Masked student protesters storm Montreal classes
Protesters have succeeded in shutting down classes scheduled to resume today for some students at the University of Quebec in Montreal.
More than 100 protesters, many of them wearing masks, made their way into the school’s downtown campus at around 9:30 a.m. ET, just as law students with a court injunction tried to return to class.
Some were waiting for those classes to start when demonstrators stormed the building, surprising security guards.
Classroom confrontations
Carrying a list of scheduled classes, the protesters marched through pavilions at the University of Quebec in Montreal.
Masked protesters make their way through the halls of UQAM.(Paul Chaisson/Canadian Press)Making noise with drums and whistles, they made their way through the main UQAM building, splitting up on a number of occasions as they searched for ongoing classes.
A masked protester would yell out marching orders for the next target, such as: “Pavilion M!”
They entered a contract-law class after walking up nine flights of stairs.
In that classroom, the group began flicking on and off the lights, and repeatedly yelling, “Scab!” at the stunned group of students seated inside.
A few men even grabbed two female students by the arm, telling them to get out.
One spray-painted a red message on the wall of the classroom: “On strike, dammit!”
Students hoping to study said after group moved through, their professors fled and classes were effectively called off.
UQAM’s director of security said there were no plans to have police immediately intervene.
One masked demonstrator, who identified himself only as Eric B., insisted the protest was peaceful.
“Me myself, I would have never acted on violence,” he said.
“I would have never gone upstairs if people were there to break stuff. We have to stop just always demonizing people, always saying the reds are terrorists and shit like that. That’s totally BS.”
Students opposing the tuition hike, known as the “reds,” have been sporting the red square symbol of the protest since the student strike started 14 weeks ago.
The students who support the tuition increase and want to return to class are known as the “greens” for the green squares they’ve adopted.
Eric B. argued it was the greens who were violent during the incident at UQAM Wednesday morning.
Law student Christina Macedo said she was in class when protesters came in and told the students to leave. She saw the incident differently.
“Peaceful? I really don’t see it was peaceful at all,” she told CBC as she was jeered and shouted down by a group of demonstrators outside the school.
“I’m trying to respect our right [to] go back to school!”
Classes not officially cancelled
The university says classes have not been officially cancelled and they are still trying to determine how to proceed.
UQAM went to court last week to get an injunction to allow some students to resume their studies.
The association of law students is among the groups that have voted to boycott classes as part of the anti-tuition hike protest, but some students want to return to the classroom.
Scenes like the one at UQAM have been playing out for the past few weeks at CEGEPs where students have court injunctions across Quebec.
In many of those cases, protesters blocked the entrances to the schools, and students and administrators weren’t able to enter the building.
More student protests are planned in Montreal on Wednesday.