Tuition hike cancelled, part of law 12 repealed

Pauline Marois announced this afternoon that her newly sworn-in minority government used its power by decree to cancel the intended tuition hike and repeal the part of Law 12 (also known as Bill 78) which restricted right to protest. The sections of the law that deal with the timing of the Winter and Fall 2012 semesters in striking schools will remain in place.

Quebec base tuition will remain at $2168 for the current academic year. Furthermore, the $39 million increase in student aid which was implemented by the Liberals will stay, at least for now.

The next step for the PQ government to decide how it will finance education into the future will be a summit on education, likely to be held in the next few months. Details of that summit have not come out yet. Current speculation is that the PQ will index tuition to inflation, and although that would be a significantly smaller increase, it does not take into account the fact that the wages of many students are not increasing at the same rate.

The FEUQ is celebrating this as a victory, and has made it clear that they believe that the fight is now over. In fact, Martine Desjardins described it as a “new era of collaboration instead of confrontation.”

CLASSE, on the other hand, is considerably more cautious in celebrating. They are advocating for completely free education, which will be the theme for the next major ’22nd’ demonstration on Saturday beginning at 2 pm at Parc Lafontaine.

More details as things develop.

Pauline Marois: Tuition hike to be cancelled, Law 12 will be repealed

Earlier this afternoon, Pauline Marois announced that one of her first acts as the new Premier of Quebec will be to cancel the proposed tuition hike and repeal law 12/78. Marois became the first female premier of Quebec in yesterday’s election, with 54 PQ seats as a slim minority over the Liberals’ 50. She announced that in order to cancel the tuition hike she will use an order-in-council, a form of goverment decree, since she can’t expect majority support in the National Assembly. The CAQ, which had a position to hike tuition by $200 per year over 5 years, is the third party with 19 seats and therefor can hold the balance of power for either the PQ or the Liberals, but is closer policy-wise to the Liberals. Quebec Solidaire now has 2 seats, as co-spokesperson Francoise David was elected along with Amir Khadir.

Along with that announcement, Marois reiterated her commitment to holding a summit on education, after which the potential need for a tuition hike will be discussed. The PQ had proposed in their election platform to index tuition to inflation, which is a significantly smaller increase per year, but nonetheless can be a burden since wages that students earn do not increase at the same rate. Further updates will come as more news comes out.

University return: Riot Police at UdeM

Monday, August 27 marked the first day back to class for departments on strike at Université Laval, UQAM and Université de Montreal, as ordered under Law 12. Associations at both UQAM and UdeM had voted to continue the strike, so students showed up to prevent classes from happening. However, the reaction on each campus was very different, so two seperate articles have been written.

~~~~~~~

Monday morning at Université de Montreal where associations representing several thousand members had voted to continue the strike, a group of students showed up to help enforce it. However, in a very different situation from that at UQAM, the university administration gave first their security guards, and then the police, the mandate to prevent classes from being stopped.

At first, a group of strike enforcers who went into a class to shut it down were prevented from leaving by campus security. Doezens of police, including the riot squad, showed up outside. In total, 19 people were held in relation to Law 12. One other was arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer. Police also physically blocked students from going into some parts of the buildings, and stood outside the doors to classrooms to ensure that they wouldn’t be disrupted.

Tuesday morning was a similar situation, as people once again arrived to continue the strike. The police again were called to campus, although the university administration has said that it was not them who called. This time 11 people were arrested, and 10 of them were charged, most of them for assault on police officers. In the afternoon a demonstration was called against the presence of police on campus and in support of the associations that had voted to continue the strike, and the police were present. At least 5 people were arrested.

Wednesday the administration announced that classes were cancelled for the rest of the week, and because of Labour Day and courses cancelled for the election on Tuesday, they are supposed to begin again Wednesday morning.

University return: Classes at UQAM disrupted

Monday, August 27 marked the first day back to class for departments on strike at Université Laval, UQAM and Université de Montreal, as ordered under Law 12. Associations at both UQAM and UdeM had voted to continue the strike, so students showed up to prevent classes from happening. However, the reaction on each campus was very different, so two seperate articles have been written.

