The program successfully extended internet infrastructure throughout rural China and promoted development of the internet.

China Mobile has historically held a greater share of the rural market than competitors. By 2006, its network had expanded to provide reception to 97% of the Chinese population, and the company has since seen a sustained stream of new, rural mobile customers.

It also offers services targeted at the rural market including an agricultural information service, which facilitates a variety of activities such as the sale and purchase of agricultural products, access to market prices for produce and crops, wire transfers, bank withdrawals, and payments, etc.

Overseas activities
The company branched out in 2007 with the purchase of Paktel in Pakistan launching the Zong brand there a year later.

In 2013, China Mobile eyed expansion into Myanmar expressing interest in bidding for one of two licences on offer in a partnership with Vodafone although this plan ultimately fell through.

Digital barrier removal
In 2023, China Mobile's digital wallet users were able to make payments by scanning WeChat QR codes as part of a program to remove barriers between the ecosystems of technology companies in China.

Mainland China

Mobile services are available in Mainland China under several brands as of 2007. , the below brands are scheduled to be slowly phased out and replaced by an all-encompassing new brand name—And —whose logo combines an exclamation point, the Chinese character for "peace", as well as the English word "and". ( Rough translation: "Global Connect"): subscription flagship brand ( Rough translation: "Dynamic Area"): a premium prepaid service popular with youths ( Rough translation: "Travel across China" (lit. "travel the holy states")): a basic prepaid mobile phone service more heavily marketed in rural areas A 3G service brand using TD-SCDMA (likely introduced post-2007) A 4G/LTE service brand using TD-LTE
 * GoTone:
 * M-zone:
 * Easyown:
 * G3:
 * and!和:

Hong Kong
CMHK is a wholly owned subsidiary of China Mobile. It offers GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSPA+ (MVNO), FD-LTE and TD-LTE technologies to customers in this the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Pakistan
Zong is China Mobile's brand in Pakistan and is operated by China Mobile Pakistan (CMPak), a subsidiary.

United Kingdom
In December 2017, China Mobile launched a MVNO service in the UK called CMLink. CMLink is aimed at the Chinese population living in the UK and Chinese visitors and students. Plans include free calls to China Mobile phones in China.

Singapore
In June 2020, China Mobile launched a MVNO service called CMLink. It uses Singtel networks, which is one of Singapore's largest mobile network operator.

CMLink is aimed at the Chinese population living in the Singapore and Chinese visitors and students. Plans include free calls to China Mobile phones in China.

Network
China Mobile operates a GSM network, which encompasses all 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and directly administered municipalities in mainland China and includes Hong Kong, too. GPRS is utilized for data transmission.

Marketed as "G3", the company controls 70% of the Chinese mobile market but a far smaller percentage of the 3G market. , its nearly 60 million 3G subscribers account for roughly 9% of its total subscriber base, which is an increase from 3% in 2010.
 * 3G:

Its 3G network, still under construction in 2010, utilizes the TD-SCDMA standard, which China Mobile helped develop. 3G service is available in all of the 4 direct-controlled municipalities and most of the 283 prefecture-level cities in China.

Marketed as "and和", as of 2010, China Mobile has debuted small-scale 4G demonstration networks using a variant of 3GPP's Long Term Evolution, TD-LTE, and has plans for larger, citywide demonstration networks in the future. , such networks are in operation.
 * 4G:

While prior iPhone models could not use the China Mobile network due to the chipset relying on WCDMA-based networks, talks to carry the then unreleased 4G iPhone (iPhone 5) began in mid-2012. The iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s were sold through China Mobile starting in January 2014.

China Mobile is developing a 5G service. As part of this development, Huawei has been awarded 52 percent of 5G contracts in 2023 (estimated at 45,426 base stations).
 * 5G:

In 2003 and again in 2007, China Mobile provided mobile services on Mount Everest.
 * Everest:

In May 2011, China Mobile announced its network now includes the controversial Spratly Islands.
 * Spratly Isles coverage

title: China Mobile


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Oka Crisis

The Oka Crisis (Crise d'Oka),  also known as the Kanehsatà:ke Resistance (Résistance de Kanehsatà:ke), , or Mohawk Crisis, was a land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec, Canada, over plans to build a golf course on land known as "The Pines" which included an indigenous burial ground. The crisis began on July 11, 1990, and lasted 78 days until September 26, with two fatalities. The dispute was the first well-publicized violent conflict between First Nations and provincial governments in the late 20th century.

Early settlement
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people, mainly members of the Mohawk nation (Kanien’kehà:ka), first settled in the Montreal area in the late 1660s, moving north from their homeland in the Hudson River valley. The several hundred people who migrated at the time went on to develop three distinct Mohawk communities in the region; Kahnawá:ke, Kanehsatà:ke and Ahkwesáhsne.

Around 1658, the Mohawk had displaced from the area the Wyandot people (or Hurons), with whom the Haudenosaunee (of which the Mohawk were a tribe) had long been in conflict. In the fall of 1666, hundreds of French soldiers, as well as Algonquin and Huron allies, attacked southward from Lake Champlain and devastated four Mohawk villages near Albany, then negotiated a peace between the Haudenosaunee and the French and their allies which lasted for the next 20 years. In 1673, the Jesuit mission at Saint-François-Xavier brought about forty Mohawks from the village of Kaghnuwage, on the Mohawk River, in present-day New York state. In 1680, the Jesuits were granted the seigneurie Sault-Saint-Louis, now named the village of Kahnawá:ke, with a current area of over 4000 hectares. Starting in the 1680s, there was a military conflict between the English allied to the Mohawks and the French allied with other indigenous tribes. In the early 1690s, the Mohawks were weakened through a prolonged and severe military effort by the French.

In 1676, the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice (Sulpician Fathers), a Roman Catholic order, then based in Paris, France, founded Montreal Island's first mission at the foot of Mount Royal to minister to the Iroquois / Mohawk, Algonquin and Huron neophytes and to distance them from French settlers in Ville Marie. In 1696, the Sulpicians moved the mission to one on the edge of the, near the rapids, in north end Montreal Island. In 1717, the was granted a concession (3.5 lieues of frontage, 3 lieues deep) named seigneurie du Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes.

In 1721, the Sulpicians moved the mission to two villages on  territory with the Algonquins and Nipissings being assigned the village to the east and the Mohawks being assigned the village to the west including territory known since the late 1880s as "The Pines" (formerly "sand dunes behind the village ... part of the Common Lands on which the Mohawks pastured their cattle") and the adjacent indigenous cemetery. This meant the Indigenous inhabitants were forced to move once again. To cushion the blow, they were promised ownership of the land they would inhabit. The was expanded through two grants, one in 1733, consisting of small pie-shaped segment with 2 lieues of frontage to the east of initial concession land, and, in 1735, a larger segment representing about 40% of the seigneurie's total area. In all three grants the land was provided under the guarantee it would be used for the benefit of Indigenous residents.

Land dispute
Following the conquest of New France in 1760, the Act of Capitulation of Montreal guaranteed that all the "Indians" who had been allied to the French would be free to remain on the land they inhabited unless those lands were formally ceded to the Crown. This was restated by the Treaty of Paris and again in the Royal Proclamation of 1763. Hence, the Mohawk began advocating for the recognition of their land rights to British officials. Similar claims in Kahnawá:ke and Ahkwesáhsne were recognized, but the Kanehsatà:ke requests to be released from the rule of the Sulpicians and reporting of seminary officials to white settlers were ignored. When the Sulpicians aided the British in crushing the Patriot's War of 1837–38, the seminary's land title was confirmed. The Mohawk continued pursuing their right to the land, petitioning, and failing, to obtain the recognition of Lord Elgin's recognition of their claims in 1851. Eight years later, the Province of Canada extended the official title of the disputed land to the Sulpicians.

