MONTREAL — A Canadian policemen was slightly hurt and two people were arrested in Montreal on Saturday as students staged a demonstration to press for tuition-free university studies.
Police spokesman Daniel Lacoursiere said the officer was hit in the knee by a projectile.
The rally came two days after students declared a big victory when the new Quebec government formally repealed a planned tuition increase at public universities. The planned hike had triggered months of angry and sometimes violent protests in Canada's French-speaking province.
Now, students are looking ahead to a longer term goal: free university studies, said Jeanne Reynolds, 20, spokeswoman of the CLASSE student union.
"It is feasible and desirable," Reynolds said.
Police had declared the demonstration by about 100 people braving raining weather illegal, because organizers had not provided them with the route they planned to follow.
On her first full day in office on Thursday, Quebec Premier Pauline Marois acted on a campaign promise to return tuition to Can$2,168 (US$2,220), the lowest in the country.
Her predecessor Jean Charest had initially planned an 82 percent increase of Can$1,778, later reduced to Can$1,533 over seven years to plug a budget deficit.
Reynolds warned against a Marois compromise proposal to index tuitions to the rate of inflation, calling it as unacceptable as the now-scrapped fee increase.
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