~~~~~~~

At UQAM, students in the faculties of Arts (AFEA-UQAM) and Social Sciences (AFESH-UQAM) and the department for political science had voted to continue the strike. Monday morning a group arrived to enforce the strike and made their way through the campus, using class disruption rather than hard pickets as their method of choice. Campus security guards observed the events, but did not intervene to prevent any disruptions themselves.

By the end of the day, reports from the associations said that over 90% of the courses had been stopped.

The week before, SPUQ, the professors union at UQAM voted in favour of a resolution inviting them to not teach their classes if the class environment was unfavourable for learning, such as if no students were present or if there wasn’t an appropriate level of calm. The result of this was that many classes were completely empty of both teacher and students even before disruptions began, and many of those that did have students in attendance ended quickly once strike enforcement arrived.

Tuesday the situation was much the same, with classes either empty or successfully disrupted. 50 were cancelled because no one showed up. Later that day, however, AFESH-UQAM held a general assembly on whether to continue the strike. 51.9% of just under 1000 assembled students voted to go back to class the next day.

Wednesday AFEA-UQAM and the political science department remained on strike, and once again classes were either empty or disrupted. However, by this point the administration of UQAM had indicated that although they would not call police on to campus to enforce Law 12, they were filing a complaint with the police against the individuals enforcing the strike and would be making use of the photos and video taken of disruptions from the previous days.

Beginning tomorrow (September 5), many associations will be holding general assemblies to assess the situation following the results of the provincial election. A full list can be found here: http://www.bloquonslahausse.com/

The resolution passed by SPUQ can be found here: http://www.spuq.uqam.ca/documents/fr/file/%20ResoVotee_Conditions%20enseignement.pdf

August 22nd Demo: Movement is Alive and Well

Despite a serious reduction in number of students on unlimited strike as CEGEPs went back to class this week, the August 22 demonstration in Montreal indicated that the movement is far from dead. Indeed, many of the CEGEPs had voted for a one-day strike, and several of their administrations cancelled classes rather than have confrontations around picket lines.

Tens of thousands of people again took the streets, and estimates pin it at up to 100 000. Some political party signs were present, particularly Parti Quebecois and Quebec Solidaire. However, some of the strongest messaging was against the election itself: it’s timing, and the lack of attention that has so far been givent to the student conflict, particularly in the leader’s debate on Sunday night. Despite Charest’s continued lack of respect for the movement, particularly in his association of Pauline Marois with ‘the street’ as a way to attack her legitimacy as a political leader, it is clear that Quebec citizens are expressing their discontent in ways far beyond electoral signs and the ballot box. Indeed, many in the crowd cheered as election signs were removed from poles as the demonstration moved through the city.

It remains to be seen what will be the result of this election, but it is obvious that t

Source: GlobalMontreal

he red square is not going away any time soon.

PQ Invites Students not to Pay Tuition Until After Election

Marie Malavoy, spokesperson for the Parti Quebecois on education issues, is suggesting that students not pay tuition until after the election.

As students at McGill may know, the university has already added the proposed tuition increase to the bills for the Fall semester, to be paid on August 31. This despite the current election campaign, and the very real possibility that the Liberals will fall from power.

The Parti Quebecois, which has promised to cancel the proposed tuition hike, at least until it hosts a summit on education to determine the necessity of an increase, is currently leading in the polls and could form the next government. This morning their spokesperson on education, Marie Maravoy, suggested that students not pay their Fall tuition until after the results of the election are announced on September 4.

A spokesperson for McGill, Julie Fortier, responded by saying that students could use the additional amount as credit for the next semester if the situation changes. However, for students who are working in order to pay their tuition, the additional amount is not only an extra burden, but one that could be used to pay for other things well before the Winter semester, such as rent, transport, books, groceries or utilities.  Additionally, students completing their degree in the Fall semester may have to go through a complicated process in order to get that money back.

