As McGill celebrates its 14th Indigenous Awareness Week, post-secondary institutions in Montreal are taking steps toward addressing disparities for Indigenous students in higher education. This is particularly evident in Concordia’s tuition exemption, announced last month, and the Dawson Student Union’s petition to exempt Indigenous students from Law 14.

These actions reflect the efforts to address the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s ninth call to action, where the federal government reports on the fiscal parity in education. They also address the need to close the education gap for Indigenous students and non- Indigenous students, including Indigenous students on and off reservations, as exhibited in the eighth call to action.

Starting this fall, Concordia will be addressing the 10th call of adequately funding education for Indigenous students. McGill announced a similar policy in June where the university would cover tuition fees for Indigenous students from nearby First Nation communities. However, Concordia is the first to implement its policy across the province. In this policy, the school mitigates fiscal barriers to post-secondary education by exempting Indigenous students in Quebec from tuition fees. This includes those who live remotely, such as in fly-in communities, as well as those inhabiting urban communities. Canadian post- secondary institutions outside Quebec have implemented similar tuition waivers, notably Humber College, the University of Toronto, and the University of Waterloo.

While fiscal barriers to educational equity are being reduced, the same cannot be said in terms of language. Last month, the student union at Dawson College (DSU), an English-language CEGEP, petitioned for the exemption of Indigenous students from the additional language requirements enforced by Law 14. According to this law, all students enrolled in an anglophone CEGEP must take an exit exam in French and take additional French courses, deterring Indigenous students from pursuing post- secondary studies according to the DSU. These requirements force Indigenous students to choose between attending these post-secondary institutions or learning and preserving their own languages and cultural identities.

Mia Fischlin, the Administrative Student Affairs Coordinator in the Indigenous Studies Program, further affirmed that settlers imposed their languages on Indigenous peoples and “under no circumstances should another colonial language still be enforced.” Considering many Indigenous students are learning French as their third language, they face additional barriers compared to their francophone and anglophone peers. Many Indigenous students say they will not continue employing the language after graduation as they plan to return to their communities or work in Indigenous organizations. Thus, as French may not coincide with their future professional and cultural paths, “learning French, for many Indigenous people, is a form of assimilation,” Fischlin said.

Other barriers to Indigenous youth’s involvement in CEGEP include Law 14’s admissions cap and prioritization of students with certificates to be taught in English. While Indigenous students may be exempt from the language exam, it is unlikely that they can avoid additional French courses, demonstrating the Bill’s lack of Indigenous consultation regarding equitable exemptions.

This lack of awareness of the plurality in our education system was exemplified in Fischlin’s account of her time at McGill, where Indigenous peoples such as her own family members were excluded from academic discourses due to their time in residential schools. These institutions were created by the church and the Canadian government to assimilate generations of Indigenous children into a homogenous Canadian population. As a result, Indigenous students face different obstacles than their peers which extend to post-secondary education, a discrepancy that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission addresses.

Moreover, the Dawson Student Union plans to take their petition to exempt Indigenous students from Law 14’s language requirements to the National Assembly of Quebec. Criticism of the law has also stemmed from other English CEGEP institutions who have contacted Quebec Premier François Legault to address these discrepancies in consultation with Indigenous peoples. This exemplifies the need in Quebec’s bilingualism to address the plurality of Indigenous peoples in the province.

According to Fischlin, it is important to “account [for] the reality of all the people living in so-called Canada.” Until then, she believes our education system remains an extension of settler- colonialism as it “overwhelmingly favours settler histories.”

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C-309, or the Preventing Persons from Concealing Their Identity during Riots and Unlawful Assemblies Act, would amend the criminal code to impose penalties of up to ten years imprisonment for masked individuals taking part in a riot, and up to five years for wearing a mask while a member of an unlawful assembly.

The bill has been debated in the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights and was reported back to the House of Commons, where it will be voted on when parliament resumes in September. As a private member’s bill put forth by Conservative MP Blake Richards, it enjoys the backing of the majority government.

Andrew Lokan, an external counsel to the Canadian Civil Liberties Associations, has been studying BIll C-309’s implications in a civil liberties context. He called the federal bill “disproportionate” and said that it will have a “chilling effect on lawful and legitimate protests”.

Speaking with The Daily in May, Lokan predicted that if the bill passes, “people are going to stay away from demonstrations, […] they’re not going to run the risk […] of going to prison for up to 10 years”. He added that “the government is backing bill C – 309, they’re a majority, and if the government wishes it to become law, well, it will. But Canadians can protest against this […] and I think if it does there could well be constitutional challenges”.

