Quebec Student Groups Reject Proposed Tuition Deal

CBC  |  Posted: 05/11/2012 6:40 pm Updated: 05/13/2012 3:38 pm

Quebec Student Strike


The votes are in, and all three of the largest student groups in Quebec have rejected the tentative agreement reached with the Liberal government last weekend.


Eighteen student unions associated with FECQ, the federation that represents CÉGEP students, voted on the deal this week.


FECQ says 83 per cent rejected the agreement, with the majority requesting clarification on some of the deal's points.


The federation that represents university students – the FEUQ – has also rejected the offer.


FEUQ president Martine Desjardins says more than 260,000 voted against it this week.


She says members will meet tonight to discuss ways to get back to the negotiating table.


On Thursday, student group CLASSE rejected the tuition increase offer.


Meanwhile, student leaders spent part of Friday at the Montreal courthouse, to condemn injunctions being filed by students who want to return to their studies.


Student leaders say the injunctions are ineffective and a waste of taxpayers' money.


As the "red-square" student tuition protest movement its fourth month, a counter-movement calling for peace is drawing high-profile support.


A group of Quebec doctors has called for a resolution to the tuition fee conflict between students and the government.


More than 50 physicians have joined the "white-square" movement, which they say they formed out of concern for the physical safety of student protesters.


Former Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe has signed the group's petition and endorsed its message via social media on Friday.


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  • When Police And Students Clash

    Students protesting against tuition hikes battle with Quebec Provincial Police at the Lionel Groulx college Tuesday, May 15, 2012 in Ste. Therese, Quebec.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

  • When Police And Students Clash

    Police unmask a student after arresting him during a protest against tuition hikes, Tuesday, May 15, 2012 in downtown Montreal.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

  • A riot police officer takes down a student during a protest against tuition hikes at the Tuesday, May 15, 2012 in downtown Montreal.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

  • When Police And Students Clash

    Two riot police officers tackle a demonstrator Friday, May 4, 2012 in Victoriaville, Quebec. Provincial police say a riot in small-town Quebec last week was the most violent protest they've seen in more than a decade and insist their response was a measured one. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

  • When Police And Students Clash

    Police hold back students who want to attend class from entering CEGEP Lionel Groulx in Ste. Therese, Que., Monday, May 14, 2012, as striking students block the entrance. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

  • When Police And Students Clash

    Demonstrators break though a barrier as Provincial police officers stand by outside the Quebec Liberal Party meeting on Friday, May 4, 2012 Victoriaville, Quebec. A violent standoff erupted on the streets of a small city where Quebec's governing party was holding its weekend convention, as protesters and provincial police rained physical abuse on each other Friday.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

  • Provincial police officers confront protesters during a student demonstration outside the Quebec Liberal Party meeting Friday, May 4, 2012 Victoriaville, Quebec. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

  • When Police And Students Clash

    Riot police move in on protesters during an anti-capitalist rally in Montreal, Tuesday, May 1, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

  • When Police And Students Clash

    CREDIT: Yves Charlebois, Huffington Post Quebec

  • When Police And Students Clash

    CREDIT: Yves Charlebois, Huffington Post Quebec

  • When Police And Students Clash

    CREDIT: Yves Charlebois, Huffington Post Quebec

  • When Police And Students Clash

    CREDIT: Yves Charlebois, Huffington Post Quebec

  • When Police And Students Clash

    CREDIT: Yves Charlebois, Huffington Post Quebec

  • When Police And Students Clash

    CREDIT: Yves Charlebois, Huffington Post Quebec

  • When Police And Students Clash

    CREDIT: Yves Charlebois, Huffington Post Quebec

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The votes are in, and all three of the largest student groups in Quebec have rejected the tentative agreement reached with the Liberal government last weekend. Eighteen studen...
The votes are in, and all three of the largest student groups in Quebec have rejected the tentative agreement reached with the Liberal government last weekend. Eighteen studen...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
All Seeing Guy
Center of the storm
08:03 PM on 05/14/2012
"Student leaders say the injunctions are ineffective and a waste of taxpayers' money."

