Unlimited 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.
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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.
Students Target Quebec Economy
Refusing to let their strike falter after 22 March’s momentous day of action, and concluding that economic pressure is the only kind to which the Charest government will respond, students have continued to take the streets over the past two weeks, conducting daily actions designed to interrupt the flows of capital that sustain the state and the private sector. CLASSE has supported the strategy, calling for successive weeks of locally organized economic disruptions in order to raise the pressure on the government, which has so far refused to negotiate on the issue of the tuition hike.
Actions have targeted sites tied to the governance of postsecondary education, such as the Federation of Cégeps, occupied by students on 26 March, as well as state-owned corporations like the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ). Students blockaded the SAQ head office on 27 March and its Montreal distribution center on 5 April. Access to the Port of Montreal was blocked for a second time in less than a week on 28 March. Private-sector targets have included a National Bank shareholders’ meeting, interrupted in the Queen Elizabeth Hotel on 4 April, and an office tower housing a number of companies linked to the Plan Nord, which was briefly blockaded the morning of 2 April.
On 29 March, students organized a “Grande Mascarade,” consisting of four simultaneous demonstrations that wound through downtown Montreal, with most participants masked, in response to the recent crackdown by police and city officials on protesters concealing their identity.
After a long weekend’s pause, students will resume economic disruptions Tuesday.
Read MoreOver 200,000 March Against Hike, Port Blockaded in Day of Action
Over 200,000 students from across Quebec descended on Montreal today for a march that stretched for 1.5 km and paralyzed the downtown core for more than 4 hours. In numbers, it was the largest protest in Quebec history and the largest student protest ever in North America. Organizers of the march included CLASSE and the student federations, FEUQ and FECQ. No violence was reported, as riot police kept their distance from the marchers. No arrests have been confirmed.
The day of mass protest began with economic disruption early this morning as around 100 students blocked an entry to the Port of Montreal in the east end of the city. Riot police intervened, dispersing the crowd.
The student strike is now the largest in Quebec history, with 308,723 students participating. Close to 200,000 of these have unlimited strike mandates.
Students plan on raising the pressure on the Quebec government starting next Monday. CLASSE has called for a week of disruptive actions that will directly affect the economic levers of Quebec society.
Read MoreCREPUQ Occupied; Student Loses Eye to SPVM Stun Grenade
Riot police responded to a student protest on Sherbrooke just east of McGill Wednesday with baton strikes, pepper spray, and stun grenades, injuring around 20. A student from Cégep de St-Jerôme has lost the use of one eye after being hit by shrapnel from a stun grenade thrown directly into a crowd of demonstrators by the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM). He remains hospitalized.
Around 100 students had occupied the lobby of the Loto-Québec building, where the offices of the Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec (CREPUQ) are located. The CREPUQ has been among the most vocal proponents of tuition hikes in Quebec. Around 800 more demonstrated peacefully outside.
Dozens of riot police moved in and charged at the assembled students. Some were thrown to ground; others were hit by batons and pepper spray. Police launched at least a dozen stun grenades, many directly into the crowd of students. Shrapnel from one grenade struck a student in the right eye, severely injuring him. Police reportedly refused to help him when he asked for an ambulance to be called. An SPVM spokesperson said the intervention was necessary because students had not told the police the route of their march.
In response to the police violence, enraged students took to the streets after night fell, marching from Berri-UQAM metro to the SPVM headquarters on St-Urbain, where some protesters tried to break the building’s windows with a metal barricade. Demonstrators continued through the downtown core, overturning trash cans, spraying graffiti on police cars, and smashing the windows of at least one SPVM van. Riot police arrived, blocking off St-Denis as the march returned to Berri-UQAM for a candlelight vigil.
But the night was not over for the SPVM; riot police forcefully dispersed the vigil, pushing students to the ground and making two arrests.
Montreal’s annual demonstration against police brutality will go forward on Thursday, March 15.
Read MoreAUS Strike General Assembly
McGill Arts undergraduates vote on an unlimited general strike.
