Several hundred arrests in Quebec overnight

"Kettling" is a concept more familiar to Torontonians, many of whom were the target of it during the infamous 2010 G20 summit in the city. But last night protesters in Montreal got acquainted with the practice.

The Globe explains:

Kettling is a police tactic widely used in Europe where riot cops surround demonstrators and limit or cut off their exits. It has been widely criticized because it often results in the scooping up of innocent bystanders as well as rowdies.

Last night, following hours of peaceful demonstrations, police officers being "pelted with projectiles" resorted to cornering protesters and arrested as many as 518 of them, according to the Montreal Gazette:

... in a heartbeat, Wednesday night’s big march turned ugly.

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Just before midnight police surrounded a large group of protesters at Sherbrooke and St. Denis Sts. to make a mass arrest, Montreal police Constable Daniel Fortier said. Police said on Thursday morning the arrests totaled 518, making it the largest number of people arrested in a single night so far in the weeks-long student protest.

Over 100 people were also arrested in Quebec City for contravening a new controversial provincial law that is the focus of this past week’s increasingly crowded protests.

Still from the Gazette:

In Quebec City, 170 people were arrested during a march that was declared illegal before it even began. The protesters did not give police an itinerary of the march eight hours in advance, as stipulated by law 78.