Protests at McGill University Nov. 10 went from peaceful to violent in a split second after students made their way to the office of the university’s president, according to witnesses.
A student-led movement occurred all across the province of Quebec, opposing the tuition hike that will kick in next year.
Tuition fees in Quebec will increase by $325 every year until 2016, according to the 2011-12 provincial budget. Currently, undergraduate students in Quebec pay about $2,168 per year in tuition fees, according to the budget, whereas the nation-wide average is just over $5,000. Ontario currently has the highest undergraduate tuition fees in the country at $6,307 per year, according to Statistics Canada.
People in Quebec have been arguing about the increase in fees over the last month, according to McGill student Andrew Childerhose
Childerhose, who was filming and actively protesting, said all universities in Quebec were scheduled to protest the impending tuition changes starting Nov. 10 at 1 p.m.
“It started off really peaceful in a great kind of way and it moved on from Catherine Street, one of the most important and iconic streets in Montreal," Childerhose said. "[The] protest was incredibly peaceful [and there] hadn’t been any action whatsoever."
Catherine and Sherbrooke Streets were both blocked off for the protests, Childerhose said.
Around 5 p.m., Childerhose said the otherwise small protest grew to thousands and a small group people made their way the office of McGill president Heather Munroe-Blum inside the James Administration building.
Everyone in the building was locked in and security weren't allowing people into the premises, he said.
Security called the Montreal police department, and 10 Montreal bike police officers arrived to the scene and attempted to move the crowd along with bikes, Childerhose said.
“It got really rough and no one wanted to be moved. There was a power dispute which resulted in a [riot police] team being called in," Childerhose said.
About 50 riot police officers arrived to just this one area, while others dispersed to different areas of the campus, according to Childerhorse.
When the riot police arrived, the protests took an ugly turn, he added.
"They used tear gas, pepper spray and violence . . . In a couple instances, they were definitely hitting people with batons and pushing people with their shields. I witnessed someone getting pushed into bushes from a six-foot ledge," Childerhose said. "This was a peaceful protest and we’re being hit or pepper sprayed."
Raymond St. Martin, an arts student at McGill, said he witnessed some of the riots on his way to a midterm exam.
"I stopped to talk to some girls who had been tear-gassed,” St. Martin said. “It was extremely traumatizing and outraging and I can't believe this is happening in Canada.”
Four arrests had been made as of 9 p.m. Nov. 10, according to Montreal police. One man and one woman were arrested in separate cases of armed attacks on police officers, and two men were arrested in connection with a robbery.
— More to come
