Julien Villeneuve, also known as Anarchopanda, () is a Canadian philosophy professor from the

Collège de Maisonneuve Collège de Maisonneuve (; or Cégep de Maisonneuve) is a francophone public pre-university and technical college located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Partnerships The College is affiliated with the ACCC, and CCAA. History In 1967, several ...

known for dressing in a panda costume during the

2012 Quebec student protests The 2012 Quebec student protests (movement) were a series of student protests led by students individually such as the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ), the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, and th ...

, in which he hugged both students and police officers. His first appearance in the costume was at a protest on May 8, 2012. He stated that his aim in wearing the costume was to lower tensions and make protests safer for students. Villeneuve has a strong affinity for

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

and

Plotinus Plotinus (; , ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a Greek Platonist philosopher, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism. His teacher was the self-taught philosopher Ammonius ...

, and identifies as an

anarcho-pacifist Anarcho-pacifism, also referred to as anarchist pacifism and pacifist anarchism, is an anarchist school of thought that advocates for the use of peaceful, non-violent forms of resistance in the struggle for social change. Anarcho-pacifism reject ...

. In 2012, Montreal banned the use of masks in protests. Villeneuve protested the bylaw in costume, resulting in police seizing the costume's head in April 2013; it was returned several days later. The ban on protestors wearing masks was struck down by the

Superior Court of Quebec The Superior Court of Quebec () is a superior trial court in the Province of Quebec, in Canada. It consists of 157 judges who are appointed by the federal government. Appeals from this court are taken to the Quebec Court of Appeal. Jurisdicti ...

in 2016, but the bylaw still required protestors to notify police of their routes for non-spontaneous protests. Villeneuve challenged the ruling in court, arguing that it did not go far enough and defined a "spontaneous protest" too narrowly. The bylaw was entirely repealed in 2019, to which Villeneuve said, "it's been a long time coming". The Anarchopanda persona was discontinued in 2020 following public allegations of sexual assault against Villeneuve. Due to the allegations, several activist groups cut ties with him.

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External links

* *
Anarchopanda
on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

Living people Bear mascots Anthropomorphic pandas Mascots introduced in 2012 2012 Quebec student protests Canadian anarchists Activists from Montreal Canadian philosophy academics Canadian mascots 21st-century anarchists Year of birth missing (living people) {{Canada-activist-stub

See also

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External links