That is so weird. I can remember several police strikes here in Belgium, and none of that sort of thing happened.
The latest police strike announcement was for April (12th to 19th) this year, and was over the lack of PPE for field work. The strike was cancelled as PPE was made available before the strike date.
>>PeterS+(OP)
It's important to understand that this was already a very violent time in Montreal. Separatist terrorists were running rampant, and had a non-zero degree of public support.