Last Thursday, March 29, a four-pronged student demonstration wound its way through downtown Montreal in a festively themed demonstration that aimed to disrupt the economic activity of the downtown area and highlight several political grievances of the students.

The protest, called Manifestation la Grande Mascarade, was organized by la Fédération Universitaire et Collégiale des Étudiant-esRévolté-es (FUC*ER), and promoted by the Coalition Large de l’Association pour la Solidarite syndicale etudiante (CLASSE).

Organized around the concept of a masked ball, the protest was divided into four groups with each assigned a specific colour and a specific issue to criticize tuition fee increases, police brutality, strike— breaking tactics, and the non-representative stance of several Quebec student unions during the student strike.

In accordance with the masquerade theme of the protest, many participants wore colourful masks and costumes, drawing on the French tradition of the “charivari.”

“In popular contexts, the charivari was a moment when villagers donned costumes and masks and heckled a person in their home in order to criticize their conduct,” CLASSE’s announcement of the event said. “[This protest] will reappropriate this practice by invading the heart of Montreal in order to paralyze the economic and governmental elite, who are deemed illegitimate and harmful for the community.”

Starting around noon in Phillips Square, the protest split into the four groups, which headed in different directions around the city’s downtown. Protesters were largely peaceful, singing, chanting, and playing instruments to attract the attention of bystanders.

“We’re trying to protest in a festive way, without violence,” Steve Melanson, a protester and teacher at the CEGEP Regional De Lanaudière à L’assomption, said. “The violence is symbolic in the way we dress. In the old times, when a family did something wrong, [people] did not go to that family and attack them, but they’d go in front of their house and make noise and sing something … So it’s a symbolic protest.”

Some protesters also overturned construction signs or moved objects on the sidewalk into the middle of the street. Many storeowners and observers smiled or applauded as the demonstration passed along main streets like St. Catherine and Sherbrooke.

Around 2:30 p.m., the four groups converged at Place des Arts, before moving to Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), where protestors played music, danced, and burned an effigy of Quebec Premier Jean Charest.

In addition to the tradition of the charivari, some protesters pointed the masquerade theme as a response to Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay’s recent comments about the use of masks in protests. Tremblay said he was “disgusted” by the violence of the March 15 anti-police brutality march, which included an overturned police car, damage to several stores along St. Catherine, and over 200 arrests.

“If people want to demonstrate and have legitimate demands, no administration has done more to promote participative democracy,” he said in a press conference after the anti-police brutality protest. “That said, I take for granted that people who want to demonstrate can do so with their faces uncovered.”

In 2009, the Service de police de la Ville de Montreal (SPVM) asked that Montreal create an anti-mask law, but the law was never adopted because of concerns that it infringed on personal freedoms. Other cities like New York, however, have and enforce anti-mask laws.

Tremblay has announced that Montreal’s public security commission will be investigating every aspect of public demonstrations, including the use of masks, in an effort to prevent the recurrence of violent incidences like those of the anti-police brutality march.

Protestor and UQAM student Guy Benoit-Fournel said that the idea of prosecuting student protestors for wearing masks would be problematic.

“Wearing a mask can be a form of expression, which is covered under freedom of expression,” he said. “If you tried to put this in the regulation of the city, you would give an arbitrary power to the police to decide whether someone wearing a mask is legal or not … And in the criminal code, if you cover your identity to commit a criminal infraction it’s already a crime, so there is no need for [this regulation].”