The worst incident in terms of injuries was at the
liberal party conference, which had been moved from Montreal to the
small town of Victoriaville. The liberal party holds the majority in the
"national" assembly, under Premier Jean Charest. So Charest was trying
to avoid tying up Montreal, but the student organizations rented a bunch
of motorcoaches and turned out in force in Victoriaville.
Confrontations with riot police led to one policeman and several
students being badly injured. One student lost an eye.
After that the student associations met with the
liberal party leaders and reached a tentative agreement. It proposed
small tuition and fee increases for next year, something like $150, and
would convene a special committee with members from university
administration, faculty unions, and student groups, which would be
charged with looking for cost savings in university budgets that could
be used to offset the proposed increases, possibly reducing the increase
to zero. But as my local host pointed out, administrators have been
trained their entire career never to admit that they have been spending
too much, and so that committee was never going to succeed. The proposal
was sent to student groups for a vote and they all voted it down.
But as I started to write this I had not caught up
on the latest news from just last night! The Assembly convened at 8 pm
for a special session to debate a bill that would make it illegal for
student associations to form picket lines preventing the classmates from
attending classes. It would impose steep fines. This news prompted
students in Montreal to march around the city until 3 am when they
finally got tired and dispersed.
The merit of the student protest I think is that
they have turned attention toward the Universities' bloated
administrative costs, and claimed that tuition hikes are not necessary
even if the province faces a budget crisis. I have no idea how
administrative bloat here compares to schools in the US, but at least I
get the sense that the students are concerned about educational value
for the money, rather than expecting posh dorms and health clubs, and
free tickets to big-time sporting events.
The peculiarities of Quebec politics have helped
sustain the strike, even as a large majority of older Quebecois have
come to oppose the students. The separatist Parti Quebecois, out of
power in the province since I think 2001 or 2002, has embraced the
students' cause and on the floor of the Assembly the PQ members wear the
red square, symbol of the student movement. The students use slogans
from the separatist movement like "maítres chez nous" and this ideology
helps them justify the fact that even after the hikes tuition in Quebec
would be much lower than in the other provinces. It doesn't look like
this alliance will help the PQ win a majority in the next election, but
voters may also turn against Charest's Liberals because they have failed
to resolve the crisis by now.
The spring term is lost for those students who were
on strike, which is roughly a third of all students. Now people are
concerned that the strike could continue into the fall. The severity of the student debt problem here seems minor compared to the USA. A student here quoted in the newspaper was outraged at the
prospect of a $30,000 debt upon graduation, but students in the US often have more than $75,000 and I don't see how anyone
here could run up that much, with tuition at $3000/year or less.
Plus, unemployment here is lower than in the US, and many jobs go
begging in the remote mining and oil patch regions. Would you want to
spend the winter in an iron mine in Labrador?
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