Safety officers walking around university campuses are a common sight. Riot police, however, are not.
But McGill University students saw riot police on their campus Nov. 10 after a protest against rising tuition fees in Quebec.
Early media coverage of the daytime protest focused on tuition fees and the high number of participants. Thirty thousand people marched to Quebec Premier Jean Charest’s office near the McGill campus, according to the Montreal Gazette.
But when some protesters congregated at McGill and a few people staged a sit-in at the university principal’s office later in the evening, campus safety, police and riot police all got involved to the detriment of the original message.
Protests on student issues aren’t unusual, but the appearance of riot police at McGill should serve as a warning for protesters and administrations not to let protests, and responses to protests, get out of hand.
The negative attention isn’t beneficial to anyone involved, regardless of who called in the riot police or whether their presence was warranted — all details that are still unclear.
For protesters, the original message about tuition fee increases was lost as media attention and public focus turned to the riot police. If some protesters did get violent, it discredits their message and student protests as a whole.
For university administration, questions over their response to the protest may bring down their reputation.
For police, the use of riot police could make them look overzealous if it turns out the response didn’t fit the situation.
Everyone has something to learn here. Large numbers at protests can get attention for a cause — but will it be the right kind?