Thousands of students march in Montreal, three arrested

Thousands of students marched through downtown Montreal on Friday to close five days of protest over conditions at post-secondary schools, government austerity and the cost of living, and Montreal police used tear gas on the crowd after clashes late in the afternoon.

Police said three people were arrested: two for armed assault on a police officer and one for assault on a police officer, SPVM spokesperson Caroline Chèvrefils said Friday evening. The force also reported eight cases of vandalism to buildings or vehicles, according to CTV News.

The march was organized by the Coalition de résistance pour l’unité étudiante syndicale, known as CRUES. Protesters gathered at Victoria Square and walked through the downtown core. Several wore the red square, the symbol of the 2012 student strike in Quebec.

The students said they were inspired by the student protests across France in recent weeks. They said Quebec’s education system has been underfunded for years and that students are paying for it.

A Concordia University student who gave only his first name, James, said class sizes are growing, course selection is shrinking and the university is cutting faculty. “Tuition remains the same price or in fact goes up,” he told CTV News.

Their demands include changes to the student aid program, which students say can cut them off if they take a part-time job or move to part-time studies to cope with rising costs. They also called for new investment in education. Students from CEGEP Saint-Laurent said some of their school’s buildings are deteriorating, with elevators out of service and crumbling staircases.

Police said they moved to break up the demonstration after alleged acts of mischief and after fireworks were allegedly thrown at officers. CTV reported that protesters threw rocks at officers and that some windows were broken at the World Trade building. The Canadian Press reported that the group organizing the march could not immediately be reached for comment.

Elsie Lefebvre, Quebec’s higher education minister, and Guy Jr. Lapointe, the minister responsible for the police file, said on social media that the student movement “deserves to be listened to and respected.” They also said “dialogue and freedom of expression are essential in a democratic society” (translated from French), but that a “very clear distinction” must be made between legitimate protest and violence or vandalism.

Montreal has a long history of student protest. Our earlier report on the 1969 Sir George Williams sit-in looks at one of the city’s most consequential campus confrontations.

Charges, if any, will be decided by prosecutors. Police have not released the names of those arrested.

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With files from CTV News Montreal and The Canadian Press.