100th day of Montreal education protests — over 120 arrested

Montreal - Thousands marched in the continuing protests against tuition hikes in Montreal, Quebec yesterday. During the protests, a huge sinkhole opened up in one of the major streets.

It was not only Spanish students and teachers out on the streets yesterday. The protest in Montreal entered its 100th day yesterday, with thousands thronging the streets. There may have been up to 250,000 involved in the protest. Around 120 were arrested yesterday, along with 69 arrested on Saturday night and 300 arrested on Sunday night, as protesters defy a new law, limiting their right to demonstrate. Huge crowds once again took to the streets to protest against the local government's plan to raise tuition costs and the new emergency law which requires rally organizers to inform police of a planned protest and the route to be taken eight hours prior to the march. During yesterday's demonstration, a huge sink hole opened up in one of the major streets soon after protesters had passed. Luckily there are no reports of injuries. The sinkhole can be viewed here. While Tuesday's huge gathering was peaceful with no altercations between police and demonstrators, the hardline CLASSE student group and its supporters did break off from the main group to show their anger against the new law. This group later split into smaller factions and reports state that some of the demonstrators threw beer bottles at the police and set off fireworks. Police responded with pepper spray and apparently four people were injured. Montreal transit union workers gave support to the movement and several of their members participated in the rally. High profile celebrities including filmmaker Michael Moore and the rock band Arcade Fire were also in attendance. Many protests were held in solidarity with Montreal yesterday including Paris, Calgary, Vancouver and New York. Occupy Wall Street organized two events aimed at raising awareness to the Quebec student's plight and to protest against anti-protest legislation worldwide. Quebec Premier Jean Charest is firm on maintaining the planned tuition cost hike of $254 per year and is defending the new emergency law. He states that similar legislation already exists in Toronto and also New York, Geneva and other cities in the world.