Police suppression of demonstrations

Montreal protests turns violent

Riot police used stun grenades, pepper spray and batons to beat back student protesters in Montreal after they tried to disrupt a speech by Quebec Premier Jean Charest on Friday.

Toronto Sun,

20 April, 2012

Montreal police say at least 10 people were arrested and an officer and two civilians were injured.

Bystanders were caught in the middle of clashes between police and protesters, who broke windows at the Montreal Convention Centre.

The demonstrators, many of whom were masked, stormed the building in which Charest was speaking around noon and tried to get to the upper floors of the sprawling complex prior to the start of the premier's speech.

Riot police blocked them at a bank of escalators and forced them to leave, blasting some with pepper spray along the way. One young woman fell down a flight of stairs and was seen lying motionless on the floor of the lobby.

Riot police surrounded the building and projected tear gas canisters at masked rioters who pelted them with rocks and pieces of asphalt.

Not far away, demonstrators smashed the windows of police cruisers and news vehicles while others erected barricades by piling up fences, traffic cones and other debris. They managed to block an entire main street.

Inside the convention centre, Charest joked about the mayhem as he concluded his speech about a plan to develop natural resources in the north.

"The (event) that we're holding today is very popular. People are running all over the place to get in," he said to laughter and applause.

"It's an opportunity for job hunters," the premier continued. "To those who were knocking on our doors this morning, we can offer them a job, up north, as soon as possible," he said to more laughter.

Charest struck a more serious tone in a scrum with reporters.

"These things are unacceptable," he said. "This won't advance the debate, this sort of intimidation and violence."

Student leaders have promised to disrupt the Quebec economy in an attempt to force Charest to reverse a decision to increase tuition by $1,625 over five years.

Many of the protesters were masked and a number of them carried red flags emblematic of the student movement whose members have blocked bridges, government buildings and streets across Quebec for three months.

But police also suggested the anarchist Black Bloc group was behind some of the violence.

Jeanne Reynolds, spokeswoman for the hardline student group CLASSE, refused to say if her group was behind the violence but confirmed they "organized the protests that happened this morning."

Asked if she supported the destruction of public and private property, she replied by denouncing the actions of riot police.

"I want to know how far things will go before the government listens to us," she said.

Leo Bureau-Blouin, president of the more moderate FECQ, called on students to "remain calm" and called on the government to move ahead with plans to negotiate an end to the strike.

The storming tactics on display at the convention centre appear to have been co-ordinated with a similar action at a hotel across town where federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney was scheduled to give a speech about the government's immigration reforms.

At the hotel, about 20 protesters threw themselves against the glass doors leading into the conference room as several hotel workers and security guards tried to hold them back.

Eventually, all the protesters barged through, ran into the conference room and sat down on the stage where Kenney was scheduled to speak.

Before police arrived, the protesters ran through the conference room kitchen and out a back exit.

Two women protesters told QMI Agency outside the hotel they wanted to prevent Kenney from speaking because the government's refugee policies were "anti-gay and racist."