Quebec Student Protests: The Players And What They Want

CP  |  By Posted: 04/26/2012 5:10 pm Updated: 04/26/2012 7:44 pm

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MONTREAL -- Two of them study French literature, one is a musician and another will be teaching high school next year.

What do these young people have in common?

All are students involved in the protest movement that is sweeping the province and garnering some international attention.

They oppose Quebec's tuition hike, which would see university fees rise about 75 per cent over the next five years to about $3,800 a year.

The increase would still leave Quebec with some of the country's lowest university rates, prompting many observers to wonder: Why are these students protesting so aggressively?

The Canadian Press contacted students through their involvement in Facebook groups and student associations, asking them to explain why they became involved in the movement and what results they want to achieve.

In light of recent protests that have become disruptive, some did not want to be publicly associated with the movement and refused to be interviewed. Two asked, after having already been interviewed, to have their names removed. One asked not to be photographed.

Here are six students who were willing to publicly share their stories.

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MONTREAL -- Two of them study French literature, one is a musician and another will be teaching high school next year. What do these young people have in common? All are students involved in the...
MONTREAL -- Two of them study French literature, one is a musician and another will be teaching high school next year. What do these young people have in common? All are students involved in the...
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HarleyOpenRoad
2185 Fans
01:43 PM on 04/28/2012
Meanwhile, most of these rich white kids spend the equivalent of the proposed tuition increase at the campus bar every week.
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Anne Mccormick
1052 Fans
11:14 AM on 04/28/2012
these Canadian students are complaining that university fees will rise about 75 per cent over the next five years to about $3,800 a year? they should come down here to the United States and see how it is here. sorry hard to feel any sympathy for these Canadian students.
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dimsum
0 Fans
11:32 AM on 04/28/2012
I totally agree and by the way my 75year old Aunt is in the Montreal General Hospital suffering from cancer and she is exhausted. She cannot even get a little sleep as these
'students' have the low class, low life mentality that they think it is their right to protest at the hospital and pound the hospital doors so loudly during the night that sick people cannot sleep. If they put half as much energy into working part time as they do into pulling ignorant thoughtles stunts like this maybe they'd be able to afford the tuition hike.
Hard to sympathize for them after knowing this.
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JackLewis
122 Fans
12:59 PM on 04/28/2012
I don't believe they ever asked for you sympathy in the first place. They probably feel some pity for the situation of students in your lovely country but it's not their job to deal with your problems.
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disporting
Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes
256 Fans
04:17 PM on 04/27/2012
They're all certainly attractive ladies.
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Shoaib Syed
4 Fans
12:55 PM on 04/27/2012
Tuition should be free for everyone. There should be rules governing the process, as to how long one can stay in school and how many degrees they can do before paying, but tuition should be free (or very cheap) and education should be encouraged. With the gap between rich and poor growing for the last 3 decades, it is very important that the next generation of workers be well educated if we want to maintain a civilized society.

Economically, it has been proven that a person with a post secondary education will have a significantly higher income in their lifetime. Therefore, they will pay more in taxes and be less dependent on social services such as welfare, housing etc. as success in job market is related to one's level of education.

So "free' tuition is more like an investment with a guaranteed rate of return (something you cannot say about any other investment these days).
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LunaticCalm
27 Fans
02:56 PM on 04/27/2012
Good read. Also, studies proved that a wealthy middle class = less spending on the healthcare.
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Anne Mccormick
1052 Fans
11:15 AM on 04/28/2012
i know some Canadian taxpayers in Alberta who won't go along with your idea at all.
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Opus Fideo
Atheist. Social Democrat. Canadian.
4180 Fans
12:10 PM on 04/27/2012
look at the majors of these protestors: French lit, Music, Philosophy, Spanish language... all useless degrees.

