Police and students clash at Quebec Liberal meeting

Provincial police fired chemical irritants at student demonstrators. (Tim Duboyce/CBC)

At least four police officers and seven demonstrators were injured during a student demonstration in Victoriaville, Que., that turned violent Friday night and abruptly around 10 p.m.

Several hundred students demonstrated outside the provincial Liberal Party's general council meeting in Victoriaville, a small town about 150 kilometres northeast of Montreal attended by Premier Jean Charest.

Some of the injured were taken to hospital, but police say none of the injuries are life-threatening.


Protesters threw cans, rocks, billiard balls and bricks at police. They also smashed windows in the building where the meeting took place.

Police hurled tear gas, used sound grenades and shot rubber bullets at protesters. They say they have arrested four people.

Provincial police ordered everyone at the meeting to go inside and chained the exits shut.


The Liberals gathered for a weekend policy meeting, which could be the launching pad for a spring election.

Barricades and police lines were set up to keep student protesters out. Delegates were forced to go through a series of security checkpoints as they enter the conference centre.

The party moved its general council meeting from Montreal to Victoriaville, after student groups vowed to hold demonstrations outside the Montreal venue.

The biggest issue looming over party delegates, and Charest's government, is the ongoing student conflict.

But the official agenda of the meeting is to lay out some new Liberal policies, including the management of natural resources, and to discuss ways to breathe new life into Quebec's slumping manufacturing sector.   (CBC News )