Anti-Hikes Coalition Blockades Skyscraper
Several hundred protesters blocked access to downtown Montreal’s stock exchange tower this morning in opposition to the austerity agenda of the Quebec government. The action was organized by the Coalition opposée à la tarification et à la privatisation des services publics in collaboration with unions and other groups to demand the withdrawal of the planned tuition hike, health tax, and electricity rate hike.
For the students, workers, and unemployed present at the action, it is clear that these policies are components of a single agenda that places the burden of a weak economy on those who can least bear it, while asking little to nothing of the wealthy and the corporate sector. There are no plans to raise Quebec’s corporate capital gains tax rate of 0%.
After disrupting the beginning of the workday in the heart of the Financial District, demonstrators moved to extend the blockade to the nearby Delta Hotel, where tensions with police escalated. Police used pepper spray on protesters and made four arrests.
Read MoreUnlimited Student Strike Begins
The first wave of the unlimited student strike to block the Quebec government’s planned tuition hike has begun. On Monday, February 13, fine-arts students at UQAM in addition to social work and graduate sociology students at Université Laval initiated strike action. They were joined on Tuesday by five other student associations at UQAM and ULaval, bringing to 11,440 the number of students with strike mandates.
Tuesday afternoon, around 500 striking students marched through downtown Montreal to mark the strike’s debut. The march visited McGill, chanting UQAM, McGill, même combat! (“same struggle”) and picking up demonstrators along the way.
The march stopped in front of the James Administration building, where a UQAM student addressed the crowd with a megaphone, noting the intervention days earlier of police on McGill’s campus for the second time in three months to expel protestors. “No matter where you go – UQAM, McGill – the police always come to clamp down on those who demonstrate for their rights,” he said.
The strike is expected to grow exponentially in coming weeks. Ten thousand students will begin strike action Monday, February 20, and at least 66,000 more have strike votes scheduled.
Read MoreStudents Take to the Streets
Around 30,000 students from across Quebec marched through the streets of Montreal on November 10th to protest the tuition hikes planned by the Charest government.
Both participants in the rally and student union representatives agreed that while the march sent a clear message – it was the largest student action by far since the 2005 province-wide student strike – that alone it will not cause Quebec Premier Jean Charest to back down. While most people were understandably vague about what would come next, the crowd erupted in cheers when a representative from the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSE) called for an unlimited general student strike this winter.
Check out the full story here: http://freeeducationmontreal.org/?p=2698
Read MoreSSMU statement re: November 10th
Photo Credit: McGill Daily
The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) releases a statement on the presence of riot police on McGill’s downtown campus after the November 10th Quebec-wide demonstration against tuition hikes:
SSMU provides their understanding of what happened, along with video clips and links to resources for anybody who needs support.
Read More
Fight Tuition Hikes!
Great new website launched by Quebec students to fight tuition hikes! Check it out here:
http://www.quebectuitionfees.ca/
Read MoreDemonstration on November 10th – March with us!
What is the value of a university education?
To contribute to the betterment of society…
or
to earn a marketable diploma and make money?
The Quebec government is choosing the latter answer over the first, by raising tuition and by privatizing education.
The Quebec government is proposing to double Quebec fees relative to when it came to power, and is allowing universities to raise fees for students who aren’t from Quebec.
Research shows that up to 7,000 students will be denied access to a university education, because of these fee hikes.
Help turn the tide. Education is a right, not a privilege.
Come demonstrate for accessible education and against tuition fee increases!
WHEN: November 10th, 1 pm
WHERE: McGill contingent meets at the Roddick Gates
WHY: This affects all of us. Each student, no matter where he or she is from, pays a basic amount of tuition. Supplements are added if a student is not from Quebec. Tuition hikes affect every single student – and that’s why we all must stand together to fight for accessible education!
First time going to a protest? Get paired with a protest buddy by sending an email to myprotestbuddy@gmail.com!
Want to make up your own mind? To look at some in-depth studies of the effects of tuition increases, click here.
Read MoreDemonstration on Saturday, October 22nd
Come protest in Quebec City!
The Quebec government has announced that tuition fees will be going up at least 325$ per year for the next five years. Come protest against this policy decision which will make education less accessible and will make our debt loads bigger than ever before!
WHEN: Saturday, OCTOBER 22nd
WHERE: Quebec City
WHAT: Outside the Quebec Liberal Party convention
WHO: Students and citizens from all over Quebec will take part in the demonstration.
Buses will be leaving from the Roddick Gates at 8 am on Saturday, October 22nd, and leaving Quebec City at 3 pm to get back to Montreal in time for supper.
***Book a spot on the bus today by emailing october22.getonthebus@gmail.com!***
Read MoreImportant notice: Government announces tuition hike
The Quebec government has announced it wants to raise tuition fees substantially beginning September 2012.