In 1868, one year after Confederation, the chief of the Oka Mohawk people, Joseph Onasakenrat, wrote a letter to the seminary claiming that its grant had included about 9 mi2 reserved for Mohawk use in trust of the seminary, and that the seminary had neglected this trust by granting themselves (the seminary) sole ownership rights. In 1869, Onasakenrat attacked the seminary with a small armed force after having given the missionaries eight days to hand over the land. Local authorities ended this stand-off with force. In 1936, the seminary sold the territory under protest by the local Mohawk community. At the time they still kept cattle on the common land. By 1956, the Mohawk were left to six remaining square kilometres from their original 165.

In 1959, the town approved the development of a private nine-hole golf course, the Club de golf d'Oka, on a portion of the disputed land. The project area bordered The Pines, as well as a Mohawk burial ground in use, at that time, for nearly a century. The Mohawk suit filed against the development did not succeed. Construction also began on a parking lot and golf greens adjacent to the Mohawk cemetery.

In 1977, the Kanehsatà:ke band filed an official land claim with the federal Office of Native Claims regarding the land. The claim was accepted for filing and funds were provided for additional research of the claim. In 1986 the claim was rejected on the basis that it failed to meet key legal criteria.

In March 1989, the Club de golf d'Oka announced plans to expand the golf course by an additional nine holes. As the Office of Native Claims had rejected the Mohawk claim on the land three years earlier, his office did not consult the Mohawk on the plans. No environmental or historic preservation review was undertaken. Protests by Mohawks and others, as well as concern from the Quebec Minister of the Environment, led to negotiations and a postponement of the project by the municipality in August pending a court ruling on the development's legality.

Lead-up to the crisis
On June 30, 1990, the court found in favour of the developers, and the mayor of Oka, Jean Ouellette, announced that the remainder of the Pines would be cleared to expand the golf course to eighteen holes and to construct 60 condominiums. Not all residents of Oka approved of the plans, but opponents found the mayor's office unwilling to discuss them.

On March 11, as a protest against the court decision to allow the golf course expansion to proceed, some members of the Mohawk community erected a barricade blocking access to the dirt side-road between Route 344 and "The Pines". Protesters ignored a court injunction in late April ordering the dismantling of the barricade, as well as a second order issued on June 29. Mayor Ouellette demanded compliance with the court order, but the land defenders refused.

On July 5, the Quebec minister of Public Security, Sam Elkas, said, regarding the land defenders at the Pines, that "they have until the 9th [of July], after that date it's going down." The next day, the Quebec Human Rights Commission alerted John Ciaccia and Tom Siddon, respectively the provincial and federal native affairs ministers, of the rapidly increasing threat of conflict near Oka and the need to establish an independent committee to review the historical Mohawk land claim. Ciaccia wrote a letter of support for the Mohawk, saying that "these people have seen their lands disappear without having been consulted or compensated, and that, in my opinion, is unfair and unjust, especially over a golf course." This did not sway the mayor.

Police raid
On July 11, at 5:15 a.m., police officers arrived to the Mohawk barricade that was blocking the Pines' southern gate. Police cars, vans, and rented trucks were parked in front of the roadblock. Police personnel took up tactical positions in the trees or crouched in ditches. Others proceeded to the barricade. At the same time, another police unit known as "Sector Five" approached the northern roadblock. A total of around a hundred officers surrounded the Mohawk warriors and their allies, including a tactical intervention squad and riot police.

The previous day the mayor of Oka, Jean Ouellette, had asked the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) to intervene with the Mohawk protest, citing alleged criminal activity at the barricade. While the protesters had expected town officials or municipal workers, they had been promised by an SQ officer that the police would not intervene in this civil injunction. While they were reportedly willing to be arrested in the defence of their land, they had hoped to avoid violence.

The Mohawk women present at the southern barricade purportedly took charge of the interactions with authorities as they recognized the protection of the land as their own duty. A dozen of them, arms stretched out to signify their being unarmed and having no violent intent, walked towards the police. Authorities said they would speak only to a designated leader, while the group of women said that they were all representing the interests of the group and no single leader existed. Tensions escalated as the authorities would not discuss matters with the Mohawk women. Eventually, the group compromised and asked a male protester to come forward and talk with the officers; which was in vain. The SQ deployed their Emergency Response Team (ERT), a police tactical unit, threw tear gas canisters and concussion grenades at the protesters in an attempt to force them to disperse.

The Kahnawá:ke Warrior Society was called in for reinforcements, and by 6:20 a.m. they were seizing Mercier Bridge and the highways which fed into it. They gained control of the two lanes of Highway 138, and then pushed back the thousands of cars to Châteauguay. Over the next three hours they created a no-man's land between two barricades while other contingents blocked Highways 132 and 207 as well as Old Châteauguay Road.

Around 7:30 a.m. a front-end loader (sometimes cited as a bulldozer) and helicopter arrived, and the police moved closer to the barricade. Trees were sawed down by the Mohawk and added to the barricade while additional police cars arrived. Members of the surrounding Mohawk communities joined those already present at the Pines as tear gas canisters were thrown at the southern barrier. Around 8:30 the front-end loader rammed the barricade. Then armed police officers moved into the Pines, and gunshots were fired from both sides. Then the police retreated, abandoning six cruisers and the front-end loader. Although an initial account reported that 31-year-old SQ Corporal Marcel Lemay had been shot in the face during the firefight, a later inquest determined that the bullet which killed him struck his "left side below the armpit, an area not covered by [his] bullet-proof vest". Despite a 1985 SQ directive mandating that all officer communications be recorded, no record of the events was provided to the court, which the coroner decried as "unacceptable" and "even comical".

Siege
Upon their return, SQ officers established a perimeter around the protesters both at Kahnawáːke and Kanehsatàːke, blocking all access routes with rows of police cars and sandbags, preventing supplies like food and medication to be delivered and blocking ambulances from intervening. Representatives from the Quebec Human Rights Commission were also prevented from entering. In turn, protesters fortified their barricades and erected new ones, but police forced their way in to arrest, search and interrogate. On July 12, at the request of the Quebec minister of Public Security, the Canadian Armed Forces began sending plain clothes military officers, C7 rifles, night-vision equipment, bulletproof vests and armoured vehicles.

Before the raid, there were approximately 30 armed Mohawk in and around the barricade; following the gun battle, this number grew to 60–70 and later grew to 600. The Mohawks seized six vehicles, including four police cars, and commandeered the front-end loader to crush the vehicles and use them to form a new barricade across Route 344.

The Mohawk established a network for communications among the Mohawk villages/reserves of Ahkwesáhsne, Kanehsatàːke and Kahnawáːke, using hand-held radios, cellular phones, air raid sirens and fire hall bells, as well as local radio stations, and patrols. The local Mohawk were joined by Indigenous people from across Canada and the United States. People from Micmac communities, as well as a Buddhist monk and Filipina acupuncturist, joined the protesters in the early weeks of the fight. Fifteen activist-students were sent from all over Canada by the Canadian Federation of Students to write a policy paper, but most of the students decided to stay on in aid to the Mohawk cause instead. Additionally, over a hundred Oneida people from New York, Wisconsin, and southern Ontario, as well as a Quebec Algonquin man, and several women from western Canada and Mexico all came to help. The Mohawk Warriors and protesters also received support from Indigenous populations across the country.

The Mercier Bridge was blockaded at the point where it passed through Mohawk territory, thereby sealing off a major access between the Island of Montreal and Montreal's densely populated South Shore suburbs. This frustrated commuters, which resulted in violent confrontations. At the peak of the crisis, the Mercier Bridge and routes 132, 138 and 207 were all blocked, creating substantial disruption to traffic.

Corporal Marcel Lemay's funeral was held on July 16, and was attended by around 2000 people, including police officers from across Canada and the SQ director. The Warrior flag was lowered to half-mast in the Pines. On July 17, the Red Cross was granted entrance by police to provide food relief, but this access was rescinded quickly, forcing residents to smuggle provisions in. The Mohawk coalition, speaking on behalf of the resistance, agreed on preconditions for negotiations: free access to food and advisors and the presence of independent international observers, which both the provincial and federal governments firmly opposed.

