"Our dreams are too big for your polls": Students march for 100th straight night after Sept. 4 vote announced

A protest banner reads, 'Our dreams are too big for your polls,' on the 100th night of protests in Montreal on Wednesday. (CBC)

Student demonstrators and their supporters took to the streets of Montreal with renewed vigour last night following word that Quebec's political ranks are gearing up for a late summer election campaign — the latest turn of events in the months-long protest over tuition fees and controversial legislation.

Some injuries were reported and there were about a dozen arrests Wednesday night in demonstrations that took protesters through the streets for the 100th night in a row, with many banging on pots and pans — reminiscent of evening protests that spread across the city in the spring.

The number of protesters Wednesday was higher than in recent weeks.

Some carried large red banners with anti-Jean Charest slogans, and electoral messages such as, "Our dreams are too big for your polls."


The election call comes on the heels of the province's raucous student crisis over tuition increases — an issue that gripped the province over the winter and spring.

Many of the hundreds of people who joined the latest street march also donned masks to mock a controversial city bylaw forbidding face coverings at public protests.


Thousands of students started to boycott classes in February to protest tuition increases. By spring, the boycott evolved into daily protests.

After months of negotiations, student leaders rejected the government's final, watered-down tuition increase offer in May.

-  CBC News