Monday night's hockey riot has sparked interesting consequences: police requisitioned media images in their search for evidence to implicate specific individuals, media said no, police notched it up with a search warrant, and media came back at them with a petition to Superior Court that their images not be treated as evidence. Benoît Aubin makes a clear and stirring case for the independence of the media. Independent observers have in some cases turned their material over to police (although, as pointed out in the Aubin piece, media footage tends to be better quality than, say, a cell phone video).

Some of the rioters have already pleaded guilty, and police are gearing up to quash any future excesses, even calling on the SQ and the Mounties for backup. The Canadiens and the Flyers engage in their first playoff match at the Bell Centre this evening. posted at 07:33