Anger grew among residents as the crisis dragged on. A group of Châteauguay residents started building an unauthorized, unplanned roadway circumventing the Kahnawáːke reserve. Long after the crisis, this unfinished roadway was eventually incorporated into Quebec Autoroute 30. Residents of Châteauguay assaulted a Mohawk woman trying to buy groceries and tried to prevent her from leaving the store, from which she had to be escorted by police, and threw tomatoes at her and her children. They also burned multiple effigies of Mohawk warriors while chanting "sauvages" (savages).

By August 12, the crowd at Mercier Bridge had become a riot several thousand strong, destroying police vehicles and wounding officers. The SQ lost control of the situation, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) were deployed. This resulted in 35 people, including ten constables, being hospitalized for their injuries. The heated context of the "failed" Meech Accords and earlier that summer, as well as the tensions between French and English speakers in the province complicated public sentiment vis-a-vis the Kanehsatàːke resistance. Radio host Gilles Proulx raised tensions with comments such as the Mohawks "couldn't even speak French", while Simon Bédard of CJPR called for "cleaning everything up" by killing "fifty, one hundred, one hundred and twenty-five" people, burying them and forgetting about it. These remarks inflamed tempers that had been running especially high from comments preceding this crisis, including those by Ricardo Lopez, the federal Member of Parliament for Châteauguay, who denigrated the Mohawk.

Intervention by the armed forces
Nightly gatherings at the blockaded Mercier Bridge grew in size and violence, adding to the pressure put on SQ forces, leading the Quebec premier Robert Bourassa to announce that in accord with Section 275 of the National Defence Act, he was requesting official military support from the Canadian Armed Forces on August 27. The same day Mulroney appointed Quebec Chief Justice Alan B. Gold as special mediator to negotiate an agreement with the land defenders. On August 28, press conferences were held by military leadership to announce the upcoming intervention and by Mulroney to denounce the actions of the protesters. Lieutenant-General Kent Foster announced the upcoming use of three Leopard tanks and that Brigadier-General Armand Roy was given full autonomy to attack at will with the objective of obtaining "unconditional surrender" from the Warriors.

In response, families with children and elderly members attempt to flee Kahnawáːke, and were met at the barricades by a crowd throwing stones. Though the SQ had guaranteed safety for the evacuees, they did not attempt to stop the crowd from breaking windshields and windows. Several people were wounded. The car in which Mohawk elder Joe Armstrong, 71, was riding was hit with a projectile that shattered the windshield; the next day, Armstrong suffered a fatal heart attack that doctors attributed to stress. The following morning, Canadian Armed Forces replaced SQ officers surrounding Kahnawáːke and Kanehsatàːke.

General John de Chastelain, Chief of the Defence Staff, placed Quebec-based troops in support of the provincial authorities; 2,500 regular and reserve troops from 34 and 35 Canadian Brigade Groups and 5 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group were put on notice. On August 20, a company of the Royal 22e Régiment, known colloquially in English as the "Van Doos", led by Major Alain Tremblay, took over three barricades and arrived at the final blockade leading to the disputed area. There, they reduced the stretch of no man's land, originally implemented by the SQ before the barricade at the Pines, from 1.5 kilometres to 5 metres. Additional troops and mechanized equipment mobilized at staging areas around Montreal, while reconnaissance aircraft flew air photo missions over Mohawk territory to gather intelligence. On August 29, the Mohawks at the Mercier Bridge negotiated an end to their protest blockade with Lieutenant-Colonel Robin Gagnon, the "Van Doos" commander who had been responsible for the south shore of the St. Lawrence River during the crisis.

While the Warriors at Kahnawáːke had reached an agreement with government officials and had begun dismantling their barricades, Kanehsatàːke was now more vulnerable and isolated. Though the land dispute which had led to the crisis was resolved in principle, since the federal government had secured the purchase of the land from the developers and the town of Oka, it had yet to transfer the land title into Mohawk hands. Furthermore, the protesters at Kanehsatàːke were still waiting on safety guarantees for themselves and their allies before risking giving up their last bargaining chips. Nonetheless, Bourassa announced that negotiations were over and demanded that international observers leave. They reluctantly submitted to his request, and were replaced by local church and human rights observers. Multiple parallel and sometimes secret talks were held, unbeknownst to many of the parties involved. With the bridge no longer occupied and Kahnawáːke essentially neutralized, the armed forces entered Kanehsatàːke on September 1. They dismantled the last barricade on Highway 344 on September 2. The next day, only 24 Warriors were left defending a territory of only a few hundred meters and were surrounded by ravines, the lake, over 400 soldiers with machine guns, armoured vehicles and helicopters. They were sheltered in a treatment centre, at the top of a hill, with dormitories, a kitchen, food reserves, and communication equipment. What followed was the last leg of a prolonged siege.

By September 6, the Mercier Bridge was functional again. Journalists were forbidden from approaching the Warrior stronghold and the armed forces cut all cellphone service to the treatment centre. Anyone who left the compound was arrested, including legal counsel Stanley Cohen.

Resolution and aftermath
September 25, 1990 witnessed the final engagement of the crisis: a Mohawk warrior walked around the perimeter of the blockade area with a long stick, setting off flares that had been originally installed by the Canadian Forces to alert them to individuals fleeing the area. The soldiers turned a water hose on this man, but it lacked enough pressure to disperse the crowd surrounding him. This crowd taunted the soldiers and began throwing water balloons at them, but the incident did not escalate further.

Finally, after 78 days of fighting and 26 days of siege without supplies being let through, the land defenders decided to end the struggle. The remaining protesters began walking home, but all were arrested either while leaving Kanehsatà:ke or while entering Oka. As the military began arresting land defenders and some began to flee, 14-year-old Waneek Horn-Miller, who was carrying her 4-year-old half sister Kaniehtiio Horn, was stabbed near the heart by a Canadian soldier with a bayonet, and nearly died. The journalists who had managed to stay with the Mohawk people in the treatment center were now held and interrogated. The Kanehsatà:ke Resistance was over.

Among those charged and convicted for their participation was Ronaldo Casalpro (who used the alias Ronald "Lasagna" Cross during the conflict). Casalpro was beaten by Sûreté du Québec officers after his arrest, and while three were suspended without pay, the case took so long to process that they had already left the force. Two SQ officers were suspended and investigated for allegedly beating Casalpro while in captivity, but were not subsequently charged. Cross served a six-year sentence for assault and weapons charges related to his role in the crisis and died of a heart attack in November 1999. Casalpro's brother, Tracy Cross, later served as the best man at the wedding of slain SQ Corporal Lemay's sister, Francine, who had reconciled with the community after reading At the Woods' Edge, a history of Kanehsatà:ke.

The golf course expansion that had originally triggered the crisis was cancelled and the land under dispute was purchased from the developers by the Government of Canada for CA$5.3 million. The municipality initially refused to sell the land until Mohawk barricades were dismantled, but acquiesced when the government threatened to expropriate the land without compensation. The Government of Canada did not transfer this land to Kanehsatà:ke ownership nor establish it as a land reserve.

The Oka Crisis motivated the development of a national First Nations Policing Policy to try to prevent future incidents, and brought Indigenous issues into the forefront in Canada. In 1991, Ouellette was re-elected mayor of Oka by acclamation. He later said of the crisis that his responsibilities as mayor required him to act as he did.

In media
The Oka Crisis was extensively documented and inspired numerous books and films.

Canadian filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin has made documentaries about the Oka Crisis, including Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993) and Rocks at Whiskey Trench (2000). These and two additional documentaries on the crisis were all produced by the National Film Board of Canada: Christine Welsh directed Keepers of the Fire (1994), which documents the role of Mohawk women during the crisis, and Alec MacLeod created Acts of Defiance (1993).

Montreal Gazette journalist Albert Nerenberg switched careers after smuggling a video camera behind the barricades and making his first documentary, called Okanada.

Taiaiake Alfred, a Kahnawá:ke Mohawk who was part of the band council during the crisis, and who later became a professor of political science, wrote Heeding the Voices of Our Ancestors: Kahnawake Mohawk Politics and the Rise of Native Nationalism (1995). This was based on his PhD dissertation of the same name, which examined the issues.