Julius Grey, constitutional lawyer based in Montreal, agrees. He said that the bill, if passed, could possibly be found to contravene the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. For Grey, “It seems to me that under sections 7 and 12 of the Charter, an argument could be made.” Sections seven and twelve of the Charter cover life, liberty, and security of persons and the right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.

Grey also highlighted the ambiguity of the unlawful assembly charge. “An assembly can often turn unlawful because of the behaviour of other people, and then you’re in possibly for 5 years”, he said, adding: “I think this type of law is intended to make it extremely dangerous to demonstrate.”

Richards declined The Daily’s request for interview, but commented in parliament that  “anyone who is wearing a mask or a disguise to conceal his or her face in the midst of a riot is exhibiting aggravating behaviour. […] It is hard to imagine that [individuals] who ignore police instructions to depart the area and who, in addition, continue to linger in the vicinity while wearing a disguise are seized by any innocent motives or good intentions in those kind of circumstances.”

Grey called this reasoning “simplistic”, saying that protesters might choose to conceal their faces so as “not to be seen by their parents or teachers or employers, especially once a riot’s started […] all sorts of reasons other than committing an offence.”

Montreal’s anti-mask bylaw

On May 18th, Montréal modified its public security bylaw P-6 to include an anti-mask provision (12-024). Since the beginning of the conflict, P-6 has been responsible for multiple arrests, although Montreal police were not able to provide information as to whether or not the anti-mask provision has been used. Depending on the number of offences, demonstrators arrested could be charged anywhere from $500 to $3000 dollars. An attempt to challenge the bylaw on constitutional grounds was made by Julien Villeneuve, better known as Anarchopanda, at Montreal’s City Court last month. His request to have the bylaw suspended was denied by Justice François Rolland, and Villeneuve will return to court in September to continue the challenge.

As Grey explained, “the municipal bylaw can be challenged on issues of freedom of expression [or] on the grounds that only the federal government has criminal law power” whereas, if passed, C-309  “has to be challenged only on Charter grounds.”

Grey commented that in the case of a constitutional challenge, the verdict would depend on many factors, such as whether the case brought forth was a “sympathetic” one, as well as what he called “the spirit of the times”. “There are certain things you could win in 1980 or 1990 that you couldn’t win today,” he said.

“We’re having an erosion of the great achievements in terms of individual freedom,” Grey continued, “It would be foolish to think that it’s just a Canadian tendency.”

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Both sides blamed each other for the deadlock, with mutual accusations of intransigence. Students have been on strike for almost four months, the longest student strike in Quebec history.

At first, the government offered to cut the impending hikes from $254 a year to $219. The loss in revenue would be offset by a reduction in tax breaks on tuition fees. Under this proposal, the hikes would amount to $1533 over seven years instead of the original $1625 over five.

After students rejected the deal, the government offered to revise the annual hikes and reduce the first year increase in tuition to $100. $254 would be paid annually for the remaining years. In total, the hikes would amount to $1624 over seven years.

The four student associations argued that the government did not go far enough.

“The offer we got – and this isn’t a joke – is a tuition hike of $1624. It’s a bit insulting,” Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, a spokesperson for the Coalition large de l’association pour une solidarité syndicale (CLASSE), said in French at a press conference.

For their part, the students offered to scrap the hikes for the first two years. A $1270 hike in tuition fees would then be spread over the remaining five years. To offset the hikes, tax breaks for tuition would have been adjusted accordingly.

Since Jean Charest’s term as premier of Quebec is set to end next year, students were hoping that the incoming government would abolish the hikes, according to Martine Desjardins, the president of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec.

Education minister Michelle Courchesne rejected the offer, arguing that the reduction in tax breaks needed to offset the hikes would be unfair for students enrolled in CEGEP technical programs because they would not be pursuing university studies.

The impasse comes nearly a week before Montreal is set to host its annual Formula One (F1) Grand Prix race. According to Courchesne and Charest, CLASSE has threatened to disrupt the event. In a press conference yesterday afternoon the Premier called the student association a “threat to all Quebecers.”

The F1 event has already been a target of hacking by the activist group Anonymous, which leaked personal information of ticket buyers, in support of the Quebec student movement.

Protesters throng the streets

Anger over the breakdown in talks was felt through the streets of Montreal last night as thousands of demonstrators marched peacefully through the downtown area as part of the 38^th consecutive nightly protest.

While many protesters expressed frustration with the stalemate, some were not surprised by the government’s decision to leave the negotiation table.

“I’m sure that the decision was taken a long time ago,” Sylvain, a father-of-two, told The Daily in French. “Charest called a meeting with his ministers a while ago. I think he made the decision with his ministers.”

