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MONTREAL — The historic scope of the unrest in Quebec was illustrated in surreal scenes and statistics Thursday: more people were detained within a few hours — at least 650 of them, in mass roundups — than were arrested in the entire October Crisis.

More than 2,500 people have been arrested in a months-long dispute that has catapulted the province onto international news pages.

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That is at least five times the number jailed during the 1970 FLQ crisis that saw martial law declared in Quebec.

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While nobody has died, unlike the 1970 crisis, and most people arrested have been simply ticketed and immediately released, unlike those left to languish in jails back then, critics of the provincial government have spared no adjective to describe current events.

“The government has led us to the worst social crisis we have ever known in Quebec,” Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois scolded the premier during a legislature exchange Thursday.