Thousands of student protesters hit the streets of downtown Montreal April 3 to demand an end to austerity measures in Quebec, resulting in six arrests.
Between 10,000-15,000 students gathered in Parc Émilie-Gamelin for the protest, which Montreal police declared illegal before it began. Some threw rocks and other debris.
Police used pepper spray and pushed back the crowd using shields and batons, which led to one cyclist suffering a head injury. Police tweeted that the protest was illegal because no itinerary was given beforehand.
“They have to provide a route and also they have to make a special request to be in accordance with the bylaws,” police spokesperson Raphael Bergeron said.
Bergeron said the police usually “wait until there are criminal acts” committed before declaring a protest illegal. After about three hours, six protesters had been arrested, he said.
Bergeron said the protest was mostly peaceful, but a few “troublemakers” committed “criminal acts.”
Two were in possession of weapons they shouldn’t have brought, according to Bergeron. He did not say what the weapons were, but that the protesters were released afterwards.
Police charged four others, whose names would not be released.
The protest was organized by Quebec student union l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ), along with other French-speaking student associations in Montreal and southern Quebec. ASSÉ also organized the 2012 student protests in Quebec against rising tuition fees, which lasted six months.
“The police we saw were completely on edge,” Benjamin Gingras, ASSÉ’s financial secretary, said. “They were overzealous, and it was only when they started to intervene that everything escalated.”
Gingras said the rich need to shoulder a fair share of the tax burden, and that by rearranging tax brackets, Quebec could avoid austerity measures in place now that negatively affect students. With a majority Liberal government elected in Quebec April 7, Gingras said he hopes changes will come.
“We will continue to denounce austerity. We will continue to mobilize no matter who is in power,” he said. “We hope that [new Liberal Premier] Philippe Couillard learned a lesson from 2012, that we can mobilize massively, and we can take down a majority government.”
Gingras called on Couillard to reverse the Parti Québécois increases to subsidized daycare rates, and cut the health-care tax, the latter of which Couillard promised to phase out. Gingras said ending austerity will still be a focal point for ASSÉ under the new government.
“We will continue to take the place that is rightfully ours in the public sphere,” he said.