Protesters walked for hours – sometimes in circles – amid the clanging of pots and pans.

The march merged with two smaller demonstrations during the night. At one point, the crowd swelled to around 8000 protesters.

At 11:00 p.m., a group of protesters tried to block the entrance to the Champlain Bridge. However, most of the crowd continued their march on Notre-Dame Street.

The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) was mostly absent from the protest although several lines of riot police blocked access to St-Denis.

The SPVM told the Daily that two arrests were made for violations of municipal bylaws. One individual was arrested for assault against an officer.

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Starting around 2 p.m. at Place des Arts, students and non-students alike assembled to protest both impending tuition increases and Bill 78, a controversial legislation passed by the Quebec National Assembly last Friday in response to the protests which have been paralyzing downtown Montreal for months. Bill 78 stipulates strict regulations on demonstrations and would impose large fines on their violations.

One of the clauses in Bill 78 requires student federations organizing protests to provide police with the route of the demonstration at least eight hours before it is scheduled to begin. The Fédérations des étudiants universitaire et collegiale du Québec (FEUQ and FECQ) shared Tuesday’s route with the police.

The Coalition large de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE) diverted from the route at the earliest opportunity yesterday afternoon and proceeded to march with several thousand protesters through downtown Montreal towards Parc Lafontaine. CLASSE had announced the day before that it would refuse to comply with Bill 78.

The two protests met at Parc Lafontaine an hour later. Estimates of the size of the protest ranged from 250,000 to 400,000, both making it the largest student demonstration in Quebec history – surpassing the previous record of 200,000 set during the March 22 provincial day of action against tuition hikes.

Markus Prinz, a U1 Medicine student at McGill, said he attended yesterday afternoon’s demonstration to provide medical support in case of injuries. He said the demonstration was “the most people I’ve seen on the streets so far [during the strike], so it’s pretty impressive.”

Speaking of Bill 78, Prinz said he thought the bill has “made things very complicated for people to go out on the street and express their opinion.”

“It’s something I haven’t seen anywhere I’ve been,” continued Prinz. “It’s obviously polarized people quite a lot, and it’s got a whole lot more people involved that hadn’t been originally.”

While the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) reported no arrests, injuries, or acts of mischief, they did later confirm that three windows had been smashed during the protest.

“Casseroles” and night arrests

The record-breaking afternoon protest was followed by the 28th consecutive night demonstration. The demonstration was preluded by a new protest tactic sparked over the weekend through social media.

At 8 p.m., half an hour before the traditional 8:30 p.m. start time of the night demonstrations, Montreal residents across the city poured out of their homes onto sidewalks and banged pots and pans – “casseroles” in French – for 15 minutes in support of protests against Bill 78.

The event was an instant social media hit, trending in Montreal as #casserolesencours, a play on the popular #manifencours used during demonstrations throughout the strike.

The night demonstration followed a similar course to recent night demonstrations since the passage of Bill 78. Leaving Parc Émilie-Gamelin around 9 p.m. without providing police with a route, the march of roughly 2000 people was declared illegal within half an hour.

In a tweet, the SPVM cited the lack of a route, projectiles thrown at officers, and violation of a municipal bylaw banning masks at protests – also passed last week – as the reasons for declaring the protest illegal.

Half an hour later, riot police broke up the main demonstration as it headed east on Ste. Catherine. A cat-and-mouse chase characteristic of recent night demonstrations ensued, with protesters regrouping at various points around downtown throughout the night, only to be scattered again by SPVM and Sûreté du Québec officers and broken into smaller groups.

During one clash with riot police, an officer hit a reporter from Le Délit in the side of the head with a baton. A reporter for OpenFile Montreal was also arrested during the protest, but was released soon after.

The SPVM reported over 50 total arrests from the night demonstration early Wednesday morning, including five for “criminal acts,” including armed assault and assault on a police officer.

International demonstrations

Tuesday’s demonstrations in Montreal were joined by demonstrations in cities across the country and the world, including Calgary, Vancouver, New York, and Paris.

Several hundred gathered in front of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris on Tuesday afternoon to  support the ongoing Quebec student strike.

In New York, two protests were organized for Tuesday by Occupy Wall Street and other activist groups. Roughly 60 people attended a demonstration outside the Quebec government office in Manhattan. That night, there was a second demonstration in New York condemning Bill 78. There was at least one arrest – of a Quebecoise woman – during that protest.

Speaking to The Daily at the demonstration yesterday afternoon, Lilian Radovac, a Communications course lecturer at McGill, said she thought that it was “really important that this is getting global attention.”

“I just think any gesture of solidarity right now is just so important. This has gone on for so long, it’s probably good for morale. And I think that it’s really good for people to know the world is watching, especially since the passage of Bill 78,” said Radovac.

