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Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Montreal and Quebec City on Saturday afternoon to show their staunch opposition to the provincial government’s austerity agenda.

The protest was organized by the Collectif Refusons L’austerité, which includes Quebec’s union movement, student groups, and several civil society groups.

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Thousands of protesters in Montreal left Place du Canada early Saturday afternoon and headed west along René-Levesque Blvd., up de la Montagne St. to Ste-Catherine St. and then east to the Place des Festivals at Jeanne Mance St. The protest in Quebec City began at the Plains of Abraham and headed to the National Assembly.

In Montreal, the protest was peaceful, but loud and colourful, with many protesters chanting, blowing plastic horns, and banging pot lids or drums. The drivers of two flatbed trucks parked at the intersection of Ste.-Catherine and Bleury Sts. added to the cacophony by sounding their air horns in atonal harmony with the vuvuzela-style horns of some delighted marchers.

Helicopters could be heard overhead and Montreal police officers dressed in riot gear marched in single file beside protesters as they flooded into Place des Festivals. There was no visible friction between the police officers and the marchers, possibly because many officers sported their own protest messages against pension cuts affixed to the back of their bulletproof vests. Police are among the thousands of public service workers whose pensions are on the chopping block as part of Premier Philippe Couillard’s austerity program.