Eleven weeks into a series of student-led strikes that have disrupted campuses across Quebec and brought hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets of Montreal over planned tuition increases, student leaders and government officials have begun negotiations in hopes of finding a way out of the impasse.
At issue is a planned 75-percent jump in tuition at Quebec’s public universities, which was unveiled by the provincial government last fall. For students, that would amount to an increase of $1,625 over five years.
The government has made clear that it does not intend to back down. “The real question is the quality of postsecondary education in Quebec,” Premier Jean Charest said several weeks into the strike, which is now the longest student strike in the province’s history. Taxpayers are carrying the biggest share of financing of the province’s universities and colleges, he said. “We’re asking students to assume their fair share.”
The strikes began in mid-February, when students on three campuses voted to boycott classes, then spread throughout the province as student associations organized votes and street protests.
The first serious clash with authorities took place in early March, when police officers in Montreal used tear gas and billy clubs to disperse more than 600 protesters who had tried to enter a building that houses the organization representing university rectors.
There have been several mass protests, in which as many as a 250,000 people participated, and masked anarchists have joined in some of the demonstrations. Tensions came to a head last week when police officers were videotaped using pepper spray and tear gas during a confrontation at Montreal’s convention center, where Premier Charest was speaking.
Representatives of the three student associations that have been leading the strike have now taken places at the negotiating table after agreeing to government demands that they condemn violence and call a 48-hour hiatus from protests. The student representatives will remain at the table “for as long it takes,” a spokesman for one of the associations said.
The strike has the backing of labor unions, the Parti Quebecois, several community groups, and some prominent citizens. But recent polls show that public support for the protesters is falling, perhaps because of the cost to taxpayers. Quebec has the most debt of any province and its residents pay the highest rate of income tax in Canada. The street protests have cost millions in overtime for police officers, especially in Montreal.
Many of the striking students belong to one of three federations or associations—the largest is the Coalition large de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante, or Classé—and voted, often by academic discipline, whether to strike. Most of the strikers come either from public universities or from junior colleges, known in Quebec as Cégeps. (Cégep is a French acronym that translates as College of General and Vocational Education.)
Many students have refused to boycott classses, though, and universities have sought court injunctions to keep protesters from blocking access to campuses.
Quebec’s university students pay the lowest tuition in Canada, at around $2,500, which has led to little sympathy for the strikers among residents of other provinces. The strikers say that their complaint is less about money and more about access: If what is needed in today’s economy is a college or university degree, they say, then it is the public’s obligation to provide such an education free. In response to the government’s concern about balancing the budget, they suggest that university administration could become more efficient. Strikers, for example, have questioned the emphasis on spending money on research instead of teaching.
But some education analysts question the strikers’ contention that raising tuition means decreased access to higher education.
“Put bluntly, that argument is not supported by any evidence,” says Harvey Weingarten, the head of the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, a research agency created by the government of that province. “There’s been a lot of research into that claim but there’s no evidence. Indeed, we’ve found that higher tuition produces higher participation.”
He noted, though, that Quebec is different from the other provinces. Its students can mobilize effectively and essentially shut down sections of universities and the junior colleges—something that isn’t seen in other provinces.
This is the ninth student strike in the provice since 1968, following Quebec’s so-called Quiet Revolution, which ushered in sweeping educational reforms of the church-based educational system. One of the pillars of that reform was a recommendation for the abolition of higher-education fees.
And Cégep, the junior-college system, is unique to Quebec. Attending a Cégep institution is mandatory for most students planning to go on to university. The system also provides technical training for skilled workers, and many employers who depend on the Cégeps for new hires are putting pressure on the government to settle the strike.
While Cégep students pay no tuition, they have been among the most committed in the strike because they will have to pay the increased cost when they move on to university.
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