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The law calls for the suspension of schoolwork in CEGEPs and university faculties that are affected by the strike.  The semester would resume on August 15 and finish at the end of September. According to La Presse, heavy fines would be imposed on students blocking access to classes.

Thousands of students gathered at parc Emilie-Gamelin at around 11:00 p.m. and marched peacefully through the downtown area. But after firecrackers were set off, bank windows smashed, and allegations by the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) of an assault within the crowd, the demonstration was declared illegal. Several “targeted” arrests were made before the group at Maisonneuve was surrounded by officers.

Plastic bullets were fired at protesters on at least two occasions.

Two journalists from The Daily and three from Concordia newspaper the Link were among those kettled and were told they would be charged with participating in an illegal assembly, and that the SPVM would not recognize their press credentials because they were not members of the “organized press,” namely the Fédération professionelle des journalistes du Québec (FPJQ).

Journalists being held tweeted their location to the SPVM’s account, which responded and informed the students that calls were being made regarding their situation. Four buses arrived on the scene to transport arrested demonstrators at about 2 a.m. Shortly afterwards, the five student journalists were released. The SPVM reported that 122 arrests were made.

– with files from Laurent Bastien Corbeil and Henry Gass

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Beauchamp announced her departure from politics at a press conference earlier that afternoon, where Quebec Prime Minister Jean Charest said that the current president of the Treasury Council, Michelle Courchesne, would succeed her.

“I am not leaving because of the adversity and the complexity of the situation,” Beauchamp said in French at the press conference. “I am resigning because I believe that I am no longer part of the solution. I am leaving my position while having the best interests of Quebec at heart.”

Courchesne, who was sworn in later that day, had previously served as education minister from 2007 to 2010.  Along with Beauchamp and Alain Paquet, Courchesne played a key role in the 22 hour-long negotiation session with the four student association representatives last week. The deal reached was voted on by the members of the individual student associations last week, and was widely rejected.

In a statement in French released on Monday, Courchesne said that only a “minority” of students had chosen to boycott their classes and “disturb the social and economic life of Quebec.”

“Quebecers ought to know that 70% of students have already finished their session,” she added.

Courchesne will also succeed Beauchamp as the Deputy Premier of Quebec, becoming the province’s second in only eight months.

The demonstration

On Monday, protesters gathered at Place Émilie-Gamelin at 8:30 p.m. before marching through the downtown area.

At around 10:30 p.m., a standstill between students and police occurred when demonstrators tried to gain access to the Jacques-Cartier bridge.

Dozens of riot police formed a line at the intersection of La Fontaine and Champlain street to block the marchers.

The protest was declared illegal about an hour later when projectiles were thrown at police on St. Denis. The announcement was made on Sherbrooke while most of the marchers were still at the intersection of St. Denis and Maisonneuve.

The crowd was charged by riot police several times and divided into groups. Demonstrators repeatedly told police that their actions were making it difficult for the crowd to disperse.

“Let us go!” demonstrators chanted in French at police.

Most of the protesters were pushed into two alleyways along St. Denis. When demonstrators regrouped several minutes later, they were again charged by riot police. The crowd finally dispersed on Maisonneuve.

Police said that two arrests were made.

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At around 7:40 a.m., demonstrators marched south in two groups toward the World Trade Centre Montreal (Centre de Commerce Mondial de Montréal). Protesters blocked all entrances to the Centre, preventing its workers from entering.

Protesters also formed blockades at the intersection of Saint-Jacques and Square-Victoria streets. At Square-Victoria, around fifteen SPVM officers in riot gear arrived and formed a line facing protesters. The protesters advanced and taunted police. Many were masked and carried goggles.

A reinforcement of approximately ten officers joined the face-off at around 8:40.

At 8:45, the SPVM declared the march illegal in response to an expulsion request from the Montreal World Trade Centre management. Protesters were asked to disperse. Police rushed the demonstrators five minutes later and succeeded in removing them from the street.

One protester who had taken refuge from the police in a doorway was harassed by workers waiting to enter the center. “Here’s another one,” a man called to oncoming police. “Get a job,” added another person nearby.

The protesters then gathered on Bleury near Viger and marched north. Pyrotechnic materials were launched. The group dispersed when it came back to Phillips Square.

The event’s Facebook page expressed anger at the result of last week’s negotiations, saying in French, “Nothing is being done by the government except for its ‘offer’, which is really more of an insult.”

Displeasure with the negotiated offer, which will be voted on in general assemblies throughout the week, continues to inspire nightly protests departing from Parc Émile-Gamelin. Monday night’s march drew 2000 and was largely peaceful.

