Masked Group Robs Montreal Bakery While Shouting “Everything Is Free”

A Montreal bakery says it was targeted in a bizarre broad-daylight robbery by a group of masked people who walked in, filled their bags with products, shouted anti-capitalist slogans, and left without paying.

The incident happened at Mamie Clafoutis on Saint-Denis Street near Cherrier Street. Surveillance footage from the bakery shows the group entering the business and taking items from the shelves. The video was later posted to the bakery’s Instagram page.

According to the bakery, around a dozen hooded individuals walked in, filled their bags, shouted “Everything is free,” claimed to be anti-capitalists, and then vandalized the shop window.

The group also reportedly shouted “Vive l’anarchie!” and wrote messages including “Free bread” on the windows and “Capitalist store” inside.

An anonymous collective has since claimed responsibility online, describing the robbery as a political act. In a statement, the group said it was acting in “total rejection of the encroaching gaze of surveillance and the false gods of capitalism,” and accused the bakery chain of using surveillance technology, including facial recognition.

The response from the bakery was far less philosophical.

“Let’s call a spade a spade. This isn’t activism. It’s theft,” the business wrote in a social media post. The bakery said the people affected were bakers who get up at 4 a.m., employees trying to earn a living, local suppliers, and a small or medium-sized business built in Quebec.

Co-owner Joseph Sabatier also pushed back on the group’s message.

“They are angry about capitalism, or what they said, but first they have to maybe learn more about our system,” he said.

Montreal police said officers responded to a 911 call around 8:30 a.m. According to SPVM spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant, there was no violence and no altercation, but goods were stolen from the business.

No arrests have been made.

Police also said the incident could be connected to another similar event that happened the day before at a business on Beaubien Street in Rosemont. In both cases, police said people entered a business, took goods, and graffiti was left at the entrance.

The files remain open and the investigation is ongoing.

Mamie Clafoutis is a Quebec-based bakery founded in 2008, with multiple locations in Montreal and Ottawa.

It is a strange case where the line between protest and petty theft is being argued over a counter full of baked goods. The group framed the incident as anti-capitalist action. The bakery says it was simply robbed.

Either way, the scene is hard to ignore: a dozen masked people walking into a bakery, shouting that everything is free, taking bread and pastries, writing slogans on the windows, and then trying to explain it all later as a statement against capitalism.

As political theatre goes, it was unusually flaky.

This story is covered in this week’s Keep Canada Weird news roundup.