The student protest movement has been rife with hyperbole and misconstrued comparisons since its inception. Thus, it should in fact come as no surprise that the protesters have now taken to making links between the Montreal police and the Nazi regime. In a picture that went viral, students are shown to be giving the Nazi salute.
Contrary to what is claimed repeatedly in the mainstream press, students are not saying that they should not pay their "fair share" for education and let the province sink into debt. In the context of the strike, where one stands on the above public financing options is certainly important, but it is ultimately of secondary significance.
Two quiet professors in yesterday's Globe and Mail drew upon that rarest resource in opinion writing (actual evidence). They noted one of the great unspoken truths about post-secondary education in Canada: the leading variable determining whether kids attend university or not is usually cultural pressure within one's social class -- not cost. For some reason, asking university-educated journalists to analyze politically active university students rarely yields these sorts of conclusions, however.
Once again, the boycotting students took to the streets of Montreal last night in protest of tuition hikes. Once again, Montrealers are subject to broken glass and a shattered downtown core. And once again, the student leaders of the organization refuse to take any responsibility or action for what they have unleashed on our beautiful city.