Students protest in downtown Montreal on May 22, 2012 as tens of thousands defy an emergency law restricting protests to mark the 100th day of student protests over plans to raise tuition.  Demonstrators slowly winded through the downtown streets of Canada's second-largest metropolis, occasionally booing Quebec Premier Jean Charest and his "truncheon law."     AFP PHOTO / STEEVE DUGUAY
Students protest in downtown Montreal on May 22, 2012 as tens of thousands defy an emergency law restricting protests to mark the 100th day of student protests over plans to raise tuition.    — Photo by  AFP

MONTREAL: Canada police arrested some 400 people in Montreal early on Thursday after demonstrators threw rocks at officers in the latest student protest to shake the city, a police spokesman said.

Several thousand demonstrators poured into Montreal’s central square late Wednesday in an unsanctioned rally, defying a law passed last week requiring organizers to notify authorities eight hours ahead of public demonstrations.

Police moved in after several hours when some of the demonstrators threw rocks at them, police spokesman Daniel Lacoursiere said.

Protests have raged in Montreal since mid-February over a plan by provincial Premier Jean Charest to raise tuition fees at Quebec universities by 82 per cent to rein in a budget deficit.

Some of the demonstrations have turned violent, with store fronts smashed.

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