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OTTAWA — Canada has stopped short of criticizing the Spanish government after violent clashes and forced closures of polling stations during a Catalonia referendum Sunday.

After 893 people and 33 police were injured Sunday in violence around the independence vote, a spokesman for Canadian foreign minister Chrystia Freeland said reports of violence are “concerning,” but the question of Catalan independence is an “internal matter.”

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Catalonia’s government says 90 per cent of voters favoured independence. But turnout was less than half. Catalonia is Spain’s richest region and views itself as distinct from the rest of the country, not least because it has its own language and culture.

Madrid says the vote was illegal and police sent to prevent voting and confiscate ballot boxes were acting on a constitutional court order. The country’s 1978 constitution, approved by the public, gave regions considerable autonomy but also solidified Spanish unity.