You certainly don't see any engineering students skipping class...
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LunaticCalm
27 Fans
12:41 PM on 04/27/2012
Tell me what's your definition of "useless".
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Ledurable
7 Fans
03:22 PM on 04/27/2012
what you don't see doesn't make it reality the students of the most important engineering university in Quebec are 80% against the 75% hike
here's proof
http://aep.polymtl.ca/?p=409
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LunaticCalm
27 Fans
09:47 AM on 04/27/2012
This article failed to mention that Quebec is the most taxed province in NA. Our money is being used to finance the big corporations and the italian mafia (construction corruption). Why should the students pay for this corrupted government ?
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gideonn
15 Fans
 
07:49 PM on 04/27/2012
right about the tax situation, but too much of it goes to protect the majority language from the imagined threat of the evil english empire. put that money into education and health care and well, hmmm, but any suggestion towards that would result in even more people in the streets.
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LunaticCalm
27 Fans
10:11 PM on 04/27/2012
"imagined threat of the evil english empire!"

Proof or it never happened.
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JackLewis
122 Fans
01:02 PM on 04/28/2012
Too much, well how much exactly? This seems like a made up claim to support some cognitive bias on your part.
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JacobsPerch
11 Fans
08:58 AM on 04/27/2012
Protesting by marching through the streets with your signs and chants would not anger most of us. Causing thousands of dollars of damage to public and private property, delaying thousands of motorists who are trying to get to their jobs (talk about a dying breed) by blocking bridges, preventing fellow students who want to study from accessing school property do nothing for their cause. It shows a mob mentality which is inbred here in Quebec among construction and public service unions and has infected many aspects of our social fabric.

Whenever the government tries to get a good deal for the taxpayers, students go hog-wild. A few years ago, the government tried to implement a law which would force newly minted physicians to work in rural or remote regions for five years after graduation given that taxpayers foot 85% of the bill for their education. All hell broke loose and the government caved-in. Why? Most billingual graduates with degrees in medicine, engineering, computer sciences flee the province with their degree in hand shortly after graduating so our investment flies out the door. Taxpayers foot most of the costs so we should make the rules, however, we should demand better management of the funds slated for education by our government. With more than 22% of the education budget going for administrative costs, I am certain we can cut the fat in that area which would allow the tuition fees to remain stable.
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JackLewis
122 Fans
01:06 PM on 04/28/2012
Too bad they haven't invented some form of protest where nobody would suffer and that would be totally ineffectual in every way. I'm sure these sort of protests would be very successful. I do agree about the trimming of fat part. One of the most awful part of the tuition hike is the government using a good portion of it not to better the education system, but to throw it in the student loan program. So basically you pay more so that the gov can give more loans that are now more needed due to the higher costs. What a racket.
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RDX
135 Fans
08:40 AM on 04/27/2012
I find the very fact that this student protest movement has to latch on to other more legitimate movements like the occupy movement and the arab spring of all things points to the fact that this movement has no legs of it's own to stand on.

I will not insult these students but I will stick to my position that an increase in tuition is both long overdue and to the actual benefit of the students.
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Ledurable
7 Fans
03:26 PM on 04/27/2012
In what country do you live on to say the student movement has latched on to another movement it stands on its own instead of being on it's knees like you would wish. Of course you would accept a 75% hike in taxes right or a 75% reduction in pay ? no well wake up then
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Owen Westmanthooth
Evaluate the facts
65 Fans
07:55 AM on 04/27/2012
The Occupy movement actually had a message about income inequality in America. The massive gulf between the rich and the poor is getting to a ridiculous point. However these students have burned all their bridges. Nobody cares or sympathizes that you pay the lowest rates in the country and that after the increases you will still pay the lowest rates in the country. Get over it. Move to Ontario and America for a reality check. I went to school in Quebec and it was cheap however times have changed. The economy isn't exactly a powerhouse right now. I'd advise the police to pull out the water canons and blast these intruders off Montreal streets if the violence continues.
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Ledurable
7 Fans
03:38 PM on 04/27/2012
Way to use the lowest common denominator.

clic here to compare whit other developed countries
http://www.iris-recherche.qc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/OCDE_droits.png

