Locked-out workers will no longer be allowed to picket the entrance to the Journal de Montréal office

The STIJM, representing locked-out Journal de Montréal workers, has been slapped with a temporary injunction limiting their picketing activities after recent events. They include:

• No more than 10 people around entrances to the Journal de Montréal offices
• No blocking road accesses to the Journal offices
• No harassment of Journal managers
• No picketing on private property of Journal managers (as they did to Quebecor chief Pierre Karl Péladeau)
• No picketing in offices or stores owned by advertisers (as they did to Brault et Martineau)
• No harassment of advertisers

The STIJM has a copy of the injunction (PDF) on its website. This is a temporary injunction, which means there will be another hearing about it. The way I read it, it doesn’t prevent them from protesting near properties owned by Quebecor or advertisers, merely from protesting on those properties. The “harassment” clauses, however, could be interpreted broadly enough to be worrisome to their rights to freedom of expression.

As for the other legal proceeding, about whether the Journal is using scab labour, they’re back in court on Friday. The CSN is calling on the government to have more inspectors to ensure businesses don’t use scab labour (telecommuting or otherwise) during conflicts.

In other news

• Pierre Dubuc and Marc Laviolette have an opinion piece in Le Devoir which unsurprisingly asks people to support the workers. They argue journalist unions are the last line of defence against Quebecor and Gesca taking over the universe with their convergence machine.
• The Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec has decided to support the workers by refusing to take ads out in the Journal. (Not that the Journal is actively chasing workers unions for money right now.)
• Rue Frontenac catches the Journal (or rather “Agence QMI”) producing an article almost identical to a press release. There’s also the usual who-cares ranting about typos and anglicisms in the paper.
• Quebecor Media issues another press release to correct the union’s “lies” against the Journal’s good name. It says the number of managers has not “doubled” but only increased by four. It also makes its case for Agence QMI (which it says is not related to the conflict), and re-discusses why talks broke down in January.
• A Rue Frontenac story about a Facebook group encouraging people to boycott 24 Heures (240 members so far).