Tens of thousands of students marched through downtown Montreal on Thursday in what looks to be the largest protest yet against planned tuition increases in Quebec.
Carrying signs and chanting slogans, the students began moving toward Old Montreal in the early afternoon after gathering in various locations including St. Louis Square and Place du Canada.
There have been no reports of any clashes with police.
Police did not provide a precise crowd estimate Thursday, but said close to 100,000 people turned out for the demonstration. An organizing group said the march stretched over 50 city blocks.
The demonstration comes with Premier Jean Charest poised to sharply increase tuition fees over the next five years. Quebec students, who have among the lowest tuition fees in Canada, can expect to pay about $325 more each year, nearly doubling tuition fees by the end of the five-year period. They will still be among the lowest after the increase.
Charest says he has no intention to back down on the fee hikes, regardless of the size of the protest. He released his provincial budget on Tuesday, and has amped up his rhetoric against the protesters, framing a recent demonstration that blocked Montreal's Champlain Bridge on Tuesday as offensive to ordinary, hard-working people.
That message was repeated Thursday as the government continued to try to pit workers and students against each other. Charest's Liberals are deeply unpopular and are in the final stretch of a mandate that could end this year or in early 2013.
"We also need to listen to the silent majority -- those who can't be in the streets because they're too busy working," Education Minister Line Beauchamp told The Canadian Press. "(They're) biting the hand that feeds. The money (for universities) has to come from somewhere.... If they hurt economic activity, if they keep people from going to work, it's frankly biting the hand of those who pay the bills."
Despite the tough talk, student leaders, union officials and liberal politicians gathered at a press conference together Thursday to show they remained united.
Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois, who may be the next premier, said she would make sure the increase was short-lived if elected.
"A Parti Quebecois government will cancel it," Marois said.
The bridge protest was one of many staged by students almost daily for several weeks. Police have begun using chemical sprays against the demonstrators as one of their elevated tactics to quell the protests.
With files from The Canadian Press
