Students take to Montreal streets to commemorate 10th anniversary of Maple Spring

A decade ago, Montreal was filled with the woosh of helicopter propellers, the wails of police sirens and the unrelenting womp of pots and pans being banged in solidarity with students who took to the streets, night after night. to protest against planned tuition-fee hikes.

That months-long demonstration, which became known as the Maple Spring, was revived briefly Tuesday afternoon as thousands of striking students once again drew attention to issues such as unpaid internships, some calling for free tuition.

Starting from Place du Canada, a public square downtown, demonstrators marched a few kilometres east to Place Émilie-Gamelin, next to the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).

And just like the demonstrations 10 years ago, Tuesday's protest was noisy: drums, whistles, chants, instruments and lots of cheering voices.

Free tuition is feasible, master's student says

Demonstrators were mostly university and college students.

Lucia Flores Echaiz, a UQAM student union member, said making tuition free is feasible because it would only be a tiny percentage of the provincial budget.

"It's important to understand that tuition fees are an obstacle to education for many people, and this obstacle is not the same for everyone," said Echaiz.

"We want free education, and we want more funding for universities."

Now doing her master's degree, Echaiz was in her first year of CEGEP in 2012. She said those protests prevented the government from increasing fees and helped change the way people think about education.

She said more events are planned for this week, including one on Wednesday that will call attention to unpaid internships.

Education isn't affordable for some, student says

Concordia University student Joshua Sallos, 32, is a member of the School of Community and Public Affairs Student Association (SCPASA). Although he wasn't an organizer in 2012, he did participate in the student uprising. He described the protests as "inspiring" and an example of democracy in action.

"Today is really a day about building momentum for a movement. It's not about demanding a particular concession," Sallos said. "It's about showing that student mobilization is still alive."

However, some students told CBC News they were there for very specific reasons. Collège Ahuntsic student Max Fleurentin said he is particularly concerned about tuition fees.

For some families, the cost of going to school in Quebec is reasonable and affordable, but that's not the case for everybody, as some students must balance a busy work schedule with their studies in order to get by, he said.

"Even though it has been 10 years, nothing has really changed about education fees, and we really just wanted to remind the government about it," Fleurentin said.