MONTREAL — Police in Montreal made more than 150 arrests Thursday when an annual anti-police brutality march turned violent.
A police car was flipped over and smashed and numerous store-front windows destroyed when 2,000 protesters — a mix of students demonstrating against tuition hikes and citizens against police brutality — gathered for a rush hour march.
When some police officers appeared along the route, a few protesters started throwing rocks at them. At Aylmer and Sherbrooke streets, police fired off two loud sound grenades, sending a panic through the crowd. Protesters ran in all directions, but riot police formed a line, and banging on their shields with their batons, marched forward, shoving demonstrators north.
One man, trying to stop some young men from throwing rocks, was hit in the forehead with a tear-gas canister and it exploded.
Scott Weinstein, a nurse in the crowd who was providing first aid when needed, poured water over the man’s eyes, as he screamed in anger.
“If he hadn’t been wearing ski goggles, he could have been blinded,” Mr. Weinstein said. “His hair was singed and his goggles covered in chemicals. On Ste. Catherine St., Tina Tsimiklis, in town from Halifax for her children’s March break, was taking photos of her sons in front of a smashed store window.
“This is pretty fricking awesome,” said 16-year-old Dimitri Tsimiklis. “Nothing ever happens like this in Halifax.” Tina Tsimiklis said they saw protesters and police in riot gear coming along the street and, not knowing what was going on, they convinced a reluctant security guard at the Eaton’s Centre to let them in