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However, shortly after demonstrators dispersed, Jean Finet, a spokesperson for the SQ, said that the police was “in investigation mode, more arrests are to be expected. The Sûreté du Québec will spare no pains to identify the perpetrators of crimes committed here tonight.”

Around 6 p.m., 2,000 demonstrators converged on the hotel Victorin Friday afternoon where the PLQ convention was being held. Protesters quickly broke through the metal barricades and started throwing various projectiles at the police. The police responded with extensive use of tear gas and rubber bullets. The demonstrator was over after a few hours, and two students and one police officer were hospitalized with critical injuries. One of the students lost the use of his eye.

At 10 p.m., more than ten SQ vehicles pulled over the McGill-Concordia bus that was 30 minutes outside of Victoriaville and heading back to Montreal. An agent boarded the bus and announced that all passengers were under arrest for illegal assembly. The bus was escorted back to Victoriaville, where the SQ started processing the demonstrators.

The demonstrators were taken off the bus, into the SQ station to be questioned, and escorted back on the bus once they had signed a promise to appear in court at a later date. The bus left the SQ around 5:30 a.m., after nearly eight hours of detention.

At least three demonstrators were held overnight as they were scheduled to appear on the phone with a judge. They had been previously arrested for similar charges.

Stefan Christoff, a writer and activist who was among the demonstrators, said “We were told that we were not allowed to speak to each other [on the bus]. This is illegal.”

Demonstrators also reported that they were denied access to water and food and that it was “only after they begged several times” that they were allowed to use the bathroom.

Denis Poitras, a Montreal lawyer, has represented a number of demonstrators facing charges since the beginning of the student strike. He told The Daily in an interview that he was concerned about the detention conditions of the demonstrators who were held in the bus for more than seven hours, in what became a de facto jail cell.

“They were put in this cage in conditions that are not acceptable,” Poitras said in French. He said it is possible that the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedom was infringed.

Poitras further questioned the legality of the arrests. “You need reasonable motives to arrest someone. I don’t see how you can have reasonable motives to arrest an entire bus.”

Two journalists were also on board the bus: the editor-in-chief of Le Délit and a photographer for Concordia student newspaper the Link. Although they were arrested and detained for the same amount of time as the demonstrators, their charges were dropped after they were questioned.

Brian Myles, president of the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec (FPJQ), the province’s main journalist union, said in French that “the fact that the charges were dropped and that the SQ did not touch their equipment is positive.”

It is unclear why the McGill-Concordia bus was targeted. Among the 50 buses that drove to Victoriaville, only a handful were pulled over. McGill student Zoe Pepper-Cunningham said that “maybe that is because we were the last bus to leave.” In addition to the McGill-Concordia bus, two buses from the Cégep de Montmorency were stopped in Saint-Hyacinthe, and their passengers arrested.

The SQ announced on Saturday that 101 students were arrested on buses outside Victoriaville, in addition to nine during the protest.

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A document released online by Antoine Bouchard, a student who claims to have close ties to the Coaliation large de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE), states that government representatives purposely created a “sentiment of urgency” to push through discussions and pressure students into signing a document they did not agree with.

Bouchard told The Daily that the document was obtained from Philippe Lapointe, the student negotiator for CLASSE. The author of the document is unknown, but Bouchard said that it was emailed to members of CLASSE last night.

“The final text was not exactly what we had discussed,” the document reads. “Several points were changed, and it appears that the Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec (CREPUQ) worked harder than the students during the final moments of negotiations.”

According to the document, government negotiators approached student representatives individually during breaks. At one point, Lapointe was allegedly brought back to the negotiating table alone to “speed up the process.”

Pierre Pilote acted as the government’s chief negotiator throughout the weekend’s negotiating process.

“By isolating the representative, the government could then easily bring him into a state of emotional fatigue,” the document reads. “During the final signing of the document…he was therefore much less aware and capable of critical thought.”

Representatives from the government, trade unions, and CREPUQ rejected a request from the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ), one of the four student associations participating in negotiations, to rest before the final signing of the agreement, the document says.

“After 22 hours of negotiations that were only broken up by short pauses, we should have demanded a suspension of talks,” the document continues. “The student movement has been on strike for 12 weeks; another day of strike would not have been catastrophic. The sentiment of urgency was created by the government because they were looking for an easy fix.”

After negotiations ended on Saturday, student representatives returned to Montreal to submit a document they thought was “bitterly disappointing,” states the document.

The offer maintains a $254 annual tuition fee hike over seven years, but would also form a 19-member provisional council tasked with finding cuts in university ancillary fees equal to the cost of the increase. For the fall 2012 semester the government will cover the cost of the tuition increase.

