A dozen arrests at tuition protest

Posted By: Michel Boyer · 2/26/2013 10:10:00 PM

Student protesters are hitting the bricks yet again, voicing their opposition to planned tuition hikes.

And, student radicals are promising more to come.

Tuesday afternoon, protesters marched from Victoria Square through McGill Ghetto and down to Place Emilie-Gamelin.

There was a confrontation between riot officers and the protesters on the corner of St-Denis and Cherrier.

"Our officers spotted some protesters breaking the law," said Sgt. Laurent Gingras with the Montreal Police. That's when he says police went to arrest them, and they were attacked by other protesters. It didn't take long before the tension grew. Police launched stun grenades into the air in an attempt to dissipate the group of what organizers say was 10,000 strong. 

Many left but one group went north on St-Denis, the other south. Eventually, they met back at the corner of Berri and Ontario streets.

One male police officer and several protesters were taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Protesters smashed two police vehicles and damaged business-front windows, including at the Loto-Quebec building.

There were 13 arrests, three women and 10 men.

The cause is the same, the tactics are pretty much the same, but the target is different.

Instead of the Charest Liberals, the PQ under Pauline Marois are in power. Earlier in the day, as she wrapped up a two-day summit on higher education, she declared the era of student protests are over, though it appears the government is pressing ahead with its preferred option of indexing university tuition fees to the cost of inflation, which would effectively mean a tuition hike of roughly $70 per year.

The student groups who took part in the summit were generally in favor of a freeze on tuition fees. The militant ASSÉ group, which boycotted the summit, is in favor of free tuition.

ASSÉ organized Tuesday's protest, which made its way through the streets of downtown, starting at Victoria Square, and wrapping up at St. Louis Square, near the corner of St-Denis and Cherrier in the Quartier Latin district.

Protesters have been throwing things at police and government buildings during the protest. Some eggs have been thrown at the Loto-Quebec building, which houses CREPUQ, the group that brings together Quebec's university rectors.

Montreal police report two arrests so far.

Meanwhile, a group calling itself Mouvement Étudiant has started a Facebook page, calling for nightly protests to begin at Place Émilie-Gamelin, the focal point of last year's nightly protests, starting on Tuesday, March 5.

Related

•  No consensus on tuition at summit

With files from CJAD's Richard Deschamps

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  1. Umaga posted on 02/26/2013 05:21 PM
    I think it's time we hired an American police force to come up here and show our local constabulary how to deal with these spoiled middle-class revolutionary wannabees !
    1. pastagate posted on 02/26/2013 10:19 PM
      @Umaga Unfortunately that would not be possible unless this American police force can communicate to the student in French. Don't forget that we are talking about Quebec my friend, where everything function in French. Even Italian noodles have to speak French.
  2. Drew posted on 02/27/2013 12:09 AM
    spoiled middle-class revolutionary wannabees ! You have to be serious. Lets look at this Provence in the past 60 days.
    Sales tax up 1% this affects us all house insurance, car and life insurance, license plates restaurants, gasoline hydro bill I can go on and on.
    Question is where is all this tax going to
    To run the OFL 24,7 million to chase down English signs or words like pasta and make us look like fools to the rest of the world
    Where does all the money from Loto Quebec go to as well as the Casino as we know the house always wins.
    We should be joining the students because our Government is not transparent as Governments should be. The students are showing their unrest as we should be over what is happening to us.
    The Investigation on kick back on government contracts is a joke you tell the truth and no jail for you.The criminals are able to keep the money they stole from our taxes and nothing happens. If I rob a bank I will admit it on 2 condition no jail term and I keep the cash. There is an old saying " If you commit the crime you pay the time " but not in this case.
    If we are going to sit back and say nothing we deserves all we get but at least the students are fighting back. I make it perfectly I believe that destruction of property is not the way to go.
    Where is all the money that we paid in the past 10 years for infrastructure repairs that was not done like our bridges falling apart our sewer and water supply pipes falling apart. Why do our roads look like they were under mortar attack. At least the students are not taking the Government crap like we do
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