Robin Philpot wrote a book about Canadian English language media's use of the crisis as a political tool following the failed Meech Lake Accord: Oka: dernier alibi du Canada anglais.

Anarchist author and activist Peter Gelderloos commented that the Oka Crisis should serve as a model for activists to get what they want for four reasons.
 * 1) "It succeeded in seizing space.
 * 2) It spread ideas of indigenous sovereignty and inspired many others in North America to fight back.
 * 3) It did not have elite support.
 * 4) The golf course expansion on their lands was defeated, and the conflict came to a dignified conclusion for the Mohawk."

The 2020 film Beans, which won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Motion Picture, portrays the incident through the eyes of a young Mohawk girl. Tracey Deer, who lived through the crisis when she was twelve years old, directed and co-wrote the film.

In art
Joseph Tehawehron David, a Mohawk artist who became known for his role as a warrior during the Oka Crisis in 1990, developed a body of artistic work that was deeply influenced by his experience "behind the wire" in 1990.

Further sources
A vast amount has been written in both English and French on the Oka crisis, including the following:

English works
 * Taiaiake Alfred (1999). Peace, Power, Righteousness: An Indigenous Manifesto Don Mills: Oxford University Press
 * Alan C. Cairns (2000). Citizens Plus: Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian State, Vancouver: UBC Press;
 * Canada, Parliament of; House of Commons (1991). Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, The Summer of 1990: Fifth Report of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, Ottawa;
 * John Ciaccia (2000). Oka Crisis: A Mirror of the Soul, Dorval, QC: Maren Publications;
 * Tom Flanagan (2000). First Nations? Second Thoughts, Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press;
 * Donna Goodleaf (1995). Entering the War Zone: A Mohawk Perspective on Resisting Invasions, Penticton, BC: Theytus Books;
 * Rick Hornung (1991). One Nation Under the Gun: Inside the Mohawk Civil War, Toronto: Stoddart;
 * Craig Maclaine (1990). This Land is Our Land: the Mohawk Revolt at Oka, Montreal: Optimum Publishing;
 * J.R. Miller (2004). Lethal Legacy: Current Native Controversies in Canada, Toronto: McCelland & Stewart Ltd.;
 * Donald B. Smith (1982). "Onasakenrat, Joseph", in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11, University of Toronto / Université Laval, 2003–, accessed November 16, 2021';

French works
 * Gilles Boileau (1991). Oka, terre indienne, Histoire Québec, 5(2), 35–39;
 * John Ciaccia (2000). Crise d'Oka : miroir de notre âme, Montréal: Leméac;
 * Francois Dallaire (1991). Oka : la hache de guerre, Sainte-Foy, Québec: Éditions de la Liberté;
 * Jacques-A. Lamarche (1990). L'Eté de Mohawks : bilan des 78 jours, Montréal: Stanké;
 * Robin Philpot (1991). Oka : dernier alibi du Canada anglais, Montréal: VLB;
 * Hélène Sévigny (1993). Lasagne : l'homme derrière le masque, Saint-Lambert, PQ: Éditions Sedes.

Documentary films
 * Acts of Defiance (1992). Montreal: National Film Board of Canada;
 * Rocks at Whiskey Trench (2000). Montreal: National Film Board of Canada
 * My name is Kahentiiosta (1995). Montreal : National Film Board;
 * Spudwrench: Kahnawake Man (c. 1997). Montreal : National Film Board of Canada;
 * The Oka Legacy (c. 2016). CBC/Sonia Bonspille Boileau.

title: Oka Crisis


text:
Worshipful Company of Gardeners

The Worshipful Company of Gardeners is one of the livery companies of the City of London. A fraternity of Gardeners existed in the middle of the fourteenth century; it received a royal charter in 1605. The company no longer exists as a regulatory authority for the sale of produce in London; instead serving as a charitable institution. The company also performs a ceremonial role; it formally presents bouquets to the Queen and to princesses upon their wedding, anniversary, or other similar occasion.

The Gardeners' Company ranks sixty-sixth in the order of precedence of City livery companies. Its motto is In The Sweat Of Thy Brows Shalt Thow Eate Thy Bread.

The Master Gardener (Nicholas Woolf for 2023/24) is assisted by the Upper Warden and Renter Warden. Other Gardeners' Company officers include the Clerk and Spadebearer.

Origins
First mentioned in Corporation of London records in 1345, the Gardeners' Company hails from its predecessor medieval guild.

In 1605, after existing for centuries as a "mystery" or "fellowship", the Gardeners of London were incorporated by royal charter. This charter sets out the operations controlled by the Company: "The trade, crafte or misterie of gardening, planting, grafting, setting, sowing, cutting, arboring, rocking, mounting, covering, fencing and removing of plants, herbes, seedes, fruites, trees, stocks, setts, and of contryving the conveyances to the same belonging ... ".

Objectives
In the 21st century statutory control over the craft of gardening is neither feasible nor desirable. Instead, the Company pursues three main objectives, to:

 * 1) promote the art and practice of good gardening throughout the country and especially in the London area. Further, to encourage and support educational establishments which are centres of horticultural excellence;
 * 2) support charitable activities connected with horticulture or with the City of London. The Company does not benefit from large endowments and has never owned property. The Charitable Fund is therefore limited and largely dependent upon the generosity of its Liverymen and Freemen (i.e. members of the Company) who are expected to contribute to the Fund as a condition of membership;
 * 3) promote the fellowship of gardening by introducing new members to the Company and to beautify the City of London and elsewhere by encouraging the display of flowers and foliage wherever and whenever possible. There is a wide knowledge of gardening and horticulture within the Company which can be drawn upon as practical support for new projects.

Organisation and structure
Membership of the Company, as prescribed by the Court of Aldermen of the City of London, shall not exceed 330 Liverymen. The number of Freemen is unlimited.

The Company is administered by the Court of Assistants, comprising the Master, who acts as Chairman supported by the Upper Warden and Renter Warden, and 24 Assistants. Of these, not more than 6 are Past Masters and 18 are "below the Chair". The Master holds office for one year and is normally succeeded by the Upper Warden. The Clerk to the Company is the Chief Executive and has responsibility for day-to-day administration of the Company and acts as secretary to the Court.

Six committees, comprising Assistants and Liverymen, address specific matters relating to the Company's activities and make recommendations to the Court. The opportunity of participating in the running of the Company is thereby provided to Liverymen.

The livery and freedom
The Company numbers among its members both professionals and amateurs who are actively involved in the craft. All are united by the common bond of gardens and gardening.

King Charles III is a Royal Liveryman as is the Duke of Edinburgh, who served as Master for 2013/14 when Earl of Wessex. The King and Queen of the Belgians are Royal Freemen of the Company, reflecting the British gardening's strong links with Belgium.

As a City Livery Company, there are close links with the Corporation of London and members of the Company are strongly represented on the Court of Common Council. Since 1891, the year in which the Company was granted livery status, 11 Lord Mayors of London have been Gardeners, of which, eight have served as Master.

Admission to the Company is usually by one of four routes: Patrimony, Servitude, Redemption or Presentation. Candidates for admission to the Freedom and advancement to the Livery are subject to interview and recommendation by a committee appointed by the Court. A fifth category of membership is that of Honorary Freedom (Freedom Honoris Causa) which the Court has the power to award to persons who have distinguished themselves by public service or individual merit.

The Company's year
Installation Court, at which the Master and Wardens are installed, takes place on the first Thursday in July. It marks the beginning of the Company's year and is followed by a livery dinner. Court meetings followed by dinner take place in November (Autumn Court) and April (Spring Court), with a Harvest Court preceding the Harvest Thanksgiving service in October. Guests are invited to all livery dinners and guild services.

The Fairchild Lecture, delivered in accordance with the will of Thomas Fairchild, Citizen and Gardener, takes place on the first Tuesday in Pentecost at St. Giles, Cripplegate. Churches for the Guild services are decorated by the Flower Arrangers group within the Company, who also arrange flowers in St. Paul's Cathedral and on other Company occasions.