On Sunday, Martine Desjardins, the president of FEUQ, said that it was likely that students would not accept the new offer after a disagreement between Line Beauchamp, the Quebec education minister, and the student associations emerged.

Students associations have characterized the recent offer as a moratorium on fees while Beauchamp said that the offer was an “agreement.”

According to La Presse, Beauchamp said on Sunday that there was “no guarantees” that the amounts students pay would be lowered. Any reduction in tuition would depend on the work of the provisionary council, she said.

Later on Sunday night, roughly 2,000 students marched through downtown Montreal in protest the latest offer to student associations. The Facebook event for the demonstration was titled: “Demonstration against the government’s offer: freeze or strike.”

Students marched peacefully for four hours until their numbers dwindled down to around 100. Police pushed the remaining marchers off the road as they walked north on Berri from Maisonneuve. An officer on the scene later confirmed to The Daily that the demonstration was never illegal.

The CEGEP de Valleyfield is set to vote on the offer today. A member of CLASSE, they are the first student association to do so.

—with files from Henry Gass

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The details of the offer were revealed at a press conference by representatives of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ), the Fédération étudiante Collégiale du Québec (FECQ), and the Coalition large de l’Association pour un solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE).

The Quebec government said it would not reduce the impending tuition hikes set to and maintains its offer made on April 27. The offer would see tuition increased by $254 each year for seven years, resulting in a total increase of $1,778. However, the amount students pay would be offset by a reduction in ancillary fees.

From fall 2012 onwards, a hike of $127 per semester – amounting to $254 per year – would be offset by a reduction of $127 in ancillary fees per semester.

According to Martine Desjardins, the FEUQ president, ancillary fees consists of 20 per cent of students fees. She cited McGill students as paying around $1,000 a year in ancillary fees as an example.

To reach the offset, the government is to create a provisional council to look into ways of reducing university spending. The council will consist of 6 rectors from the Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec, 4 representatives of FEUQ, FECQ, CLASSE, and the Table de concertation étudiante du Québec (TaCEQ), 4 trade union representatives, 2 members of the business community chosen by the education minister, 1 representative of the Fédération des cégeps, 1 representative of the education ministry, and one president chosen by the education minister.

The money that will be reduced by the council will be reinvested into universities to decrease student contribution. If the council is unable to find ways of lowering the ancillary fees to offset the hikes, then students will have to pay the sum in full. A permanent council is also to be established.

“We’re taking and bet and saying that we’re going to be capable of blocking the tuition hikes through the sound management of university finances .” said Martine Desjardins, the president of FEUQ.

“But the strike is not over. It’s going to be up to students to decide whether or not to accept the offer,” he added.

Most of the cuts in ancillary fees would be obtained from a reduction in spending on advertising and real estate funds.

“We’re talking about a theoretical tuition freeze,” said Léo Bureau-Blouin, the president of FECQ.

Le texte négocié par les associations étudiantes

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Busloads of protesters traveled to Victoriaville, Quebec, arriving in the city this afternoon. Provincial police force Sûreté du Québec (SQ) had secured the perimeter of the hotel in which the general council took place.

Reports from the scene state that protesters pushed through barriers and threw projectiles at police lines. Rubber bullets, CS gas, and smoke grenades were deployed by the SQ. Ambulances were called to the scene, and at least five protesters were admitted to the hospital. Radio-Canada video footage also shows one police officer being hit by protesters. According to The Montreal Gazette, an SQ spokesperson reported earlier this evening that there were 11 injuries; 7 protesters and 4 police officers.

Around 9 p.m., Concordia campus television station CUTV ended their live broadcast stating that the protestors were dispersing. Busloads of protesters began leaving the city; based on reports from Le Délit’s reporter on the ground, a bus carrying McGill and Concordia students was the last to leave. The bus was escorted back to Victoriaville by police, and passengers were placed under arrest. The passengers allegedly under arrest are unable to be contacted, but include two journalists from Le Délit and The Link.

Students at the nightly demonstration in Montreal held a solidarity sit-in on Mont Royal and St. Denis for those who were arrested in Victoriaville.

An SQ officer who spoke with The Link confirmed that three buses had been arrested. The passengers were being taken off the buses in pairs, identified and questioned. The officer said that most would be eventually released, but it could be “some hours.” He said that he believed most would be charged, but could not specify what the charges would be. Those charged, he said, would be released and required to appear in court at a later date.

Unconfirmed reports of two buses returning from Victoriaville being stopped and their passengers arrested. One bus is reported to near Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM); the second bus is reported to be near in Rosemont.