List of countries with free post-secondary education
Argentina
Barbados
Brazil
Belgium
Croatia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hungary
Kenya
Malta
Mauritius
Morocco
Norway
Russia
Scotland
Slovakia
Sri Lanka
Sweden
Trinidad and Tobago
Brunei
Turkey
Oman
Saudi Arabia
Uruguay
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CannuckInUs
30 Fans
11:21 AM on 04/28/2012
Yes you are free to live in Sri Lanka or Morocco or Brunei and get your freed education. But you live in Canada, and must abide by the economics that effect us. How do you justify tax dollars for free education
- for people who drop out.
- for people who take 7 years to graduate
- for people in their third year who do not know what major they want
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Owen Westmanthooth
Evaluate the facts
65 Fans
07:41 AM on 04/30/2012
yes? And how many of the people who live in these countries who actually go to post-secondary are among the elite and wealthy? What about elementary and high school? Are those free? There are massive problems with the public education system. Look at Mexico, free post secondary, the only ones going are the children of drug lords.
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JackLewis
122 Fans
01:09 PM on 04/28/2012
I care and sympathize, so there goes that silly argument.
>> I went to school in Quebec
The old, I got it good but who cares about others part. Montreal citizens are hardly intruders in their own streets, did you actually graduate in Quebec or just flunked there?
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Owen Westmanthooth
Evaluate the facts
65 Fans
07:45 AM on 04/30/2012
wow, it's going up incrementally and people can afford it no problem if they would get off their tucus and get a part time job like I did. And no I paid a lot more because I wasn't a Quebec resident so there goes your silly argument. Montreal is a beautiful city and when people start breaking windows and attacking police because they aren't getting as big as big of a handout that constitutes needless destruction. I graduated, did you fail out of community college or something? So much angst.
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Angus12
43 Fans
07:04 AM on 04/27/2012
These "students" are the equivalent of last summers Occupy deadbeats. They want to stand there with theirs hands stuck out and have someone else pay their way through live. Here's my advise to you. Get off your as#s, get a part time job and earn your education. You'll be a better person at the end of the day.
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Ledurable
7 Fans
03:39 PM on 04/27/2012
That is already what we do and we are going to pay more income tax then you
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gideonn
15 Fans
 
07:58 PM on 04/27/2012
great education when you cannot even use 'than' as in 'than you' above, guess you're getting what you pay for. how will you talk when education is free?
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LuisD
It's a wonder what you'll find with an open mind
227 Fans
07:02 AM on 04/27/2012
Access to university should be determined by personal choice, not personal income.

Neoliberalism continues its insidious march, preferring corporate tax cuts over access to education.
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traxsalty
1 Fans
06:29 AM on 04/27/2012
These students are the dead canary in the coal mine. Their chances of getting a good job are not good. Too many people chasing after fewer, usually lower paying jobs. Anything that can be turned into digital ones and zeros will reduce the amount of people involved in its creation. Our economic system cannot function in the face of this digital onslaught. What used to take 10000 people to make a car now requires 100, soon to become 10. I wish I had a solution.
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paintitblacker
shit happens life goes on
121 Fans
05:14 AM on 04/27/2012
As for the protest's turning violent , we had a riot after last years play off loss to the B.B. and right away the media portrayed the "black Block" as being to blame, right wing spin I know , after video was studied and viewed most of the prolific offenders were found to be the sons and daughters of influential parents . it would not surprise me to learn in the coming months that the agitators are an extremist element of the right wing government in Ottawa. This would be a harper type of directive and would come as no shock or surprise.
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paintitblacker
shit happens life goes on
121 Fans
05:04 AM on 04/27/2012
I see education as being a right not a privilege for the chosen few , I don't live in Quebec ,but in B.C. and even though the tuition fee's are much different , they won't be for long leaving it more out of reach for student's seeking higher education. Here in B.C. private school's are taxpayer funded to the tune of 8500.00 per student . In other words my tax dollars go to educate the sons and daughters of affluence, not health care not infrastructure but private education. and a seat at U.B.C. there sold to foreign students . now how long will it be before education is priced out of reach in Quebec?
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