MONTREAL – A May Day march that started out peacefully in Old Montreal, deteriorated into rock throwing, window breaking and smoke bombs when the marchers reached St. Catherine St.
The march organized by the anti-capitalist group CLAC-Montreal left Champ de Mars a little after 5 p.m. and was declared illegal by police at two minutes after 6 p.m. after violent clashes at the corner of University St. and Ste. Catherine.
According to Montreal police spokesperson Laurent Gingras, injuries to a citizen, to police officers and vandalism on cars and property were the reasons for declaring the march illegal.
Witnesses said the police were keeping a close eye and close proximity to the Black Bloc, a local anarchist group known for their destructive tendencies.
True to form, black-clad people were seen hurling rocks at the plate-glass windows of the Tommy Hillfiger store at les Ailes de la Mode, flash grenades were launched by police to warn them off, and the same men in black picked up the smoke bombs lobbed by the police and threw them towards pedestrians.
The police intervention squad moved in just after 6 p.m. pushing back the marchers and several journalists at the corners of de Maisonneuve Blvd. and Sherbrooke St.
They used their police batons to disperse the crowd. One reporter jammed in an alcove had nowhere to go and got hit for her trouble.
Many canisters of chemical irritants were launched causing tears and coughing for marchers and bystanders alike.
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Later a man was treated by paramedics and loaded into an ambulance after he was hit in the back of the head with a baton.
The vandals punched a hole in a window of a TD Bank as well as a window of a Videotron outlet.
The police and the marchers played a game of cat and mouse around de Maisonneuve, Jeanne Mance St., in the McGill Ghetto and Bleury St. as the large group splintered, only to regroup a couple of blocks away in Carré St. Louis.
They then marched down St. Denis St. and east along Sherbrooke St. and eventually into the Gay Village where the SPVM briefly blocked entrance to the Berri métro.
At 7:10 p.m. a full hour after declaring the demonstration illegal, police announced that anyone who refused to leave would be arrested. More arrests were made at the corner of Berri and Ontario Sts. and paint bombs flew, hitting police cruisers and other targets.
Police spokesman André Poirier said there had been 107 arrests, 75 of those for illegal assembly and 32 for criminal acts such as throwing rocks, breaking windows and attacking police and police vehicles.
All this was in stark contrast to two other peaceful events that took place on Tuesday.
At lunchtime the striking students, several hundred strong, gathered outside Premier Jean Charest’s McGill College Ave. to plant a symbolic red maple tree.
At suppertime, a group representing unions and feminists gathered in Rosemont to march for the rights of women and workers, without incident and without any arrests.
Police had no sooner been relieved of their afternoon shift when the nightly parade of students began to trickle in for their march in the area around Berri and St. Catherine.
Every night for eight nights now the students have left Émilie-Gamelin Park for a fast-paced trek through the downtown core, paralyzing traffic and wearing out the shoe-leather of the hundreds of police on overtime.
On Monday night they covered more than 20 kilometres of ground, averaging a brisk 5 kilometres an hour as anyone trying to follow the marchers has learned.
On Tuesday after leaving Berri, the first group of students met up with another group who gathered outside Place des Arts, swelling the ranks to several thousands.
They marched against traffic along St. Catherine, up Crescent St. and again against traffic along de Maisonneuve Blvd. heading east.
The march was relatively peaceful and uneventful under foggy skies and a temperature of 10C.
“For now everything is normal, the march is peaceful and festive, people are singing and playing music,” said Poirier of the chanting and drumming.
Police arrested more than 100 people.
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