MONTREAL - Students protesting the Quebec government's plan to nearly double tuition by 2017 briefly blocked the Metropolitan Highway on Wednesday afternoon, stopping traffic near the d'Iberville exit for 20 minutes.
The same students had demonstrated in front of the Montreal office of Quebec Finance Minister Raymond Bachand earlier in the day. Bachand will table a budget on March 20 that is expected to make official the government's plan to increase tuition by $325 a year for the next five years.
"We hope that this symbolic action will have a positive impact on conflict between students and the Quebec government," said Arnaud Gagnon, a spokesperson for students from the CEGEP Bois-de-Boulogne. "Students are increasingly impatient and a gradual increase in pressure is inevitable is of concerns fall on deaf ears."
The students who took to the 40 highway were from the CEGEPs Bois-de-Boulogne, Saint-Laurent, Marie-Victorin and Ahuntsic.
No arrests were made and the "sit-in" on the Met was peaceful.