Taxpayers say same about students, while sweeping up broken glass.
yer
Stop the Alberta Taliban
05:18 AM on 05/14/2012
and all fighting for the green squares
09:18 PM on 05/13/2012
Looks like to me that we may finally have in the making ,Canadians with backbone . Got to be proud because these students are a picture of our country's future. If our future is made up of those that are willing to stand eye to eye with the government failures then the future will be a little brighter for us all .
08:07 PM on 05/13/2012
The government is just a little ahead of the students they understand with the Tories open door policy for anyone to invest/steal Canadian resources without having to guarantee Value added jobs in this country there will be no jobs for the students to go to after they get educated so the RefoormCons know this is the only way that they will ever be able to recover their educational investment. Harpo Strikes again.
Wonder Land
...Words Matter
03:42 PM on 05/12/2012
OMG !! With all due respect I think we can do without the illustrious Gilles Duceppe piling on with all his separatist crap. Here we go, Gilles and Pauline working in tandem. One with a little
red square and one with a little white square, that way they cover all the bases. Does anybody else remember their pledge a while back. When they pledged to work together to create the infamous "conditions gagnantes". Back off, M. Duceppe, back off.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
okgranny
Egalitarian by birth
02:26 PM on 05/12/2012
The billions spent on jets, jails and corporate subsidies would finance a world class educational system free to qualified students which would make us a far better society.
If government is a reflection of the people then we have become small minded, mean spirited, hypocritical liars and cheats.
05:03 PM on 05/12/2012
Honestly, what is a world class education? Would you finance unlimited studies in French literature or advanced basket weaving? The latter may prove to be more useful. Just look south and you will find about 35,000 PhDs on food stamps, as well as hundreds of thousands of graduates with Master degrees also on food stamps. Chairman Mao was right, but Charest is too much of a sissy to make it happen. Send the elitist intelligiensia up north to labor camps and they would all learn about economics and real life.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
okgranny
Egalitarian by birth
09:45 PM on 05/13/2012
Some of the most enlightened minds in history like Confucius, the Buddha, Jesus, Ghandi, Mandela, etc have taught that ultimate value lies in peace, tolerance and forgiveness.
I work hard to align my thinking with these minds rather than the minds of history's villains like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, Hussein, etc. If I believed in satan, these would be my nominations.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
piceaglauca
The picture says it all....
10:16 AM on 05/12/2012
It would be more effective to totally ignore them. Let them fail their year and give refunds where applicable. Eventually their resources and energy would dry up and they would break down and go back home. Too many people are paying too much attnetion to what could more easily managed. Newspapers could for example put their stories near the comics. Anyways the student leaders have been caught up in the rush of things, they didn't expect the student respnse, they don't really have an agenda and now they don't know how to direct their new found power.
10:08 AM on 05/12/2012
Hunh, are they on strike and denying their labour to the company? What leverage do they have other than mischief?
10:06 AM on 05/12/2012
Whiners, all. Poor darlings... get an extra job... take a year off between academic years, to earn money. Where is it written that money should be "manufactured" to send you to University. Grow up.

Can't tell me that many of these demonstrators, the always-on-strike-about-something workers in France, the violence-inciting thugs at the G20 and the 70's Quebec terrorists aren't cut from the same "entitled" cloth.
11:56 AM on 05/12/2012
It is called rights. Something the GOP has worked 30+ years to diminish here in the USA. Instead of slamming them, you should walk away with a lesson that government is supposed to work for the people, not the corporations. Typical tea bag response.
09:00 PM on 05/12/2012
I'm a pro-Obama Canadian and you don't know what you're talking about.