Its annual Livery and Ladies' Banquet is held at the Mansion House, in the presence of the Lord Mayor, at which the Master presents a donation for the Lord Mayor's Charity.

Visits, led by the Master, take place throughout the year to gardens and horticultural establishments at home and abroad and the Company pursues a busy programme of events.

The Gardeners' Company produces a magazine called The Spade, giving details of recent events and visits.

Charitable activities
The Company makes donations through its independent Charity Board to registered charities only. The charities must be linked to horticulture and gardening. Individuals and groups in the horticultural industry who have fallen on hard times should consider applying to Perennial. The Company provides funds and advice for charitable garden projects and awards prizes to students of horticulture at Capel Manor College, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, RHS Wisley, Writtle College and the City and Guilds of London Institute. The Prince of Wales's Trophy is presented annually to the student adjudged to have contributed most to the field of organic gardening. Trophies are also awarded to other deserving organisations and causes.

The Company organises the "Flowers in The City" Campaign in close co-operation with the Corporation of London. The aim is to encourage the planting of gardens, courtyards, atria, window boxes, troughs, tubs and hanging baskets to beautify the City. The award, by the Lord Mayor, of trophies and plaques for meritorious displays (Summer) takes place annually at Mansion House. The award for winter displays takes place annually at Cutlers' Hall.

The Master, whilst in office, represents the Company on a variety of charitable committees. Other members of the Company sit on those committees in their own right and also contribute their time and expertise to numerous other organisations for the furtherance of the craft and in pursuit of the Company's objectives. The Company is privileged to present a gift of produce each year to the Lord Mayor.

title: Worshipful Company of Gardeners


text:
Patrick Hamilton

Patrick Hamilton may refer to:
 * Patrick Hamilton of Kincavil (died 1520), Scottish nobleman
 * Patrick Hamilton (martyr) (1504–1528), Scottish Protestant reformer and son of the above
 * Patrick Hamilton (poet) (1575–1658), Church of Scotland minister and poet
 * Patrick Hamilton (writer) (1904–1962), novelist and playwright
 * Patrick Omolade Hamilton, Sierra Leone judge

title: Patrick Hamilton


text:
Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers

The Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers alias Wire Workers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. Tin craftsmen were originally part of the Ironmongers' Company, while the wire workers, who made wire objects such as cages, animal traps and fishhooks, were part of the Girdlers' Company. The two groups combined, and were incorporated by a Royal Charter in 1670. Now, the use of tin plate and steel wire does not remain work done by craftsmen, instead being performed by machines. Thus, the Company is no longer a trade association for craftsmen. Instead, it supports the industry through grants, as it does charities.

The Tin Plate Workers' Company ranks sixty-seventh in the order of precedence for Livery Companies. Its motto is Amore Sitis Uniti, Latin for Be United in Love.

title: Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers


text:
Ontario Provincial Police

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is the provincial police service of Ontario, Canada. The OPP patrols provincial highways and waterways; protects provincial government buildings and officials, with the exception of the legislative precinct; patrols unincorporated areas in northern Ontario; provides training, operational support, and funding to some Indigenous police forces; and investigates complex or multijurisdictional crimes across the province. The OPP also has a number of local mandates through contracts with municipal governments and First Nations, where it acts as the local police force and provides front-line services.

With an annual budget of nearly $1.4 billion, the OPP employed more than 5 800 uniformed officers, 600 auxiliary officers, and 2 600 civilian employees in 2023, making it the largest police service in Ontario and the second-largest in Canada (after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police). The OPP's operations are directed by its commissioner (Thomas Carrique) and it is a division of the Ministry of the Solicitor General.

History
At the First Parliament of Upper Canada in Niagara-on-the-Lake on 17 September 1792, a provision was made for the formation of a "police system". Initially, policing jurisdictions were limited to districts, townships, and parishes. In 1845, a mounted police service was created to keep the peace in areas surrounding the construction of public works. It became the Ontario Mounted Police Force after Canadian Confederation.

In 1877, the Constables Act extended jurisdiction and gave designated police members authorization to act throughout the province. The first salaried provincial constable appointed to act as detective for the government of Ontario was John Wilson Murray, hired on a temporary appointment in 1875 and made permanent upon passage of the 1877 act. Murray was joined by two additional detectives in 1897, marking the beginnings of the Criminal Investigation Branch. However, for the most part, policing outside of Ontario's cities was non-existent. With the discovery of silver in Cobalt and gold in Timmins, lawlessness was increasingly becoming a problem in northern Ontario. Police constables were gradually introduced in various areas, until an Order in Council decreed the establishment of a permanent organization of salaried constables designated as the Ontario Provincial Police Force on 13 October 1909. It consisted of 45 men under the direction of Superintendent Joseph E. Rogers. The starting salary for constables was $400 per annum, increased to $900 in 1912. There were many detachments simultaneously founded including Bala, Muskoka, and Niagara Falls.

In the 1920s, restructuring was undertaken with the passing of the Provincial Police Force Act, 1921. The title of the commanding officer was changed to "commissioner" and given responsibility for enforcing the provisions of the Ontario Temperance Act and other liquor regulations. Major-General Harry Macintyre Cawthra-Elliot was appointed as the first commissioner.

The OPP's first death in the line of duty occurred in 1923, when escaped convict Leo Rogers shot and killed Sergeant John Urquhart near North Bay. Rogers, who was later killed in a shootout with OPP officers, had already mortally wounded North Bay City constable, Fred Lefebvre.

The first OPP motorcycle patrol was introduced in 1928, phased out in 1942, and then reintroduced in 1949. The first marked OPP patrol car was introduced in 1941.

During World War II, the Veterans Guard was formed. This was a body of volunteers (primarily World War I veterans) whose duty was to protect vulnerable hydroelectric plants and the Welland Ship Canal under the supervision of regular police members. In the late 1940s, policing functions were reorganized in Ontario, with the OPP given responsibility for all law enforcement in the province outside areas covered by municipal police forces, together with overall authority for law enforcement on the King's Highways, enforcement of the provincial liquor laws, aiding the local police, and maintaining a criminal investigation branch. In March 1969, a meeting took place at the Ontario Securities Commission to incorporate a separate but included group of the Ontario Provincial Police Association. Women joined the uniformed ranks in 1974.

In 1994, as part of a tripartite agreement between the government of Canada, the Province of Ontario, and the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, the OPP began the process of relinquishing a majority of northern policing duties to the newly created Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service (NAPS). The transition was complete on 1 April 1999, when the OPP's Northwest Patrol was transferred to NAPS. The OPP still administers First Nations policing for Big Trout Lake, Weagamow, Muskrat Dam, and Pikangikum.

Organization and operations
The OPP provides police services to the provincial government - patrolling provincial highways and waterways, investigating multijurisdictional crimes, and protecting high profile government officials - under provincial mandate, and to municipalities and First Nations under contract.

The force operates out of its General Headquarters, located in the Lincoln M. Alexander Building in Orillia, Ontario. The relocation of general headquarters to Orillia was part of a government move to decentralize ministries and operations to other parts of Ontario. Previously, from 1973 to 1995, the headquarters were located in Toronto at 90 Harbour Street, the site of the former Workmen's Compensation Board building.

The force is organized into five commands, each answering to a deputy commissioner. The commands are further divided into bureaus. The Culture and Strategy Services Command is responsible for corporate communications, strategic development, and the force's internal misconduct investigations unit; the Traffic Safety and Operational Support Command is responsible for highway policing, Indigenous policing, support services like the Tactics and Rescue Unit, and security at provincial government buildings excepting the Ontario Legislative Building; the Field Operations Command is responsible for frontline policing in communities that do not maintain independent police forces; the Investigations and Organized Crime Command is responsible for investigating complex, major, or multi-jurisdictional crimes or organized criminal networks across the province and administering firearms licenses; and the Corporate Services Command administers various business, contract, and career management bureaus.

