'Maple Spring' protests: Crackdown roils Quebec

Page last updated at 15:18 GMT, Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - 20:18 EST

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Demonstrators are filling Quebec's streets daily to support a four-month-old student strike against a tuition hike that has morphed into a movement against efforts to curb the right to protest and to impose austerity measures in Canada's largest province.

The walkout over a 75 percent increase in university and college tuition fees began on Feb. 13 with about 11,000 students. By late March, more than 300,000 people -- or about three-quarters of Quebec's student population -- were participating, organizers say.

The number of striking students had dipped to around 160,000 when the province's center-left government passed an emergency law on May 18 limiting where and when protests could be held and imposing potential fines of more than $100,000 on violators.

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