The second of two climate activists who scaled the Jacques Cartier Bridge was released from detention on bail Thursday.
Olivier Huard was detained for nine days following the Oct. 22 action. Six of those days were spent in solitary confinement after Huard began a hunger strike in protest of the conditions the Crown set for his release. Those conditions included a curfew, a ban on speaking to the media and on social media about the case, and a prohibition on appearing in public with more than three people.
At the bail hearing, Quebec Superior Court Judge André Perreault rejected many of those conditions, saying he “deplored” that the activist had been detained so long.
The Montreal-based Ligue des droits et libertés said the Crown’s conditions went “way further” than the minimal conditions that the law demands. Huard’s lawyer Barbara Bedont, who has a legal practice representing activists, said the increase in conditions marks a “different world” for activists today.
