Tens of thousands of protesters marched through Montreal to mark 100 days of student demonstrations against a hike in tuition and a new law aimed at curbing the revolt.
While the march was largely a peaceful one throughout the day, after 10 p.m. police began firing tear gas into the crowd, CTV's Daniele Hamamdjian tweeted.
About 40 arrests had been made by 11 p.m.
The march, which was planned by 140 student and community groups and unions, began at 2 p.m. at the Place des Festivals. Many marchers carried placards and wore the red square on their clothing that has become a symbol of the student protest movement.
While many protesters stayed on the route that had been given to authorities ahead of time in compliance with the new legislation, others broke off from the main group.
Under Bill 78, designed to restore order in Quebec, students must tell police about protests eight hours ahead of time and submit a full itinerary if there's a march.
CLASSE, considered the most hard-line of the province's three main student associations, said it would continue to protest without giving police a pre-approved itinerary.
During Tuesday's protest, CLASSE urged protesters to move off the march route, and several thousand fanned out along side streets off Sherbrooke St.
"If (Charest) wants to give a $5,000 fine to all of those people, he has a law to do it," CLASSE spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau Dubois said during the march. "But I think we're proving right now that this law in fact is absurd and inapplicable."
A light rain fell on the city earlier Tuesday, creating less-than-ideal protest conditions.
As well, some groups from outside Montreal that were hoping to join Tuesday's protest found it difficult to secure travel into the city. Some bus companies have refused to do business with student groups over fears they will be charged under Bill 78.
But that didn't stop students, their parents, union leaders and others from taking to Montreal's streets. As well, protests in solidarity with Quebec students were organized in other cities, including New York, Paris, Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto.
In Paris, a few hundred protesters gathered outside Notre Dame Cathedral, while in New York, demonstrations were planned at Rockefeller Plaza and at Washington Square Park.
"An increase in the powers of police and the state anywhere is an attack on us everywhere," said the release for the New York event, which was organized by a group called Strike Everywhere, along with members of Occupy Wall Street.
In Toronto, protesters blocked a downtown intersection near the Ontario legislature.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Quebec's Public Security Minister Robert Dutil said a number of cities, including Toronto, New York and Los Angeles, have laws that are equally, if not more severe, governing protests.
"Other societies with rights and freedoms to protect have found it reasonable to impose certain constraints -- first of all to protect protesters, and also to protect the public," Dutil said.
Though Bill 78 was designed to quell months of protest in Montreal, students warned early on that the legislation would only escalate tensions.
That threat materialized over the weekend as at least 300 people were arrested and 20 were injured in Montreal during clashes between police and protesters.
Riot police used tear gas and sound grenades to break up the weekend demonstrations. Protesters retaliated by tossing construction cones and other miscellaneous objects.
What started as opposition against a proposed tuition increase has morphed into a province-wide debate about access to education, free speech and the right to protest.
Nadeau Dubois said the protests against Bill 78 are designed to protect the students' civil liberties.
"It's not that we are going to defy every law and we don't care about any law and we're going to do civil disobedience against every law," Dubois told CTV Montreal. "What we're saying is this specific law and specific articles in this specific law are for us clear attacks to our fundamental rights. And we decided to use our rights, whatever this law says."
The movement began with students rallying against a proposed tuition hike of $1,625, which would be implemented over several years. But with increasing violence and the introduction of Bill 78, the cause has deepened.
Among the groups that joined Tuesday's protest was Quebec Native Women, which said higher tuition fees will make it more difficult for aboriginal women to obtain post-secondary education.
The group said that First Nations are more likely to obtain higher education later in life, when they are more likely to have families and other financial obligations.
While band councils cover university fees, a rate increase means that financial aid will be available to fewer people.
"Every day, aboriginal women suffer from discrimination and stereotypes-related violence," the group's president, Michele Audette, said in a statement. "But today we are equal and we'll walk together to reaffirm the importance of an education accessible to all and to remind the government that it is by consulting and listening that we solve the crisis."
Earlier in the month, there was faint hope that peace would be restored when protesters and Premier Jean Charest's government drafted a tentative agreement intended to end the chaos. However, that deal was voted down by the province's main student groups and demonstrations resumed.
Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois has criticized the Charest government for ending negotiations with students. However, Education Minister TK Courchesne said while she is open to sitting down with other student groups, CLASSE is no longer welcome at negotiations.
"Once they're asking to disobey laws and they have that strong attitude regarding the respect of laws, I presuppose that they don't want to come back to the table," she said.
With reports from CTV Montreal's Aphrodite Salas and Maya Johnson
