MONTREAL - Despite scattered showers, several thousand people marched through the streets of Montreal Saturday afternoon to voice their anger with the Charest government over its handling of the tuition fee dispute.

Quebecers young and old joined students at the festive rally, which featured protest songs blaring from a van and the clanging of pots and pans that has become customary at recent protests.

"This isn't a student strike, it's a society waking up," read a banner at the front of the march.

The latest demonstration comes after talks over tuition fees between student leaders and the Quebec government broke down on Thursday.

The event was a chance for supporters to gather in one spot to voice their displeasure with the lack of progress in ending a crisis that has gripped Quebec for nearly four months, and with Bill 78, the province's new emergency law that limits protests.

Gabrielle Nadeau-Dubois, a spokesman for the hardline student association CLASSE, which organized the demonstration, said it will continue to protest through the summer even if it means disrupting the tourist season.

"We are going to hand out information... so that tourists who visit Quebec will know what's going on here and so they understand why they see images of protests on television every day," he told reporters prior to the march.

Another protest was scheduled in Montreal for Saturday night, for the 40th night in a row.

Premier Jean Charest's Liberal government passed Bill 78 last month in hopes of calming student protests, which have at times turned violent. Student leaders can face stiff fines under the new law for supporting illegal demonstrations, and Charest said Friday that it is up to student leaders to establish the parameters of their protests.

Saturday's afternoon march was declared illegal as soon as it began because CLASSE hadn't provided a route. The demonstration was allowed to continue, however, and police kept their distance.

For many, the movement has become about more than just tuition fees. Mehmet Yayla, 40, an unemployed oceanographer who said he's still paying off his student debt after graduating two years ago, has been demonstrating for the last two weeks.

"This government is completely corrupted and everybody, whether you are from the right or the left or English-speaking or French-speaking, we should get rid of this government," Yayla said.

"It started with the tuition fees, but I think the population started to rise up because we were feeling the corruption in our lives. If you ask the Liberals, they don't have any answers, they still don't say it's not true."

The government initially tried to exclude the rally's student organizers from negotiations over its aggressive approach. Now it has pounced on CLASSE for invoking the possibility of using the impending Grand Prix race as a platform for the student cause.

Nadeau-Dubois said the group would use the event as a forum to raise its grievances with the province but would not prevent people from going to the race.

At the nightly demonstrations members of an anti-capitalist group have handed out pamphlets calling on protesters to make their presence known during Grand Prix weekend.

Charest has accused student groups of "hurting Quebecers" if they disrupt the international car race, which brings millions of dollars to the province each year.

He said students, who have spent months striking against a proposed tuition hike, should leave Grand Prix fans alone given the financial importance of the race.

Business leaders have weighed in, expressing fears that fewer tourists will come to Montreal this year after seeing footage of nightly marches and hundreds of arrests that have been made during the demonstrations.

Citizens also question whether the nightly police operations will end up costing more than would be realized from the proposed higher tuition fees.

Charest said it's fine to protest against himself and his government, but the protesters are ultimately hurting the people from whom they're seeking support.

"I think they have to examine their consciences when it comes to their acts," he said Friday while visiting a suburb west of Montreal.