– with files from Riley Sparks

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The protest came hours after the Quebec Premier Jean Charest called for spreading the five-year, $1,625 tuition hike, over seven years.

Because of inflation, Charest’s proposal would amount to an 82 per cent hike in tuition fees instead of the original 75 per cent.

The protest

Thousands of students gathered at Place Émilie-Gamelin at around 8:30 p.m. before marching peacefully through the downtown area.

The protest remained calm until demonstrators reached the intersection of Ste. Catherine and Bishop.

At that point, protesters mobbed a marcher who had smashed the window of a Canadian military recruitment office.

Riot police later intervened on the corner of Bleury and Ste. Catherine by splitting the crowd into three groups and arresting several protesters.

Despite the arrests, one officer told the crowd that the march could go on.

Small altercations between protesters and bystanders later occurred on St. Laurent.

The crowd dispersed at around 1:00 a.m.

The proposal

The provincial government also said that it would increase access to student bursaries. Under the new plan, students whose family income is less than $45,000 would have access to bursaries, instead of the original $35,000.

$39 million would be added in bursaries and in student loans.

At a press conference on Friday, the Education Minister, Line Beauchamp, said that the new plan would cost students “less than 50 cents per day.”

A commission to overlook university spending would also be established.

The spokespeople of the three largest student associations in Quebec said on Friday that it was unlikely that students would accept the offer.

“This is an offer that is falsely portrayed as a compromise,” Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, spokesperson for the Coalition large de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE), told Radio-Canada in French.

“The hike isn’t diminished; it’s raised. Students and their families won’t have to pay $1,625, but $1,778.”

Talks between the student associations and the government broke down earlier this week after Beauchamp chose to exclude CLASSE, considered the most militant of the student associations, from the negotiation table.

The Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec and the Fédération édutiante collégiale du Québec left negotiations in solidarity.

The offer came as the student strike in protest of the tuition increase, now the longest student strike in Quebec history by nearly a month, enters its eleventh week.

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Protests have been occurring daily in downtown Montreal since negotiations began with the government on Monday, and subsequently broke down after Minister of Education Line Beauchamp excluded the Coalition large de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE) – considered the most militant student association – from negotiations on Wednesday.

The protest, which at its peak consisted of an estimated 2,000 marchers, was advertised on the CLASSE website as well as on Facebook, where the event “HOLY SHIT : MANIF NOCTURNE PRISE 3 !!!” listed 2,304 attendees.

The protest began at 8:30 p.m., when protesters gathered at Parc Émile-Gamelin.

“It’s a huge joke,ˮ said Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) philosophy student Alexendre Bolduc to The Daily in French about provincial negotiations. “[Beauchamp] was there for one hour of talks; in my opinion, they really don’t take us seriously. They’re fanning the flames, they continue to infantilize us. They showed us that they can’t negotiate in good faith; it’s going to have to be worked out in some other way.ˮ

As the march set off from the park, protesters were addressed by police, who asked that they move in the direction of traffic. They were blocked by police from moving west down Ste. Catherine and instead went south on St. Denis and turned eastward to march on René Lévesque, effectively blocking the street. Police on horses, bicycles, and in cars maintained a presence ahead of the march and behind it, and groups of police in riot helmets marched alongside protesters.

As the march crossed de Bullion around 9 p.m., police declared it illegal, causing some marchers to leave.

On Twitter, the Service de la Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) announced that the protest had been declared illegal because projectiles had been thrown at police. Less than an hour later, the SPVM announced that, although illegal, the protest would be allowed to continue if it remained peaceful.

Throughout the night, sirens could be heard as police rushed to keep up with protesters’ unannounced route. With the exception of a few instances of pyrotechnic material being set off by protesters, no acts of violence or vandalism were observed during the march. The only arrest reported by police concerned the use of pyrotechnics. In many instances when the crowd neared police, it chanted “On reste pacifique” (Let’s stay peaceful).

Numbers dwindled rapidly in the protest’s third hour. Fewer than one hundred protesters remained when the demonstration came to a close in front of Place Ville Marie, where one protester, Felix Levellier, addressed the crowd. “We’ll be back tomorrow, and there will be three times as many of us!”

After his speech, Levellier told The Daily in French that he was not one of the protest’s organizers, but had decided to speak to ensure that the protest ended without violence. When asked why he had attended the march, Levellier said, “We want to stop the hikes, but above all else we want the government to hear us, peacefully.”

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A mass arrest of between 50 and 75 demonstrators occurred at noon with demonstrators being kettled by police at the top of a stairway in an alley off of Saint-Antoine. The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) later confirmed that 90 protesters were arrests – 89 for illegal assembly and one for obstruction of justice.

