Latest student protest ends peacefully

The latest student protest against tuition fee hikes ended without incidentTuesday, when police ordered students to end a sit-inon Sherbrooke Street nearMcGill University'sDesautels Faculty of Management in Montreal.

About 2,000 students and their supporters marched from Victoria Square to the intersection of Sherbrooke and McTavish streets, not far from Quebec Premier Jean Charest's Montreal office.

The protest was mostly peaceful, although there was a slight altercation between students and police when a firecracker was set off near a group of police officers.

Police pulled out their batons and had pepper spray at hand, as students chanted, in French, "We are staying peaceful!"

Mounted police move in

Late in the afternoon, police ordered students to disperse, informing them the demonstration was an illegal gathering and that anyone who refused to leave could face arrest.

A line of police officers on bicycles and on horseback formed a wedge and slowly moved into on the crowd, eventually forcing students back onto the sidewalks on either side of Sherbrooke Street.

Shortly afterwards, only a few stragglers remained.

Some CEGEP teachers and others joined students to show their support for their movement to end tuition fee hikes.

"Everyone in society should be able to go to university if they have the will and the capacity to," said CEGEP Marie-Victorin professor Charles Lemieux.

Editorialist laments violence

Tuesday's rally cameless than 24 hours aftera similar demonstrationended on a violent note.

Demonstrators smashed windows at the headquarters of Montreal newspaper La Presse, on St-Laurent Boulevard.

The paper's editor-in-chief, Andr Pratte, called the incident unfortunate.

"Many people write at La Presse. I think students certainly want to have the possibilityof respecting their points of view, and they should respect others."

Student action against planned tuition increases have escalated in recent weeks, with daily gatherings popping up across the province.

They say they will strike until the Liberal governmentrelents.

The government has repeatedly said it won't negotiate its fee increases a view echoed bymany observers, including Pratte.