{"id":4377,"date":"2012-04-27T15:33:36","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T20:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/waronsociety.noblogs.org\/?p=4377"},"modified":"2013-02-03T15:33:27","modified_gmt":"2013-02-03T21:33:27","slug":"montreal-qc-late-night-tuition-riots-with-attacks-on-banks-and-a-police-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waronsociety.noblogs.org\/?p=4377","title":{"rendered":"Montreal, QC: Late-night tuition riots with attacks on banks and a police station"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"from the press<\/del>:<\/em><\/p>\n

Violence erupted in the streets of Montreal Wednesday night after talks broke down between student groups and the Quebec government, leading to 85 arrests and shattered windows.<\/p>\n

Several police officers were also injured in the riot that left the city stunned Thursday.<\/p>\n

Banks and other businesses, cars, even a police station had their windows shattered by an angry mob that spilled out from a larger crowd of thousands of student protesters.<\/p>\n

The violence followed a breakdown in talks between the two parties to end an 11-week fight over tuition hikes.<\/p>\n

The government said one of the student groups, C.L.A.S.S.E., broke the truce by protesting Tuesday and condoning violence on its website and booted it from talks Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“You can’t play both sides,” Education Minister Line Beauchamp said. “I regret that this (group) has chosen its camp.”<\/p>\n

That prompted two other students groups to walk out in protest leading to the street demonstrations and subsequent riot.<\/p>\n

The leader of one student group said the talks are suspended until the banned group is invited back to sit at the table again.<\/p>\n

Martine Desjardins, of the Quebec Federation of University Students, told CTV’s Canada AM the early discussions revolved around issues like student aid and not tuition fees.<\/p>\n

“People want us to talk about the tuition fee problems,” she said in a telephone interview from Montreal Thursday.<\/p>\n

“We were ready to spend hours and more hours on this topic,” Desjardins said.<\/p>\n

She said there were preliminary talks about returning to the negotiating table to end the conflict after Thursday’s violent demonstrations.<\/p>\n

“As students we have a responsibility to go back to the table, but we need the government to understand what we need to talk about,” Desjardins said.<\/p>\n

Although pressure is mounting on the Liberal government of Premier Jean Charest to back down from the planned $325-per-year tuition hike, it appears less likely as the party rises in the polls, raising the possibility of a snap spring election.<\/p>\n

Polls indicate Quebecers generally support the fees.<\/p>\n

One survey this week showed the poll-leading Parti Quebecois, which has staunchly endorsed the students, losing support and seeing its lead evaporate in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

A provincial election must be called between this spring and late 2013.<\/p>\n

As the talks broke down Wednesday, students took a parting shot at Beauchamps, calling her a scolding school master more interested in political grandstanding than negotiating.<\/p>\n

It was moments after the talks ended when students began spilling into the streets of Montreal and Quebec City, joined later by thousands of others denouncing Charest and demanding an election.<\/p>\n

A few in the crowd wore masks, while some fired paintballs at police and media.<\/p>\n

Police responded by pepper-spraying people as they moved in to quell the violence, including an attack on a downtown police station that had its windows smashed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from the press: Violence erupted in the streets of Montreal Wednesday night after talks broke down between student groups and the Quebec government, leading to 85 arrests and shattered windows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2532,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[880],"tags":[61,10],"class_list":["post-4377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-actions","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/waronsociety.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/waronsociety.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/waronsociety.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waronsociety.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2532"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waronsociety.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4377"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/waronsociety.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4379,"href":"https:\/\/waronsociety.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4377\/revisions\/4379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/waronsociety.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waronsociety.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waronsociety.noblogs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}