Laval University, on the other hand, bills students in the middle of September, and will therefor be able to make their adjustment following the election without any complications.

Cégeps vote to return to class, strike August 22nd

On Friday, CEGEP du Vieux-Montreal and CEGEP Saint-Laurent voted to go back to class in general assemblies that lasted the whole day, and in doing so ended the last unlimited strike mandates held by any CEGEP. This was the second general assembly that each association held since the provincial election call and in the context of being ordered back to class by Law 12, also known as Bill 78. Previously, both had voted in favour of continuing the strike in GAs held the week before, but then chose to hold a second meeting after receiving petitions requesting the mandate be revisited. However, both voted to strike for the day of August 22, along with CEGEPs Bois-de-Boulogne, Rosemont, Maisonneuve, Ahuntsic and Edouard-Montpetit, which had already voted to end their unlimited strikes. They also both will hold GAs to revisit the question in the days following the provincial election.

At the time of writing, 96 university associations are still on strike, representing just over 60 000 students.  Over 11 000 of those have had general assemblies since the election call in which they voted to continue their unlimited strike. Many more have general assemblies coming up this week, so these numbers will be updated as the days progress. For a full list, consult http://www.bloquonslahausse.com/

Photo:  La Presse/Le Soleil

Students demonstrated their support for the strike outside CEGEP Vieux-Montreal Friday morning

CEGEPs, Universities Voting Whether to Continue Strike

Students demonstrate in front of Cegep du Vieux-Montreal beforStudents demonstrate in front of Cegep du Vieux-Montreal before their general assembly on Monday (courtesy: Radio-Canada)

As of noon on Aug 14, 2 of 7 Cegeps conducting strike votes had voted to renew. Cegep du Vieux-Montreal, which held their general assembly on Monday evening, voted in favour of continuing their strike mandate to be on strike until free education is achieved. They are scheduled to go back to class on Friday, August 17.
Cegep de Saint-Laurent also renewed their strike mandate in a vote held last Saturday morning. Their condition for striking is a strike floor of 20 000 other students. They are also scheduled to go back to class on Friday.
Four other Cegeps voted to go back to class in their recent general assemblies, at least for the time being. Cegep de Saint-Jerome voted to suspend their strike during the election, with the intent to hold another vote after September 4 depending on the results.
Cegeps Valleyfield, Andre-Laurendeau, Edouard-Montpetit, Marie-Victorin and Maisonneuve all voted to go back to class.
Today, Cegeps Lionel-Groulx and Montmorency will vote on whether to continue, and Thursday Bois-de-boulogne, Ahuntsic, Rosemont and St-Hyacinthe will have their GAs.

On the university side, Social Work students at Universite de Montreal have voted to continue the strike, as did graduate students in Anthropology. Communications grad students at Universite de Sherbrooke voted to continue as well. At UQAM, students in Arts and in Humanities are still on strike and voted to agree with the fact that CLASSE’s demands of the strike have not been met. Students in Humanities there will vote on the strike on August 23. Students at Universite Laval, on the other hand, have also chosen to suspend the strike during the election.

A more comprehensive list of general assemblies, dates of return, and associations still on strike can be found at http://www.bloquonslahausse.com/.

Information on contesting tickets

Information for anyone wishing to contest a ticket in relation to demonstrations in Montreal – from lawyer Denis Poitras:
1)    Contest your ticket by signing it, indicating the date and checking “not guilty”. Don’t write anything else, no explanations, don’t indicate a motive (this will help better prepare any legal proceedings). (more…)

Quebec Education Minister resigns as strike continues

Quebec’s Education Minister Line Beauchamp resigned today as the strike against tuition fee increases entered its 14th week. She was replaced shortly afterwards by former Education Minister Michelle Courchesne. (more…)