MONTREAL – More people were arrested in Quebec overnight Wednesday than during the entire October Crisis as social unrest in the province grows despite emergency legislation adopted last week placing new restrictions on demonstrations.

Montreal police Constable Daniel Fortier said on Thursday morning that 518 people were arrested from a demonstration that began Wednesday evening – the largest number of people detained in a single night so far in 15 weeks of student protests.

More than 100 people were also arrested at marches in Quebec City and Sherbrooke for protesting without supplying a route in defiance of Bill 78.

The total in Montreal alone surpassed the 497 arrests made under the War Measures Act during the October Crisis of 1970.

The 30th consecutive nighttime march by students fighting a tuition hike as well as denouncing Bill 78 began as a peaceful river of humanity for more than three hours, with about 3,000 people walking and chanting.

Then, in a heartbeat, the big march turned ugly.

Just before midnight Wednesday, police surrounded a large group of protesters at Sherbrooke and St. Denis Sts. to make a mass arrest.

In Montreal, 506 of those arrested were caught in the kettle, including 30 minors. Adults were each fined $634 for illegal assembly, while the penalty for minors is $118. The remaining 12 were isolated arrests, including four charged with criminal acts and eight for city bylaw infractions, police said.

One person was arrested for wearing a mask, police specified – the first arrest under the new anti-mask law. The penalty is $1,000 to $2,000 for a first offence.

Rocks and a flaming object were thrown at police officers, Fortier explained. He did not know if police were applying provisions of Bill 78, a new Quebec law that forbids unannounced protests.

Fortier said most of those arrested will face municipal bylaw infractions for being at an illegal assembly. A much smaller number will face more serious charges of assault and armed assault.

Showing proof of the attack against them, a Montreal police officer pulled three golf-ball-sized rocks out of his pocket and showed it to a Radio-Canada TV news crew that was broadcasting live. The Radio-Canada reporter held up an object found on the ground that he said was a crude incendiary device.

The cops had until then accompanied the largest of three evening protests without incident since it left Place Émilie Gamelin at Berri and Ste. Catherine Sts. and meandered all over downtown and the Plateau.

The protesters chanted, sang and banged pots and pans.

And they cheered at people who waved red fabric from their balconies in support.

“Marchons, chaque soir, jusqu’à la victoire!” (Let’s march, each night, until we are victorious) the protesters shouted. And, to the tune of “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands” they chanted “If you want (Quebec Premier Jean) Charest to take off like his (education) minister, clap your hands.”

Another popular slogan translates roughly, without the profanity, as: “The special law, we couldn’t care less.”

BRENDA BRANSWELL OF THE GAZETTE CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT

mharrold@montrealgazette.com