Montreal police use stun grenades to disperse students following tuition protest

MONTREAL - What started as a peaceful downtown protest by more than 2,000 Quebec students against higher tuition fees turned ugly Thursday just as the demonstration started winding down.

Montreal riot police had to move in and use stun grenades and pepper spray to disperse a rowdy group of students after scuffling with them outside a government building.

Five people were arrested on a variety of charges ranging from assaulting or threatening police officers and mischief.

Four of them were released late Thursday night after making promises to appear in court.

One man is due in court Friday to face charges of mischief and breaking earlier court-imposed conditions.

The altercations near the Loto-Quebec building came after a three-hour protest by students which snaked through the downtown streets, tying up traffic along the way.

One university student who would only identify himself as "Ben" says it didn't seem to him that the protesters provoked the police.

"They (police) began marching forward and then they started throwing flash-bang grenades over the crowd and a couple of people were arrested," he said.

"It seemed like they just wanted to disperse the crowd but I think it was a little more force than was necessary."

Many of the protesters began dispersing after the noisy march reached Quebec Premier Jean Charest's downtown office.

She also said several "deluxe" vehicles were damaged and two police cars were sprayed with grafitti and dented.

Tuition to rise $325 per year

The demonstration coincided with a one-day strike by thousands of Cegep and university students.

Students in the province have promised to fight the government's proposal to raise university tuition fees by $325 a year for five years, beginning in 2012.

The planned increases would bring tuition for Quebec students to $3,793 in 2016-17, up from the current $2,168.

That would still leave the province 30 per cent below the 2010 Canadian average.

Students are worried the higher tuition fees will further complicate efforts to fund their education.

"Our demands today are really simple," said spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.

"We want the Charest government to back off from its intention to raise tuition fees.

"We are totally against this drastic measure that is really an historical attack to the right to education and to the accessibility of post-secondary education.

"Today in Quebec we have one of the lowest tuition fees in Canada, and I think we should be proud of this, not ashamed of this."

Nick, a 60-year-old teacher who watched the protest before police moved in, called the Quebec tuition fee increases a compromise and described them as "pretty reasonable."

"But obviously it's going to cause some students at the bottom end of the scale to find it difficult to make the necessary funding," he added.

"If we were really to bring it (fees) up to the level that other provinces charge, it would probably cause more than just a riot."

Students say that they will next protest at a Quebec Liberal Party meeting on Sunday in Boucherville.

They say that a student strike in either the Spring or Autumn remains a possibility.

With files from Canadian Press