Last March, the political party governing Quebec announced it would raise the Quebec tuition rate by $1 625 – bringing Quebec tuition from $2 168 to $3 793 by 2017. This would mean a 75% increase in tuition fees in just five years. At the same time, the Quebec government has not made it clear what will happen for the fees paid by students who can’t qualify for the Quebec rate, and already have to pay (tens of ) thousands of dollars more per year for university. (more…)
TUITION HIKES? Here are the facts.
WHAT ARE THE PLANS FOR TUITION FEES?
1. In March 2011, the political party governing Quebec voted to raise the Quebec tuition rate by $1 625 in five years, a raise from $2 168 to $3 793. This is a 75% increase.
2. When this same government came into power 2003, tuition in Quebec was frozen. It pursued its promise to defreeze tuition in 2007, regardless of the massive student strike. Jean Charest’s (the Quebec Prime Minister) government voted to increase tuition by 100$/per year for 5 years, reaching $2 168 in 2012, when this policy is meant to expire. Therefore, under this same government, tuition will have more than DOUBLED by 2017, going from $1 628 to $3 793.
3. Although this is a provincial government decision that will affect mostly Quebec students, out-of-province Canadian students and international students studying in the province of Quebec will also see their tuition increased by this new policy. Out-of-province students’ base fee is the Quebec tuition, and the supplemental fee they pay is an added percentage of this fee; both fees will be increased with this policy. International students in regulated programs also pay the Quebec tuition base fee, and will be forced to pay the planned increase. Therefore, this increase will affect thousands of students more.http://www.mcgill.ca/student-accounts/fees/tuition/
1. When tuition rates increase, post-secondary education becomes inaccessible. During the period between 1989 and 1994, when tuition was “un-frozen”, that is, when tuition increased every year, student enrollment to university decreased for the most part, or stagnated at best.
2. A report commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Leisure and Sports of Quebec in 2007 examined multiple scenarios of tuition increases, and came to the conclusion that tuition increases undermine accessibility to education. In fact, the report concluded that an increase to the Canadian average at the time ($4 893.13), with financial aid and tax credits, would dissuade at least 22 000 students from attending university. According to this, we can expect at least 12,000 students to make the difficult choice of not attending university with the new planned increase. http://www.mels.gouv.qc.ca/sections/modesFinancement/pdf/droits_scolarite.pdf
3. In Quebec, as well as in the rest of Canada, universities are public. But when tuition rates increase, the government backs away from its own public universities. Since 1989, government’s share of university revenues has decreased by more than 30%, to reach the current level of 54% of the share. This new tuition increase will reduce this share to 51%, making Quebec universities almost half private and half public in Quebec. This privatization undermines the welfare model that citizens have worked towards. http://www.cyberpresse.ca/le-soleil/opinions/points-de-vue/201103/30/01-4384785-la-hausse-des-droits-de-scolarite-le-symptome-dune-derive-plus-profonde.php ; http://www.iris-recherche.qc.ca/publications/la_revolution_tarifaire_au_quebec.pdf
4. Reports from Ontario, which, according to Statistics Canada, has the highest tuition in Canada, show that accessibility to education has been greatly affected by their drastic tuition increases since the early 1990s, even if enrolment to universities did not decrease like in Quebec:
a) Data from Statistics Canada shows that from 1992 to 2004, enrolment in programs or courses of study where students that come from low income families decreased. Students in programs like architecture, engineering and business have increased, however, enrolment in programs with a greater share of students that come from less well-off families, such as education (especially) and social sciences, has decreased. Also, there was a very significant decrease in part-time students compared to the rest of Canada. Most of these students study part time because they are obliged to work full time to fill the gap created by the lack of parental financial support.http://www.mels.gouv.qc.ca/sections/modesFinancement/pdf/droits_scolarite.pdf
b) A study on high tuition in Ontarian law schools shows that, even if 30% of every tuition increase goes to financial aid, accessibility was decreased. Between the years of 1997 and 2003, the financial aid policy has helped increase the share of students from the first quintile by 0.5%. However, the share of students in the third quintile, middle income, has decreased from 28.2% to 24%. That is more than a 4% decrease in 6 years. On the other hand, the share of students from the fourth quintile has increased from 27.7% to 33.6%, thus making higher education in these programs more exclusive. Financial aid has therefore only shifted a part of the burden of tuition to the middle class, while privileging even more the most well-off. Additionally, this study shows that only within the four years following the tuition hikes, the share of students whose parents did not have a university diploma decreased by 10%, further proving the new exclusivity of the programs. http://www.ccld-cdfdc.ca/StudyofAccessibility-Report.pdf
d) A study of Ontario Medical Schools has shown that although enrolment did not decrease after massive tuition hikes, the composition of the student body changed drastically. Between 1997 and 2001, the share of students with a family income below $40,000 has decreased from 22.6% to 15%. http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/166/8/1023
5. Tuition hikes increase student debt. This has many consequences. First, it affects accessibility. One fourth of Canadians who chose not to attend university for financial constraints cite student debt as the main reason. Second, student debt negatively affects academic performance, because it impacts students’ mental health and their perseverance. Third, student debt forces students to chose different programs than the one they’ve always hoped for. They will choose a program that appears as being the most profitable once graduated. Finally, it affects the career choice of students after graduation. Studies show that students in very expensive programs, who accumulate high levels of debt, will chose a field that is not their first choice, or move to a place that is not near their home or their place of choice in order to pay off the debt. http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/rspe/UserFiles/File/Class%20of%202003%20Follow-Up%20Survey%20(Summary).pdf ;http://pdfserve.informaworld.com/808590__713623294.pdf ;http://www.mels.gouv.qc.ca/sections/modesFinancement/pdf/droits_scolarite.pdf; http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/166/8/1023
CONCLUSION: Tuition has too many negative effects on accessibility for it to be considered a viable choice.
