Montreal professors, teachers, and city union officials joined students in a protest on April. 2 against new proposed austerity measures.
More than 75,000 people attended the rallies, according to organizers.
The rally was much more peaceful than last week’s protests that were marked with violent clashes between student protesters and the police. A protest on March. 31 was deemed illegal due to police not being informed of the marching route, but the protests occurred nonetheless.
These recent student demonstrations are a reminder of the now iconic 2012 protests. In 2012 students took to the streets, banging pots and pans and brandishing red squares on their clothing to signal solidarity to speak out against proposed increases to post-secondary tuition.
The pots and pans reappeared during recent public demonstrations even louder than before to match the much more far reaching proposed austerity measures. Critics of the Liberal party’s budget balancing proposals argue that their budgetary claw-backs will put a strain on essential services such as education, health care and social services.
As they rallied in the streets, they also used the hashtag #manif2avril to spread their struggle to Canadians and the world.