Read MoreConcordia Joins Unlimited General Strike, Now 100,000 Strong
Six Concordia student associations, representing 6,380 students, voted Wednesday and Thursday for an unlimited general strike, marking the entry of anglophone campuses into the Quebec-wide movement. Nearly 116,000 students across the province now have strike mandates, with 25,500 of those awaiting an initiation date. According to the CLASSE, around 60,000 more have strike votes planned.
The Women’s Studies Student Association spearheaded the events at Concordia, voting unanimously in favor of a strike at a General Assembly Wednesday afternoon. Geography, urban planning, philosophy, and political science students, as well as the 3,700-member Fine Arts Student Alliance, have since joined them. The CSU, representing all Concordia undergrads, votes March 7 on a renewable strike.
In the last unlimited general student strike, in 2005, no anglophone associations participated, but this year has seen unprecedented mobilization at Concordia, McGill, and anglophone Cégeps such as Dawson and Vanier. McGill’s Arts Undergraduate Society, numbering 7,515 students, will vote on Tuesday, March 13.
Francophone and anglophone organizers have sought to bridge the traditional divide between their campuses, collaborating on events like 2 February’s march, entitled “Don’t Fuck with Notre Éducation,” as well as Wednesday’s rally for free education at McGill, which drew dozens of striking students from UQAM and Cégep du Vieux-Montréal.
Read MoreOpen Forum on the Student Strike at McGill
Over 65,000 students across Quebec are currently participating in an unlimited general strike to block the Charest government’s planned tuition hike. In coming days and weeks, McGill students will have the chance to vote in General Assemblies on whether to join the movement.
This open forum is a space to exchange information, ask questions, discuss, and debate. Are you unsure of your stance on the tuition hike? Confused about how a strike actually works? Want to learn about the effects of a strike on your semester? Representatives of strike mobilization committees in different faculties as well as students from universities already on strike will be in attendance to respond to your questions.
Already support or oppose the student strike? Come and have your voice heard.
Refreshments will be provided.
The venue is wheelchair-accessible. If you have other accessibility needs, such as childcare or whisper translation, please contact external@ssmu.mcgill.ca at least 24 hours in advance.
Read MoreSWSA Strike General Assembly
McGill social work undergrads vote on joining the unlimited general strike against the tuition hike.
Read MoreStudent Movement Opposition Exposed
The Mouvement des étudiants socialement responsables du Québec (Quebec Movement of Socially Responsible Students; MESRQ), an organization that supports the tuition hike and opposes the general strike, is facing heat from media and student groups over revelations that some of its spokespersons and leading members are tied to the governing Liberal Party of Quebec.
On its Facebook group and website, the MESRQ has represented itself as a movement of independent students in favor of the Liberal government’s planned $1625 increase in tuition. But photos circulated Wednesday on social media reveal two of the group’s spokespersons, Marc-Antoine Morin and Jean-François Trudelle, are in fact members of the Quebec Liberal Party and hold leading positions in its Montreal youth wing. La Presse reports that a third head of the MESRQ, Arielle Grenier, was also recently active with the Quebec Liberals. In the past week, the MESRQ leaders have appeared in a number of televised interviews in which they made no mention of their Liberal Party ties.
The controversy deepened on Thursday, when another photo was made public showing Education Minister Line Beauchamp meeting with MESRQ spokesman Morin. The day before, Beauchamp claimed she had never met with members of the MESRQ. In addition, the Journal de Montréal reports MESRQ representatives attended a private meeting several weeks ago with Finance Minister Raymond Bachand, to discuss the tuition hike.
While the individuals implicated have denied any impropriety, student representatives across Quebec say the revelations seriously jeopardize the MESRQ’s credibility. “I find it deplorable that a student group claiming neutrality is in fact run by Quebec Liberal Party activists,” said Léo Bureau-Blouin, President of the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec. In a press release, the Fédération des associations étudiantes du campus de l’Université de Montréal (FAÉCUM) called on Minister Beauchamp to condemn the “dishonest practice[s]” of the MESRQ.
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