1. “The government of Quebec is obliged to recognize education as a right, not an economic privilege, by virtue of its commitment to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ratified in 1976. “ Article 13b of the United Nations’ Covenant states that, “Higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education,” echoing and advancing Article 26 of the United Nations’ 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
1. Quebec could completely eliminate tuition fees with an annual budget increase of 0.2% over 10 years. http://www.iris-recherche.qc.ca/publications/gratuite_scolaire_trois_scenarios_d8217application.pdf
1. The Institut de recherche et d’informations socio-économiques (IRIS) has made several suggestions for funding postsecondary education for all in this province including :
a) Eliminating the 2007 personal income tax cut of $950 million while taxing all capital gains, or
b) Increasing the corporate capital tax to 2.4% (capital gains tax in Quebec are of 0% as of this year) and;
c) Increasing the highest personal income tax bracket by 1.4% while budgeting a $13 million surplus.http://www.revenuquebec.ca/en/entreprise/impot/societes/declaration/taxes/reduct_taxe.aspx; http://www.iris-recherche.qc.ca/publications/gratuite_scolaire_trois_scenarios_d8217application.pdf
2. Quebec has the lowest corporate tax rate in North America: 28.40% (the next closest is Ontario with 30.50%).http://www.investquebec.com/en/index.aspx?page=1789
3. The Quebec government has obliterated progressive income taxation which provided it with the revenue necessary to maintain its social programs including postsecondary education. The number of income tax brackets has been decreased from 28 to 3, with the highest income tax rate applying universally to earners of $76 770 or more (i.e. the CEO of the Royal Bank of Canada who reported a salary of $10.4 million in 2009 is taxed at the same rate as the university professor earning $100 000 at the University of Quebec in Rimouski). http://www.revenu.gouv.qc.ca/en/citoyen/impots/rens_comp/taux.aspx ; http://www.livingin-canada.com/salaries-full-professors-canada-q.ht
4. In 2009, the auditor-general revealed that 14 mining companies didn’t pay any dues to the government, while making profits of $4.2billion. Moreover, the royalties for a mining company are around 0.5%, if tax exemptions are taken into account, an outrageously low number. http://www.ledevoir.com/economie/actualites-economiques/industrie-miniere-des-privileges-inalienables
5. The development of a greener economy, as suggested by the United Nations, “would realize per capita incomes higher than under current economic models”, which could be used toward society’s priorities, namely health and education.http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentD=659&ArticleID=6902&I=en&i+long
6. The Quebec Student Roundtable (Table de Concertation Étudiante du Québec) has proposed to the government on December 6, 2010 to add postsecondary education to the already existing health services payroll tax, similar to the one in Newfoundland and Labrador and Manitoba. This small addition would guarantee new funds directly aimed at funding universities.http://www.gov.mb.ca/finance/taxation/taxes/payroll.html ; http://www.fin.gov.nl.ca/fin/tax_programs_incentives/business/education.html
Demonstration for a fair budget
The government claims that we don’t have a choice, that Quebec is in the red, that the population is aging, that we have to cut services, turn to the private sector, reduce social expenses, and add fees across the board.
However, progressive and realist alternatives exist. Solutions that embody the values of solidarity and of wealth sharing. An equitable budget: IT’S A QUESTION OF CHOICES!
Because turning to user fees is an unfair approach that will only increase social inequalities and impoverish the middle class. We say NO to the flat health tax and to tuition hikes!
More equitable measures exist. Why not increase taxes on the personal revenue of the wealthiest? Increase the corporate contribution, particularly the mining ones and the banks, that make billions of profits? Sharing the wealth: IT’S A QUESTION OF CHOICE!
A free and accessible healthcare, the equal access to a quality education, a decent revenue and a good job, gender equality, the protection of the environment, those are OUR RIGHTS! We can preserve them: IT’S A QUESTION OF CHOICE!
Meeting of the McGill contingent Saturday March 12th at 11:30am, in front of the SSMU building, on McTavish.
Demonstrate on March 12th in Montreal! Meeting at Noon, at Place du Canada (Corner Peel and René-Levesque)
REGISTER ON THE FACEBOOK EVENT: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150110831944451&set=a.425995749450.198919.503434450#!/event.php?eid=201723069854344 (more…)
Read More