QUEBEC – All parties in the Quebec National Assembly joined Thursday in unanimously adopting a motion “condemning without reserve” the use of smoke bombs to close the Montreal métro.
The motion was presented by Bertrand St-Arnaud, of the Parti Québécois, with support from the Liberals, Coalition Avenir Québec, Québec solidaire and Option Nationale.
St-Arnaud said “illegal acts had led to a rupture of service, jeopardizing the safety of thousands of people.”
“We should first of all find the guilty,” Public Security Minister Robert Dutil said. “And secondly, re-establish the service to the public and reassure the public.”
Earlier Dutil told reporters the action appeared to be “concerted and “extremely serious,” but did not blame the students.
“We cannot link what happened in Montreal with the students,” the minister said.
Education Minister Line Beauchamp was also careful not to blame the student associations leading the opposition to the government’s proposed $1,778 tuition hike, saying that “extremist groups” appear to have infiltrated the student movement.
Premier Jean Charest was absent from the National Assembly, attending a Union des municipalités du Québec convention in Gatineau, which was picketed by university and CEGEP students who have rejected the government’s agreement in principle aimed at ending the tuition dispute.
Sylvie Roy of the Coalition Avenir Québec said the 350,000 Montrealers who use the métro each day are just as much victims as residents of Victoriaville, scene of a violent protest last Friday, which began as a demonstration against the tuition increase.
After question period, Amir Khadir, the sole Québec solidaire MNA, called the action “criminal” that put lives in danger, not “civil disobedience,” used by figures such as Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi as a form of non-violent protest.
But Khadir also asked whether, one day after he called for an inquiry into police action at the Victoriaville riot last Friday, it was possible someone trying to discredit the students was behind the smoke bombs, recalling past incidents of agents provocateurs working for the police.
“Let’s pray it isn’t that,” Khadir said, saying a public inquiry could dispel that possibility. He said it is also possible someone misguided was behind the action. “Stupid people exist,” he said.
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