Local and provincial programs and services
• Auxiliary policing/chaplaincy

• Aviation/flight operations

• Bloodstain pattern analysis

• Breath analysis/drug recognition

• Canine search, rescue, tracking and detection

• Chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives response

• Child exploitation investigation

• Civil litigation file coordination

• Civilian data entry

• Collision reconstruction and investigation

• Collision reporting centres

• Commercial vehicles and dangerous goods

• Communications

• Community liaison; hate/bias incident response

• Community policing

• Community street crime units

• Complaint investigation

• Computer-aided dispatch

• Court case management

• Crime analysis

• Crime gun analysis

• Crime prevention and community safety

• Crime Stoppers

• Criminal investigation services and major case management

• Crime linkage analysis (DNA coordination and provincial ViCLAS centre)

• Crisis negotiation

• Drug enforcement

• Drug evaluation and classification

• Emergency management/response

• Explosives disposal

• Federal Firearms Program delivery

• Federal and provincial road safety countermeasures

• Firearm verification and analysis unit

• Forensic identification services

• Forensic interviewing and polygraph

• Forensic psychiatry and research

• Fraud, corruption, economic/financial crime investigation

• Hate crime/extremism investigation

• Incident command

• Indigenous policing

• Information technology

• Intelligence

• Justice officials protection and investigation

• Marine, motorized snow and off-road vehicle and motorcycle patrol

• Media relations

• Mental health and abuse issues

• Mobile crisis response teams

• Missing persons and unidentified bodies

• Offender transportation

• Ontario Sex Offender Registry

• Organized crime enforcement

• Physical security services

• Provincial alcohol and gaming enforcement

• Provincial anti-terrorism

• Provincial asset forfeiture

• Provincial biker enforcement

• Provincial contraband tobacco enforcement

• Provincial cybercrime strategy

• Provincial guns and gangs strategy

• Provincial illegal cannabis enforcement

• Provincial illegal gaming investigation

• Provincial anti-human trafficking strategy

• Provincial liaison team

• Provincial operations centre

• Provincial repeat offender parole enforcement

• Provincial strategy to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation on the Internet

• Provincial tow program

• Provincial weapons enforcement

• Public order

• Remotely piloted aircraft systems

• R.I.D.E. (reduce impaired driving everywhere)

• Search and rescue

• Security assessment Unit

• Security enquiries Unit

• Special constables

• Surveillance — electronic and physical

• Tactical and emergency medical

• Tactics and rescue

• Technological crime/digital evidence forensics and analysis

• Threat assessment

• Traffic safety

• Training

• Underwater search and recovery

• United Nations policing missions

• Urban search and rescue

• Video forensics

• Victim assistance, support and response

• Witness protection

Detachments
Previously, the OPP was divided into seventeen different regions. In 1995, OPP operations were amalgamated into six regions, with five providing general policing services, and one providing traffic policing services on provincial highways in the Greater Toronto Area (local police services in the GTA are provided by municipal and regional police forces) following recommendations by the Ipperwash Inquiry. OPP police stations are known as "detachments".

Rank structure
Police constables in the OPP are uniquely known as "provincial constables".

Detective ranks fall laterally with the uniform ranks and are not a promotion above. The rank of sergeant major is reserved for members of the Professional Standards Bureau, where the rank has a unique investigative function within the force's chain-of-command.

Commissioner's Own Pipes and Drums
The Commissioner's Own Pipes and Drums serves as the OPP's officially recognised pipe band. Formed as the Ontario Provincial Pipes and Drums in 1968 by two constables, the band saw active service to wide acclaim in the 1970s and 80s before being disbanded in 1991 due to department financial constraints. The band was shortly re-formed three years after, and is now composed of volunteer officers, auxiliary officers, and civilian volunteers.

Uniformed officers
The majority of policing services are provided by uniformed front-line police constables. In addition to the basic training provided to all police officers in Ontario, the OPP mandates additional training at the Provincial Police Academy before and after attendance at the Ontario Police College, resulting in the longest training period among Ontario police services. After this, probationary police constables are assigned to a detachment within the OPP's six regions with a coach officer for a year of field training. At the end of probation, a decision is made regarding retention. First Nations constables employed by OPP-supported police services undergo the same training as OPP officers, spending time at the Provincial Police Academy as well as at the Ontario Police College before returning to their home communities.

Auxiliary program
Auxiliary members have no police authority. They must rely on the same arrest provisions as regular citizens. There are some instances when an auxiliary member may have the authority of a police officer. This can occur in an emergency situation, or where the OPP requires additional strength to assist with a special event. Auxiliary officers are unpaid, however are compensated for travel and meals. They are required to attend routine training administered by the OPP, and must contribute a certain number of hours monthly. The auxiliary is made up of people from diverse backgrounds.

Auxiliary members are trained at the Provincial Police Academy and qualified with all use of force options.

The auxiliary uniform is distinct from the uniform of a regular OPP officer. Auxiliary officers wear light blue shirts, checkered hat bands, and have their own cap badges. They wear slip-ons with the word "auxiliary" embroidered on them, and their jackets and dress uniforms have tabs sewn on that indicates that they are auxiliary officers.

History
Following the disbanding of World War II auxiliary forces, growing Cold War tension and fear of a nuclear attack led to the belief that police services should "recruit and train volunteers to augment their strength in times of emergency". As a result, in 1954, the Provincial Civil Defence Auxiliary was created, but the need to more closely associate the auxiliary with the OPP soon became apparent.

On 14 January 1960, the Provincial Civil Defence Organization was dissolved. A new oversight body known as the Emergency Measures Organization—Ontario (EMO) came into being. Each department of the government became responsible for its own operational planning. The organization of auxiliary police forces became the responsibility of all interested municipal police forces, as well as the OPP.

In April 1960, a new organization more closely affiliated with the OPP came into being. The Ontario Auxiliary Police were organized in 12 of the 17 OPP districts and by the end of the year, 376 volunteers had signed up to be equipped and trained by experienced OPP personnel. Two OPP inspectors were assigned to work with Emergency Measures Ontario as liaison officers for the volunteers. This close connection continues today with the OPP auxiliary playing a critical role in emergency and disaster planning and occurrences. By 1961 there were 466 auxiliary volunteers who accompanied regular provincials on traffic and law enforcement patrols and during the year logged more than twenty-six thousand hours of volunteer duty.

Uniforms
Uniformed officers below the rank of staff sergeant wear navy blue uniforms with gold lettering and shoulder flashes. Sworn managers at or above the rank of staff sergeant wear slightly smaller, black shoulder flashes and white shirts, and wear navy trousers with black piping. Officers below the rank of staff sergeant use trousers with light blue trouser piping, and forage caps for all ranks are banded with the same light blue colour. As of 2021, officers may also choose to wear a baseball cap instead of the traditional forage cap. Officers wear duty belts, which, at a minimum, carry an officer's issued use of force equipment, and also wear an external Pacific Safety Products vest with MOLLE webbing to store additional items and large placards that read "police" in gold text on their chest and back.

Officers serving with specialty tactical units are also issued cargo pants without piping, utility tops, and subdued placards for their external tactical vests. Officers serving with the Tactics and Rescue Unit are issued olive green uniforms.

Since 1985, wide, light blue stripes down the side of issued trousers have been standard. Prior to this, officers wore pants with thin, red trouser piping. From 1997 to 2008, the official headdress of the OPP was the stetson, though commissioned ranks were still issued the forage cap. Starting in 2008, the OPP returned to the peaked cap for all officers.

Fleet

 * 4,896 road vehicles (patrol, investigative, multi-use, motorcycle, trailers and specialty)
 * 517 seasonal vehicles (Marine vessels, motorized snow (MSV) and off-road vehicles (ORV))

Ground
The OPP has approximately 4,900 cruisers in service across the province according to the 2021 Annual Report. Officers mainly patrol using all-wheel drive versions of the Ford Taurus Police Interceptor, Ford Explorer Police Utility, Ford F-150 Police Responder, Dodge Charger Pursuit, Dodge Durango Special Service Package, Chevrolet Silverado and Chevrolet Tahoe for front line patrol. For specialized roles, a variety of vehicles are used, such as the Chevrolet Suburban, Ford F250 Super Duty, and the Cambli International Thunder 1 armoured rescue vehicles used by the Tactics and Rescue Unit, as well as an International-based truck used by the Highway Safety Division and Mobile Support Units. Previously, models of the Ford Crown Victoria and Chevrolet Impala were used.

