Last week, over 40,000 students throughout Quebec went on strike to protest the provincial government’s decision to defreeze tuition for the fi rst time in 13 years. Québec’s tuition fees are set to rise by $50 per semester for the next fi ve years.
The Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante called a three-day strike after failing to get support for an extended one. ASSÉ, who since its foundation in 2001 has advocated for free tuition, is considered an extremist organization by some.
Though ASSÉ called the week a success, two alarming incidents left the strongest mark on the minds of many Québecois. On Monday, Nov. 12, police stormed the Hubert-Aquin building at the University du Québec à Montréal to break up a student demonstration. Three students were arrested after political science professor Claude Corbo called police, when 60 students tried to end a lecture he was giving. The three students were released hours later.
“He was breaking our strike,” one protester said, “We just wanted to talk to him.”
The following day, over 350 students staged a bed-in at the CÉGEP du Vieux Montréal. Police, called by school administrators, stormed the building through alternate doors and a broken window. In the resulting chaos, students were tasered and pepper-sprayed, and 105 of them were arrested and face charges including public mischief, assault and battery, and armed assault.
Between the bed-in and police action, the building took over $100,000 worth of damage. “[The events that night] were normal…the kind of activity which happens in every union movement.” Marc-André Faucher, a spokesperson for the school and information secretary for ASSÉ, told Montréal paper the Suburban.
Yves de Repentigny, the secretary general of the schools teacher’s union, Le Syndicat des Professeurs du Cégep du Vieux Montréal, said that the school’s administration handled the situation poorly. “They should let the students do their bed-in. Otherwise you’re in for a mess. That’s exactly what happened” she told the Gazette.
ASSÉ was quick to accuse Montreal riot police of conducting “savage interventions.” ASSÉ official Hubert Gendron-Blais addressed the crowd and said, “Police brutality is no way to treat those who dare to fight for social change.”
McGill, Dawson, and Concordia sent delegations to a downtown demonstration of Thursday, Nov. 15 that was the centerpiece of the week’s events. Over 2,000 students marched through downtown Montreal in the cold rainy weather. The next morning around 100 students, most from UQÀM, protested inside the lobby of the Montreal Stock Exchange Tower. Only about 20 students braved the cold to protest outside of the Bibliothèque National.
Although not officially affiliated with ASSÉ, McGill students showed their support throughout the week. A vote for a strike failed after the Students’ Society of McGill University failed to reach quorum. Of those who did attend, over 70 per cent voted for a “motion of support and solidarity.”
“Students would be more open and less angry about a defreeze of tuition fees if it was going to solve the underfunding of our universities,” said Max Silverman, VP external of the Student Society of McGill University.
“Even in five years from now when fees will be $500 more a year than they are now […] the underfunding is estimated at minimum of $350 million,” he said.
Silverman said the Quebec government has the resources to implement a free system of education, but lacks the political will.
ASSÉ is currently working on plans of action for next semester while the Quebec branch of CFS remains paralyzed by a court order. The federation’s provincial chapter was shut down in September over a bitter election dispute.
In the meantime the Quebec government refuses to negotiate with the protesters. “The comment is that there is no comment,” said Stephanie Tremblay, spokesperson for the Québec Ministry of Education
