Protesters turn violent at Victoriaville demo
At least 11 people are injured as protesters demonstrating against the Plan Nord, shale gas exploration and tuition fee hikes clash with SQ at a Liberal Party meeting in Victoriaville.
VICTORIAVILLE – What began as a peaceful and well organized demonstration in Victoriaville on Friday evening quickly degenerated into a chaotic scene as hundreds of protesters clashed with police for over two hours in the small town east of Montreal.
Police said they arrested four people, but more arrests were likely as the investigation continued. Some protesters tweeted that a bus carrying students from Mcgill and Concordia Universities back to Montreal was pulled over by police and everyone on board arrested.
Sûreté du Québec spokesperson Ingrid Asselin said she couldn’t confirm the reports, so as not to reveal any police action that was underway.
She said four police officers were injured during the protest – two seriously after being hit in the head with rocks. Seven protesters were also injured, most after being hit by objects being thrown by other demonstrators, she said.
Many people were doubled over coughing as police lobbed dozens of canisters of chemical irritants into the crowd in an effort to push the demonstrators away from the Victorin hotel and conference centre, where the Quebec Liberal Party is holding a general council meeting this weekend. The event began peacefully at 5 p.m., with about 1,000 protesters turning up in the town to voice their discontent with various government plans, including the Plan Nord, shale gas exploration and the impending tuition fee hike.
As protesters reached the conference centre, however, they started shaking the waist-high security fence. A group of masked men also began throwing rocks, projectiles and fireworks at the police and the building. One window was smashed, and moments later the protesters breached the fence and were a few feet from the doors.
About 200 Sûreté du Québec officers in riot gear responded with the chemical irritant known as CS gas, and the air quickly became nearly unbreathable. what followed was two hours of violent confrontations that spilled into the parking lot behind the hotel and onto the properties of several residents of the town, who watched nervously from their living room windows. Projectiles flew, dozens of gas canisters were deployed and rubber bullets were fired as the protesters were slowly but surely pushed back toward the Walmart parking lot where the event began. The worst seemed to be over by 9:30 p.m.
Inside the convention centre, Transport Minister Pierre Moreau deplored the resort to violence.
“It’s outrageous,” he said. “Democratic people don’t like that kind of violence.”
Student leaders, meeting with a government negotiator in Quebec City in a lastditch attempt to bring an end to the 12 week-long impasse, emerged briefly to condemn the violence and called on both the students and police to stay calm.
But frustration among the protesters was palpable.
“I’m tired of not being heard,” said Université de Rimouski student Judith Savoie. “I came to protest, but I wasn’t prepared for this. Everyone is being gassed. I don’t support violence, but it has reached that point. We’re very angry.”
She said that she felt the use of flimsy barricades at the beginning of the protest was “a trap”, to give police an excuse to use force when the fences were toppled.
“The police even gassed the community organizations that came out,” Savoie said.
Friday’s demonstration began about one hour after representatives from Jean Charest’s government sat down in Quebec City with representatives from the province’s main student associations to try to find a way to end the longest student strike in Quebec’s history – in its 81st day. Earlier, when asked if he was concerned about possible violence outside the Liberal meeting, Charest said he was “not too concerned. I think everyone hopefully is chilling out.”