If you knew just a bit about Quebec history, you'd realize that firstly, Canada has a strong Charter of Rights and Freedoms and secondly, that the Quebecois are never satisfied.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Kristopher Leang
training to take down the elite
12:31 AM on 05/13/2012
wow your so dumb its unbelievable...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Warren Yuill
Jesus Built My Hot-Rod
08:31 AM on 05/12/2012
Ok, so now what?
I was watching a video when the leaders of this student movement were being asked how they were able to mobilize such a large group of people.
They started in the the whole true democracy thing and were quite taken with their own success.
So.....after all the BS and negotiations ect there is no cohesive demands or agreement on behalf of the students.
So......now what?
I don't understand what they want.
I don't understand what they hope to achieve.
Quebec only has so much money.
A lot of it is being spent on this.
09:34 AM on 05/12/2012
That's what happens when half of them are supposedly part of CLASSE, whose goal seems to be to scream NON! at any offer then threaten/cause violence if the government doesn't cave in to giving them free university/college.

Eventually someone will get killed because of this stupidity and the student leaders should be held responsible for it when that happens.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Capital Ottawa
08:02 AM on 05/13/2012
The students will be successful in their endeavor of capping tuition rates if their protests remain peaceful. Charest will not negotiate with the students. He is working hard to garner public support by labelling the students as violent, vandals who are tarnishing Montreal's image and harming it's economy. Looking at recent headlines, his campaign seems successful, but the fact remains, he has not offered the students anything which would bring this strike to an end. If the students can remain peaceful in their demonstrations and get their message out, this summer at the height of festival season they will have an opportunity to show the public that Charest refuses to negotiate and won't. It will become clear that someone else will have to brought in to solve the problem... at this very moment, Charest will change his tune to save his own skin and a solution will be found... Charest has the power to end this strike now but chooses instead to play politics.
07:56 AM on 05/12/2012
I heartily endorse their right and desire to stay away from classes as long as they please.

Preferably forever.
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wisdom4you
wisdom is/ = alter ego perspectives :-)
02:10 PM on 05/12/2012
harley, nobody cares what you endorse.
06:40 AM on 05/12/2012
stand strong students !!

you're showing canadians how to stand up to corporate tyranny

hey stephen harper, you watching this?

the people are getting angry
08:30 AM on 05/12/2012
No they're showing Canadians how wrong they are.

Real students would have just worked those extra few hours to cover the extra costs. A real student union would have worked to figure out how they could cut costs in their universities to negate the increase, worked to help their province find the money and show that the education system is important the way it is.

Then again a real government shouldn't bow down to any form of terrorist demands and tack on extra fees to cover the damage done by the "Violence is our solution" declarations and actions of CLASSE. (Because real students who cared would crack down and report anyone who detracted from their message with violence).

The people are getting angry.... at the students. And if you've lost that court of public opinion then you've already lost the war.
12:09 PM on 05/12/2012
young people are the future
education should be a right not only for those that can afford it

perhaps you don't remember how inexpensive post secondary education was back in your day, but I do

seems that politicians today are afraid of an educated electorate

Vive les edutiants !
12:32 PM on 05/12/2012
Yeah. At the students. For being stupid.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
King Stevie Harper
08:55 PM on 05/11/2012
Reform school is free!
07:40 PM on 05/11/2012
I have to say that I am ashamed to say that I am originally from Quebec. The students have gone to far. Now they are putting the people lives in danger, with their smoke bombs in the tunnel, urinating on reporters just to name a few. Instead of protesting for their college tuition, why don't you protest against being part of this beautiful country. SEPERATE. This way Canada will not have to be embaressed any longer. Other provinces like Alberta who gives Quebec 8 Billion dollars a year, so that you have cheap day care ($7.00 per day), husband getting paid to stay home after the birth of a child and I beleive its for at least one year, just to name a few. We do not need to support people who don't want to help themselves. We don't need a bunch of spoiled brats wanting everything for free. Canada don't want you.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
ljkcan
I don't let geographical borders limit my thinking
09:56 PM on 05/11/2012
I agreed with the have gone to far but you lost me at "Canada does not want you". I am from Quebec I suppose a little bit of me will always still think of it as home.
11:20 PM on 05/11/2012
I guess we agree on one point ! We don't want to be part of Canada either.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
PiperSniper
11:11 AM on 05/12/2012
Pray tell, where would you go?