‘TENSIONS ARE PALPABLE’
As Charest and Marois square off, speculation continues about the reason behind the government’s firm stance on tuition hikes. Stories,
Saying Montrealers have had enough of an almost daily series of demonstrations that have become increasingly violent, Mayor Gérald Tremblay urged the Quebec government and the province’s student federations to settle the issue of tuition-fee increases.
“I will not accept that my citizens, who have had it and are disgusted with what’s been happening, be taken hostage, that businesses be vandalized, that the reputation of Montreal be stained on the international scene,” Tremblay told reporters on Thursday, less than 24 hours after 85 persons were arrested when a march downtown by an estimated 12,000 protesters turned sour.
“The government and the students must end this conflict as quickly as possible. It’s their responsibility and there is an urgency that they act because the social peace of Montreal and Quebec is at stake.”
But while Tremblay stressed that city hall and Montreal’s police department are doing their utmost to ensure that the public’s safety was maintained, implicit in his comments was a warning that if safety is compromised, it will not be the city’s fault.
“If there’s a tragic event … who will say their mea culpa? Who will say, ‘Perhaps I should have opened a dialogue, perhaps I should have made compromises, perhaps I should have … found a concrete solution (to the impasse)?’
“We can make all the calls for calm we want, we can take all the preventive measures we want, be proactive ... But what you have to understand is that the police are starting to get tired … we’re in a situation today where there are no winners.”
Montreal police chief Marc Parent, who met reporters with Tremblay, said the city has been the site of 165 demonstrations since the strike began 11 weeks ago, something “never seen before in Canada.”
“Since the start of these demonstrations we have abided by the same rules of conduct … to make sure that the demonstrations take place peacefully, that no criminal acts are committed and that everyone’s safety, including that of the students … be ensured.”
Parent said that 30 per cent of the demonstrations carried out thus far in the city had ended with criminal acts being committed, most of those events occurring recently. He and Tremblay blamed a small group of agitators for the problems, andurged legitimate demonstrators to either point out the malefactors to police during the protest or leave a march if a clash with police occurred.
Yet, even as Tremblay spoke to reporters, Quebec Education Minister Line Beauchamp rejected an offer by Quebec’s two student federations to return to the negotiating table if seats at that table were offered to representatives of CLASSE, an umbrella group of student associations perceived by the government as being more radical.
Earlier in the day, Vision Montreal leader Louise Harel asked Tremblay and Projet Montréal leader Richard Bergeron to urge Quebec to appoint a mediator in the dispute, saying, “Montreal can no longer go on like this.”
Tremblay said if a mediator would help settle the dispute, then he supported the idea.
But Bergeron, a downtown resident who told reporters he caught a whiff of tear gas from Wednesday’s clash simply standing in front of his home, also urged demonstrators to leave any march that had been “hijacked” by agitators.
“You can always march the next day,” he said.