A teacher cuts out election signs on Tiktok

A high school teacher in Montreal is in trouble after posting a video of him cutting up election signs on his school grounds.

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“I’m sorry, but it’s a school ground. It has no business there”, Xavier Watson misbehaved in a video published this week on TikTok, where we see him with a pair of scissors.

In the span of about 15 seconds, the teacher at Louis-Riel high school in the borough of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve cut out two election signs from the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) and the Parti Québécois (PQ). )

The drama teacher’s video quickly went viral with over 600,000 views, and sparked outrage on social media.

“If I had known what I was doing was illegal, I wouldn’t have filmed what I was doing. I thought it was illegal to put up posters on school grounds,” he defended himself in an interview. Log Xavier Watson.

The teacher adds that he has never seen a sign on the school grounds in nearly six years on the job. He assured that he was sincere. Note that posters are returned to PCQ and PQ candidates. They were eventually reinstated because they were legal on school grounds.

“It was a no-brainer for me and I learned a lot about election signals,” he says. Mr Watso also learned that a police report would be lodged against him for this wrongdoing.

Contacted on the matter, Elections Quebec declined to comment on the specific case of the professor at Louis-Riel high school.

“However, I would like to remind you that theft or destruction of posters are offenses governed by the Criminal Code. These situations must be reported to the police,” explained its spokesperson, Jonathan Gaudreault.

The teacher’s employer, the Center de Services Scolaire de Montréal, assures us that he “will not endorse any initiative contrary to the democratic values ​​of our society.”

“We will also apply the Election Law, which specifically allows posting on the property of school service centers, except on their buildings, and invite the entire population to respect this”, adds- Mr.

Note that the PCQ declined to comment on the cutting of his poster and did not respond to our request for an interview with the PQ candidate on Friday.