Historically, from 1941 to 1989, the OPP livery was black and white. In 1989, in response to manufacturers no longer offering dual tone vehicles, the OPP switched to an all-white livery with blue and gold striping. Vehicles of this era were equipped with Federal Signal's Vector light bars with integrated traffic advisers. In 2007, the OPP announced that it would return to a black and white colour scheme. The colour scheme is accomplished with the use of vinyl wraps during in-house vehicle outfitting. The change was implemented starting in March 2007 and was completed in 2009. Vehicles of this era had detachment markings on the rear quarter panel and used Federal Signal Arjent S2 light bars. Current vehicles have eschewed the detachment markings and are equipped with Whelen Legacy light bars. Unmarked vehicles are generally white, black, grey or dark blue. All marked cruisers are equipped with pushbars, also generally have black steel rims, and spotlights mounted on the driver side. Licence plates on the cruisers are generally the standard Ontario licence plates with a special validation sticker denoting permanent registration.

Aviation
As of February 2023, the OPP has the following aircraft listed with Transport Canada as the Province Of Ontario, Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, and operate as Nav Canada airline designator GD, and telephony GUARDIAN.
 * 2 Eurocopter EC135 P2+
 * 1 Pilatus PC12NG - personnel and prisoner transport, First Nations policing support
 * 1 Cessna 206 Turbo - traffic enforcement

Unmanned aerial vehicles
 * 12 DJI Mavic Enterprise Dual
 * 11 FLIR SkyRanger R60
 * 7 Mavic 2 Pro
 * 6 DJI Mavic Air
 * 1 DJI M300

Marine

 * Kanter Marine "Chris D. Lewis" 38-foot police boat
 * Boston Whaler 24-foot police boat

Weapons
Ontario Provincial Police officers carry a variety of use of force equipment in the performance of their duties. The current sidearm of the OPP is the Glock 17M pistol in 9x19mm. Previously, officers were issued either the Sig Sauer P229 DAO, or the P229R DAK in .40S&W. Patrol vehicles are also equipped with the Colt Canada C8 patrol rifle in 5.56x45mm NATO, with the option of the Remington 870 in 12 gauge. All uniformed officers carry TASER X2 conducted energy weapons

The Tactics and Rescue Unit have more specialized weapons at their disposal including:

 * Accuracy International AW
 * Armalite AR10
 * Colt Canada C8 patrol CQB carbine
 * Knights Armament SR25
 * Heckler & Koch MP5

Caledonia land dispute
The Caledonia land dispute began in 2006 when members of the Six Nations of the Grand River began an occupation of land that they believed belonged to them, to bring light to their land claims, and to the plight of aboriginal land claims across Canada. The land at the centre of the dispute was owned by a corporation planning to build a subdivision known as the Douglas Creek Estates. The Ontario Provincial Police were called in to keep the peace. Tensions led to violence and over the span of several years, the Ontario Provincial Police were criticized for perceived inaction against the native protesters by local residents. In 2011, a class-action lawsuit against the government of Ontario was settled.

Ipperwash Crisis
The Ipperwash Provincial Park is a former provincial park in Lambton County, Ontario. On 4 September 1995, first nations people occupied the park to bring attention to decades-old land claims that had not been recognized, resulting in the Ipperwash Crisis. The park had been expropriated from the Stoney Point Ojibway during World War II. The protest increased in tensions, resulting in the shooting and subsequent death of a protester, Anthony O'Brien "Dudley" George, by Acting Sergeant Ken Deane of the Tactics and Rescue Unit. Deane was subsequently convicted of criminal negligence causing death. In 2003, an inquiry called the Ipperwash Inquiry, into the events at Ipperwash was convened, and concluded in 2007. The OPP now uses a variety of different methods in resolving conflicts at major events, most notably by the use of the Provincial Liaison Teams (PLT), formerly known as the Major Event Liaison Team (MELT)

John Doe v. Ontario (Information and Privacy Commissioner)
In 1993 an Ontario Divisional Court case, John Doe v. Ontario (Information and Privacy Commissioner), Judge Matlow of the Ontario Divisional Court, suspected that four officers of the Toronto Police Service engaged in a fabrication of evidence and harassment of an accused party. Judge Matlow under the Ontario Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA), sought access to the report of the Ontario Provincial Police exonerating the officers, but was denied access to it by the OPP. Access was later granted by the FIPPA commissioner, but a judicial review of the FIPPA commissioner's order to release the report resulted in publication of the OPP report being banned.

Ontario Provincial Police Association
The OPPA was established in 1954 to represent sworn and civilian members of the OPP, as well as OPP retirees. In March 2015, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced they were investigating fraud allegations against three top executives of the OPPA.

Appointment of Ron Taverner
In 2018, Toronto Police Superintendent Ron Taverner, was nominated to replace outgoing Commissioner Vince Hawkes. The appointment of Taverner brought about controversy given the personal relationship between him and Premier Doug Ford, potential nepotism, and the OPP's role in investigating political corruption. It was also discovered that the requirements of the position were changed to allow someone in rank equivalent to Taverner to apply. Ultimately, Taverner rescinded his interest in the position, resulting in the appointment York Regional Police Deputy Chief Thomas Carrique as the OPP's new commissioner.

In popular culture
The Beatles's 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band contains cover art with Paul McCartney wearing an OPP patch on his fictional uniform (more easily seen in the gatefold picture). In January 2016 the origins of the patch was confirmed as a gift from an OPP corporal on 28 September 1964, at Malton Airport as the Beatles were on their way to Montreal.

On the online social networking website Habbo Hotel Canada, OPP officers and spokespersons visit the online application to talk to teens on board the web site's "Infobus". During the weekly sessions, users of the Habbo service are able to ask the officers and spokespersons questions, primarily regarding online safety.

Film and television
In the television series Cardinal, the OPP is fictionalized as the Ontario Police Department (OPD), with a shoulder patch similar to that of the actual OPP except that the top element is replaced by three stylized maple leaves on a branch. OPP cruisers in the series are marked similar to actual cruisers, however the Queen's crown is replaced with a stylized beaver, and the vehicles are marked "O.P.D." instead of "O.P.P." In 2016, the Discovery Channel aired the reality TV series Heavy Rescue: 401, following members of the OPP and local heavy tow operators, profiling their efforts during events and routine operations on Highway 401, a highway that crosses southern Ontario.

In the Canadian horror film Pontypool, the OPP is called into the eponymous town to control a zombie outbreak, ultimately resulting in a massacre. The film's lead character, Grant Mazzy, vocally denounces the OPP's actions on the radio.

title: Ontario Provincial Police


text:
Sûreté du Québec

The Sûreté du Québec (SQ;, lit. 'Safety of Quebec') is the provincial police service for the Canadian province of Quebec. The agency's name is sometimes translated to Quebec Provincial Police (QPP) and Quebec Police Force (QPF) in English-language sources. The headquarters of the Sûreté du Québec are located on Parthenais Street in Montreal's Sainte-Marie neighbourhood, and the service employs over 5,700 officers. The SQ is the second-largest provincial police service (behind the Ontario Provincial Police) and the third-largest police service in Canada (behind the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Ontario Provincial Police).

Etymology
No official English name exists; being a minority, Quebec English speakers frequently use common or official French-language terms instead of the more recognised English terms of North American English.

Function
The primary function of the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) is to enforce provincial laws, some municipal bylaws, the Criminal Code and many other laws throughout Quebec, and to assist municipal police services when needed.

