Montreal Gazette — More than 100 people were arrested and two were injured after a protest by Montreal students turned ugly on Thursday evening, with police firing tear gas into the crowd. The protest, a joint demonstration against rising tuition fees and police brutality began at about rush hour, but was confronted by Montreal police outfitted in riot gear. About 2,000 protesters headed north through the city, then west along Sherbrooke Street, but no police were visible along the route, although they were positioned on adjacent streets and in the city’s subway system. When about six officers did appear, a few protesters started throwing rocks at them. At one intersection, police fired off two loud stun grenades, sending a panic through the crowd. Protesters ran in all directions, but riot police formed a line, and banging on their shields with their batons, marched forward, shoving demonstrators north…. A young woman, who didn’t want to give her name, held a bag of ice to her right eye after a police officer whacked her with his baton. “(Riot police) were coming towards us and my friend dropped his cellphone so I bent down to pick it up with my arms raised in the air, so one hit me in the face and my back,” she said. Police made the majority of the evening’s arrests in front of a downtown library…. those arrested were just standing still, arms locked, in front of the library chanting. “They were the least provocative of the whole march.”
Photo by Graham Hughes, Montreal Gazette
Read more: Montreal Gazette
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