A few hundred people demonstrated Sunday evening April 11 in Montreal against the curfew that had been advanced to 8 p.m. in the Quebec metropolis.
The demonstrators, mostly young and not wearing masks, chanted
“Freedom!”
and launched slogans hostile to the authorities.
Protesters threw fireworks and set fire to trash cans to express their anger, some smashing windows in the historic district of Old Montreal, according to images broadcast by television or on social networks.
Several dozen police intervened to disperse the demonstrators.
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Quebec Premier François Legault announced last week that the curfew in Montreal would be brought forward from 9:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. as part of preventive measures aimed at curbing the spread of a third wave of the pandemic, fueled by the new variants.
The measure came into effect on Sunday evening.
Quebec recorded 1,535 new cases of Covid-19 and 5 deaths on Sunday, bringing the heavy toll in the French-speaking province to 10,742 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Saturday, a demonstration, in which many parents participated, took place in downtown Montreal to protest against health measures, and particularly the wearing of masks, in schools.