At the local level, the SQ is responsible for providing local police services to municipalities that chose not to have their own police department (mostly localities with populations under 50,000), in exchange for payment relative to their size. In other cities, the Sûreté du Québec can also take over criminal investigations from municipal police services when required by the Police Act of the province, according to the severity of the crime and the size of the population (e.g., the SQ will take in charge any homicide with no imminent arrests in a city of less than 250,000, even if it has its own police department). The SQ is usually present in smaller, rural or suburban communities, and it is not usually visible on the streets of large urban centres like Montreal and Quebec City, whose own police departments must provide a wide range of services and operations by law. In those cities, however, the SQ still has large offices where various investigations are conducted.

At the provincial level, the SQ is responsible for actions such as patrolling the highways of Quebec, preserving the integrity of governmental institutions, coordinating large-scale investigations (such as during the biker war in the 1990s), and maintaining and sharing the criminal intelligence database of Quebec with other services. In addition, the SQ can provide technical assistance to Quebec's independent investigation unit (BEI) in any incident involving possible wrongdoing by another police department, such as deaths and serious injuries. Should the SQ be involved in such an incident, assistance (if needed) will be provided either by the police service of Montreal or of Quebec City.

History
On February 1, 1870, the Quebec provincial government created the Police provinciale du Québec under the direction of its first commissioner, Judge Pierre-Antoine Doucet. This new service took over the headquarters of the Quebec City municipal police, which were then disbanded, although the city relaunched a municipal service in 1877.

In 1900, two distinct provincial police services were created: the Office of Provincial Detectives of Montreal, in response to a crime wave in that city, and the Revenue Police, whose mission was to collect taxes. In 1902, the government decided that the provincial police should no longer be directed by a judge but by an officer of the police themselves. Augustin McCarthy was chosen as the first chief drawn from the ranks of the police.

In 1922, two headquarters were established, one in Quebec City, headed by McCarthy, and one in Montreal, headed by Dieudonné Daniel Lorrain. The Office of Provincial Detectives of Montreal became part of the general provincial police in that year. The Quebec division included 35 police officers and two detectives. In 1925, police officers started patrolling on motorcycles. In 1929 and 1930, the structure of the service was reformed and the agency adopted a new name as  Sûreté provinciale du Québec which was later shortened to its present name.

Oka Crisis
A significant local, provincial, national and First Nations crisis erupted in 1990 after SQ officers attempted to enforce a court order on the Mohawks of Oka, Quebec. SQ Corporal Marcel Lemay was killed by gunfire in the initial raid (likely by friendly fire ), and a 77-day standoff ensued.

Montebello incident
The Sûreté du Québec admitted in August 2007 that they had used undercover police posing as protestors at the 2007 Montebello Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America meetings. This admission was made after a video captured by protestors was widely circulated in the Canadian media and made available on YouTube. The video appeared to show one of the officers carrying a rock, suggesting that the police may have been acting as inciting agents by inciting violence.

Chiefs and directors-general
• Pierre-Antoine Doucet (1870–1877)

• Jean-Baptiste Amyot (1877–1878)

• Alexandre Chauveau (1880–1899)

• Augustin McCarthy (1902–1932)

• Dieudonné Daniel Lorrain (1922–1928)

• Maurice-Charles Lalonde (1929–1936)

• Philippe Aubé (1936–1937)

• Philippe-Auguste Piuze (1937–1940)

• Marcel Gaboury (1940–1944)

• Joseph-Paul Lamarche (1944–1950)

• Hilaire Beauregard (1954–1960)

• Josaphat Brunet (1960–1965)

• J. Adrien Robert (1965–1968)

• Maurice St-Pierre (1969–1973)

• Paul-A. Benoît (1973–1974)

• Jacques Beaudoin (1974–1988)

• Robert Lavigne (1988–1995)

• Serge Barbeau (1995–1996)

• Guy Coulombe (1996–1998)

• Florent Gagné (1998–2003)

• Normand Proulx (2004–2008)

• Richard Deschesnes (2008–2012)

• Mario Laprise (2012–2014)

• Luc Fillion (interim, 2014)

• Martin Prud'Homme (2014–2018)

• Yves Morency (interim, 2017–2018)

• Martin Prud’Homme (2018–2019)

• Mario Bouchard (interim, 2019)

• Johanne Beausoleil (interim, 2019–2022)

• Johanne Beausoleil (2022–present)

Districts

 * 1) Bas-Saint-Laurent-Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine
 * 2) Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean
 * 3) Capitale-Nationale-Chaudière-Appalaches
 * 4) Mauricie-Centre-du-Québec
 * 5) Estrie
 * 6) Montréal-Laval-Laurentides-Lanaudière
 * 7) Outaouais
 * 8) Abitibi-Témiscamingue-Nord-du-Québec
 * 9) Côte-Nord
 * 10) Montérégie

Rank badges
Rank insignia of the Sûreté du Québec are contained on slip-on sleeves, worn on the epaulettes of uniform jacket or shirt shoulders.

Constables (Agent) do not have any insignia on their uniform. The SQ formerly had the rank of Corporal above Constable rank. Team leaders have an epaulette with the words Chef d'équipe.

Uniforms
Early uniforms were British in origin, including the use of the custodian helmet, with the kepi later added as well. The service adopted a uniform with a more distinct green tone, as well as a peaked cap, in the 1960s.

The emblem of the service changed in the 1970s, when the old provincial coat of arms gave way to the fleur-de-lis.

In late 2016, Martin Prud'Homme, Director General of the SQ, announced the uniforms would be changed. Shirts and coats will be of a darker shade of olive green; patches, caps, and bulletproof vests will become black, and pants blue-black. One of the justifications for the changes was that the old green uniform was too similar to that of a soldier's.

Fleet
Beginning progressively in 2017, marked patrol cars are set to become black with white doors, on which the word "POLICE" will be more evident. Cars:
 * Chevrolet Impala
 * Chevrolet Tahoe
 * Dodge Charger
 * Ford Police Interceptor Utility
 * Ford Taurus

Trucks:
 * Dodge Dakota
 * Ford E-250
 * Ford F-350
 * Ford F-450
 * Ram 2500 pickup

Motorcycles:
 * BMW police motorcycle
 * Mikado bicycles

Special Vehicles:
 * Prevost Car Command Post
 * Hummer H1 armoured truck
 * International 7500 support vehicle
 * APC
 * Cambli International Thunder 1 ARV (with International 7500 chassis)

Air:
 * Bell 206
 * Bell 206 LT
 * Bell 412

Sea:
 * Doral patrol boat
 * Bombardier Sea-doo

Wild:
 * Bombardier Ski-doo snowmobile
 * Grizzly ATV

Equipment
The standard-issue weapon of the SQ is the Glock pistol, loaded in 9×19mm Parabellum caliber. Various models have been adopted, such as the standard Glock 17 Gen 3, compact Glock 19, and sub-compact Glock 26. Tactical officers used the C8CQB Close Quarter Battle combat rifle, a variant of the Colt Canada C8 rifle.

Prior to the Glock pistols, officers carried .357 Magnum revolvers, which were replaced with the Glock 17 in 2001.

Licence Plate Recognition System
The SQ has been using the LPRS systems since 2009. The objective of the LPRS is to make the streets and highways safer by removing vehicles not authorized to be on the road. The hotlist plate database can consist of the following types:
 * unregistered plate (not paid at DMV/SAAQ)
 * stolen vehicles
 * AMBER Alert
 * wanted vehicles

The LPRS are installed on 10 Sûreté du Québec vehicles. The LPRS integrator is Gtechna. Gtechna is primarily a citations issuance and management software developer which integrates mission critical technologies such as Licence Plate Recognition (LPR) to streamline the enforcement of moving and parking violations.

In popular culture
The Sûreté du Québec has become well known internationally through the fictional Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his colleagues, created by Canadian author Louise Penny, who lives in Quebec. Penny's works have been recognized in Quebec by her being made a Member of the Order of Quebec.

The Three Pines series on Amazon Prime Video, inspired by the books, also includes characters who are police officers with the Sûreté du Québec, including Gamache.

title: Sûreté du Québec