A Montreal bakery is outraged after a group of people wearing masks walked into their establishment in broad daylight and began taking products off the shelves before leaving without paying. “We are all surprised what people can do,” said Mamie Clafoutis co-owner Joseph Sabatier. Surveillance camera footage from the bakery on Saint Denis Street at Cherrier Street shows the entire event and was posted on the business’s Instagram page. “A dozen or so hooded, organized individuals walk in, fill their bags, shout that ‘everything is free,’ claim to be anti-capitalists… then vandalize the shop window,” the bakery said in an Instagram post. The masked robbers shouted: “Everything is free” and “Vive l’anarchie!” The vandals wrote “Free bread” on the windows and “Capitalist store” inside. An anonymous collective is claiming responsibility online, calling the robbery a political act. In a statement, the collective said they acted in “total rejection of the encroaching gaze of surveillance and the false gods of capitalism,” and they claim the bakery chain uses surveillance technology, including facial recognition. “They are angry about capitalism, or what they said, but first they have to maybe learn more about our system,” said Sabatier. Montreal police (SPVM) spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant said that officers responded to the 911 call around 8:30 a.m. “There was no altercation, no violence. It was done really calmly, but unfortunately, a lot of goods from the owner was stolen from there,” said Brabant. There were no arrests made. “It could be linked to other events that took place on the day prior, on the 30th of April, same modus operandi, people came into a business on Beaubien in Rosemont,” said Brabant. “In those two events, there was a graffiti mischief that was done on the entrance of those businesses.” Brabant said files are open on both robberies and that an investigation is ongoing. Mamie Clafoutis is a Quebec-based business founded in 2008 with seven locations in Montreal and Ottawa. The social media post criticized the suggestion that the robbery was based in activism. " Let’s call a spade a spade. This isn’t activism. It’s theft," the bakery said. “It’s bakers who get up at 4 a.m. It’s employees working hard to earn a living. It’s local suppliers. It’s an SME [small, medium enterprise] built here, for here.”