The demonstration started around the Palais de congrès along de Bleury and Saint-Antoine at 10 a.m. Riot police began pushing demonstrators off the sidewalks alongside the building at 11 a.m., confining the demonstration to Place Jean Paul Riopelle.

According to SPVM media relations agent Daniel Lacoursière, one 24 year-old male was arrested during the intervention at 11:15 a.m.

The 300 person demonstration splintered around 11:30 a.m. with 200 beginning to march through streets while 100 demonstrators remained in Place Jean Paul Riopelle. As the 200-strong march approached Square Victoria along Saint-Jacques, the police declared the demonstration illegal.

A short time later, riot police lined up at the north end of the Square Victoria on Avenue Viger and charged demonstrators. Demonstrators turned right onto Saint-Antoine and faced another line of riot police blocking the road in front of Place Jean Paul Riopelle.

A group of the demonstrators ran up a staircase leading into the Centre CDP Capital, which was closed for the day. Police followed and blocked access to the stairway.

One demonstrator was escorted out of the kettle visibly upset about 5 minutes later. Three demonstrators from a surrounding alleyway were arrested by police and escorted up the stairway 10 minutes afterwards.

An hour later three STM buses arrived on the scene to transport the arrested demonstrators. A crowd of about 60 formed on Saint-Antoine in solidarity with those arrested, chanting “Libérez nos camarades.”

The Plan Nord, the provincial government’s 25-year redevelopment plan for Quebec’s north, aims to stimulate investment in the region’s forestry, mining, hydroelectricity, tourism, and bio-food sectors, and is expected to create, on average, 20,000 jobs a year and bring in $80 billion in investments.

The Salon was a two-day recruitment fair for those interested in working on Plan Nord projects. The Plan has been criticized over fears the redevelopment will cause widespread environmental degradation in Quebec’s north.

Throughout the demonstration, a large group gathered in Place Jean Paul Riopelle to express their objection to Plan Nord, arguing the projects would destroy the region’s environment and displace indigenous communities.

The demonstration was organized by the Réseau de Résistance du Québécois, a resistance organization which, according to its website, considers Quebec independence necessary for the survival and development of the Québécois nation.

According to an RRQ member on the scene, RRQ president Patrick Bourgeois and national director Carlo Mosti were among those arrested. “They’re not people who would throw rocks. They’re not violent people,” he said in French, in reference to the RRQ members arrested.

Yesterday, the first day of the Salon, a demonstration also occurred initially both inside the Palais de congrès and outside. Projectiles were thrown by demonstrators and, as of Saturday morning, police state that 18 arrests were made, 2 citizens and 4 police officers were injured. Damage to media vehicles and surrounding buildings was reported.

When speaking to The Daily at 12:30 p.m. Lacoursière said that the Salon was no longer allowing people to enter due to the large turnout that morning. Around 1:30 p.m., the SPVM announced outside the Palais de congrès that the Salon had been cancelled for the day.

One man, who said he’d been waiting 45 minutes to get inside the Palais that afternoon, expressed his frustration at the disruption.

“I have a family to feed,” he said in French. “When there are opportunities like this in Quebec, I need to be able to take advantage of them.”

One woman spoke to the crowd of demonstrators, addressing the violence of the previous day. “We can see here the chaos when people do not have respect. And when we come here and we must show people how to carry ourselves with respect,” said the woman.

Jean-François Garneau, who attended the demonstration with his wife and son, said he wasn’t concerned about bringing his family to the protest after Friday’s events.

“[The violence] is a diversionary tactic from what’s caused this conflict,” said Garneau in French.

Garneau added that he thinks the recent demonstrations – part of the unlimited general strike protesting tuition increases which began over two months ago – need to become more peaceful.

“We won’t achieve what we want by doing it the way we were doing,” he said. “You have the right to vote and the right to protest, so you just exercise it correctly.”

— with files from Henry Gass and Nicolas Quiazoa

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Some demonstrators held candles. “It’s a vigil that we’re doing for the people who were arrested during the demonstration against Plan Nord which took a bad, bad turn,” said one demonstrator who spoke anonymously.

The demonstrator said that one of their friends had been arrested earlier in the day. “It’s for that that I’m here ­– to not forget the police brutality,” he added.

The march zigzagged through downtown Montreal, notably passing in front of Palais des Congrès, the site of the day’s action. Up to 16 police vehicles followed the demonstration.

Intervention from the riot squad was limited to after demonstrators attempted to do a “U-turn” on Maisonneuve. No physical confrontation occurred, though one demonstrator received a ticket of $150 for peeing underneath a bridge near the south Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) operational centre. The protest dispersed around 9:20 p.m.

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