Student vandals ransack college to protest tuition hikes
MONTREAL — Student protesters smashed furniture and windows and splashed graffiti throughout their community college Thursday evening, prompting police to arrest 35 people.
The vandalism came during a sit- in at CEGEP du Vieux-Montreal as part of a wider student strike to protest tuition hikes.
Police say a number of suspects will be charged with mischief and assaulting a police officer after people used fire extinguishers to push back officers.
Some students also used furniture to set up barricades inside the building.
Police handcuffed dozens of students and marched them out of the building around 1 a. m., but the violence continued into Friday morning.
A second group of students who had gathered outside the building decided to confront t he police. The assailants pelted police with projectiles, including a beer bottle.
Custodial staff was faced with a daunting cleanup.
Furniture was piled to the ceiling, clothing and boots littered the floor and slogans were spray-painted all over the school.
It was the second violent student protest in Montreal on Thursday.
Demonstrators blocked the city’s exchange tower earlier in the day and circled the building with a huge red banner. Thousands of workers were blocked from entering their offices.
Four protesters were arrested after police blasted a crowd with pepper spray.
Premier Jean Charest has drawn the ire of student groups with his decision to hike tuition fees by $1,625 over five years.
The increase roughly works out to a $300 increase per student per year, which would still leave Quebec with some of the lowest tuition rates in Canada.
The average annual cost to attend a Quebec university — $ 2,519 — is far lower than university tuition in other provinces.