Quebec Government Passes Law to Restrain Protests Quebec's government passed an emergency law on Friday restricting demonstrations and shutting some universities, as the government sought to end three months of protests against tuition increases. Students reacted by calling the law an act of war. Among its contested provisions is a requirement that the police be informed eight hours before a demonstration and told the route of any protest that includes 50 or more people. Critics called it an affront to civil rights.