By the thousands, Quebec students took over the streets of central Montreal yesterday to denounce a hemispheric trade deal that they say threatens affordable education in Canada.
The protest against the Free Trade Area of the Americas deal, which had a Halloween flavour, caused major rush-hour traffic delays, but it was generally a peaceful, if boisterous, affair. It was not incident-free, however.
One protester's leg was broken when a van at the head of the procession ran over him. Two shop windows were cracked and minor damage was done to three cars, a police spokesman said. While highly visible, the police stayed at the peripheries, and the riot squad - mobilized and handy - didn't see action.
"Education Not For Sale" was the prominent placard in the march, which snaked through the shopping district, south into the financial district and west past the World Trade Centre as police raced to stay ahead of the solid throng of protesters.
Student organizers said they are worried about a section of the draft trade deal that could allow foreign corporations to sue governments to get public funds for private universities. An umbrella group for Quebec's student federations said the deal could force public universities to charge tuition fees that most Canadians can't afford.
Nicolas Fournier of the Universit? de Montr?al's student federation said schools such as his and McGill University and the University of Toronto could raise tuition to any level they saw fit without being subject to regulation.
"We have no assurances that those institutions would be excluded from this international free-trade agreement," Fournier said.
The bulk of the marchers were students from the city's universities and colleges. Many were simply there to support what they see as a campaign against injustice.
"The FTAA is an attack on the fundamental rights of peoples and of individuals, and we each have to do our part in denouncing it," said Maryse Pelletier, 20, a second-year student at Université du Québec à Montréal.
Dressed as a banker and wearing a papier-m?ch? pig's head, Patrick Bonin said he believes that he must act now "to save the planet" from catastrophes that have been brewing for years.
The UQAM student said he changed his career plans - leaving a completed business degree to pursue a master's program in environmental sciences - so he can follow through on his beliefs.
Clusters of drummers and organizers with loudspeakers kept up the tempo of the march, while people dressed in mammoth UNICEF boxes collected offerings from bemused pedestrians. Office workers peered out of windows as folks dressed as big-hair fairies, Spider-Man and the like pranced in the street below.
The general merriment was occasionally punctuated by flashes of drama.
Early in the march, a demonstrator threw a rock at a window in the Ailes de la Mode complex on Ste. Catherine St., cracking it. There was a brief melee as he was chased by security guards who raced out of the mall.
A quartet of guards pursued the man through the crowd, eventually grabbing him. But they were quickly outnumbered by protective protesters and abandoned their quarry to seek refuge in a bank across the street. Several angry youths tried to kick the bank's doors, but calm was quickly restored. The guards refused to comment.
Anxious shopkeepers bolted their doors, and security guards stood warily in windows as the protest swept by.
At the Birks store on Ste. Catherine, all the jewelry had been taken out of the display cases. Employees also lined the windows at the SAQ liquor store nearby.
Boos and whistles went up as the protesters passed the Montreal Stock Exchange buildings, and the banking district on St. Jacques St. in Old Montreal.
They turned on St. Laurent Blvd., then onto René Lévesque Blvd., before heading up Jeanne Mance St. to Place des Arts, and after a pause, on to Berri Square, where they held a massive rally that concluded after 7 p.m.
Protests were also held in Sherbrooke, the Saguenay-Lac St. Jean region and in Ottawa.
The trade deal, subject to ratification in 2005, would create the world's largest free-trade zone, covering all 34 democratic countries in the Western Hemisphere. It excludes Cuba.
lmoore@thegazette.southam.ca
sgordon@thegazette.southam.ca
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