Forty-five arrested in anti-tuition increase protest
Major winter storm doesn't dampen Montreal demonstrations
Police arrested 45 people who were demonstrating against student tuition increases in Montreal on Tuesday evening.
Early in the evening, a small crowd gathered at Émilie-Gamelin Park, near the Berri-
As has become routine for the student protests, Montreal police immediately declared the demonstration illegal because organizers did not submit an advanced itinerary.
As the protest began, officers urged people to stay on the sidewalks and warned demonstrators that anyone marching in the street would be arrested.
Many of the protesters managed to escape police by taking the Montreal metro to the Mont-Royal metro station, where they continued their march.
Dozens of people were arrested for illegal assembly on St-Laurent Boulevard, near the corner of Rachel Street. Buses from Montreal’s public transit commission were called in to help transport those individuals.
According to Radio-Canada, four people were arrested for assaulting police officers.
In February, the Parti Québécois government tabled its plan for tuition increases, which indexes university tuition to the cost of living, or about three per cent a year — about $70 annually.
The former Liberal government had originally proposed hiking tuition fees by $325 a year for five years, which it later reduced to $254 over seven years.