Categorized Directory

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Search directory
  • Web crawlers
  • Collect data
  • Indexation
  • Bankroll

Categorized Directory

Header Banner

Categorized Directory

  • Home
  • Search directory
  • Web crawlers
  • Collect data
  • Indexation
  • Bankroll
Indexation
Home›Indexation›Allison Hanes: Quebec students should not be underestimated

Allison Hanes: Quebec students should not be underestimated

By Ed Robertson
March 22, 2022
0
0

Breadcrumb Links

  1. Opinion
  2. Columnists

Thousands of college and university students are on strike this week to demand free tuition and other social issues.

Students from all over Quebec march through the streets of Montreal to protest against upcoming tuition fee increases for all CEGEP and university students on March 22, 2012. Photo by Allen McInnis /Montreal Gazette files

Content of the article

It’s a sure sign of spring in Quebec when students come out of the woods and onto the streets of Montreal.

Advertisement 2

This ad has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Content of the article

Timely, thousands of college and university students are striking for the remainder of this week to kick off this annual season of protest.

They will meet at Place du Canada at 1 p.m. Tuesday — 10 years to the day after the biggest event of Maple Spring, the uprising that marked the contemporary history of Quebec. Nearly 100,000 students marched through Montreal that day in 2012 wearing red squares to denounce planned tuition fee hikes and demand the abolition of graduate fees. By the summer, the movement had helped overthrow the Liberal government of Premier Jean Charest after nine years and expressed a deep social malaise that caused ordinary citizens to bang pots and pans every night.

Advertisement 3

This ad has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Content of the article

This time it’s not just about tuition. On Wednesday, the focus will be on internship compensation. On Thursday, students will push back a recent intervention of the Financial Markets Authority to block automatic contributions to student-sponsored insurance plans. (They will also leave Place Émilie Gamelin after dark, following in the footsteps of the students who demonstrated the 50 consecutive nights in 2012, under the traveling spotlight of a police helicopter). And on Friday, students will demand action against the existential threat of the climate crisis, an issue where young people have shown leadership locally and globally beyond their years. They will leave from the Sir Georges-Étienne Cartier monument at 2 p.m.

Advertisement 4

This ad has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Content of the article

“All of these issues go together,” said Jérémie Lamarche, a social work student at Cégep du Vieux Montréal, and one of the thousands who will be on strike this week. “They fall into the category of a social transformation necessary to provide a more secure future for young people.”

Free education is an unfinished business from ten years ago. Education is a right, not a commodity, or so the rallying cry says. Even though the fees in Quebec are still among the lowest in Canada, the price of a diploma has continued to increase over the past 10 years due to indexation. In addition to soaring housing prices and rampant inflation, students say tuition fees remain a significant barrier to post-secondary education for many.

Quebecers pay about $2,700 per year for a full course load. A host of other incidental fees bring the annual cost of higher education closer to $3,500 (not including living expenses). Non-residents of Quebec and international students must pay higher tuition fees. By contrast, the average annual cost of an undergraduate degree in Ontario is nearly $8,000, while in Nova Scotia it is nearly $9,000. The Canadian average hovers around $6,500.

Advertisement 5

This ad has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Content of the article

The issue of unpaid internships required to obtain a degree is related to the cost of post-secondary education. Lamarche said some investments are remunerated, thanks to the generous tax credits the government gives to private companies. But many are not, including those in the public sector, including health and social services. Exacerbating inequalities, unpaid working conditions tend to disproportionately affect female-dominated professions.

It’s not just about the money, Lamarche said. The redeployment of workers within the healthcare system during the pandemic has resulted in the exploitation of many interns who do not have the same protections as regular employees.

“We were valuable members of the team, but we don’t have the same status,” he said. “If we’re not here this week, it will show how important we are.”

Advertising 6

This ad has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Content of the article

In addition to the successes and failures of Maple Spring, whose this week’s protesters are inspired, Montreal students were instrumental in organizing a mobilization of 150,000 people on March 15, 2019. It was one of the largest events organized in the world on this day. The event caught the eye of teenage activist Greta Thunberg, who launched the youth-led climate movement with her own weekly strikes outside Sweden’s parliament. She joined the Montrealers in September of that year for a massive assembly that drew half a million people.

Although the Quebec student movement is highly decentralized, eschewing traditional organizational structures and dispensing with permanent figureheads, it has proven to be a force to be reckoned with.

Advertising 7

This ad has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Content of the article

Although the students did not get everything they asked for, the movement had a disproportionate impact on the 2012 Quebec elections. concerns about the climate emergency in the mainstream. Their influence has moved the needle on public opinion which, in turn, has reshaped the current Quebec government’s response to the impending ecological disaster – but perhaps not as far as some had hoped.

It is difficult to say where the actions of the next few days will lead. But it would be foolish to underestimate the power of Quebec students.

[email protected]om

  1. Greta Thunberg raises her Climate Strike sign during the Montreal march on September 27, 2019. Governments must apply crisis management lessons learned from COVID-19 to the climate crisis, writes Allison Hanes.

    Allison Hanes: The fight against climate change continues

  2. “Le Printemps érable showed that young people could organize themselves, that they could believe in something, stand up and be counted,” said Martine Desjardins, a former student leader.

    A Decade Later: Reflecting on the Legacy of Maple Spring in Quebec

Share this article on your social network

Advertisement 1

This ad has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Montreal Gazette logo

Sign up to receive daily news from the Montreal Gazette, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.

By clicking the subscribe button, you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. Postmedia Network Inc. | 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario M4W 3L4 | 416-383-2300

Thank you for your registration!

A welcome email is on its way. If you don’t see it, please check your spam folder.

The next issue of Montreal Gazette Headline News will soon be in your inbox.

We encountered a problem during your registration. Try Again

comments

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively yet civil discussion forum and encourages all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments can take up to an hour to be moderated before appearing on the site. We ask that you keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications. You will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, if there is an update to a comment thread you follow, or if a user follows you comments. Visit our Community Rules for more information and details on how to adjust your E-mail settings.

Related posts:

  1. Circular debt – myth and reality
  2. USS and UK accused of failing to respond clearly to defined benefit reduction proposals
  3. Electric vehicle company Rivian could ask for a valuation of $ 70 billion when it goes public – Bloomberg News
  4. The repayment rate of the 1st tranche of sovereign bonds on gold is 80% higher than the issue price

Categories

  • Bankroll
  • Collect data
  • Indexation
  • Search directory
  • Web crawlers

Recent Posts

  • Live-Action TV Spider-Mans Who Didn’t Appear in No Way Home
  • Bennet bill would create federal definition of school shooting, direct incident data collection
  • The 10 Most In-Demand Entry-Level Remote Jobs Landing Right Now
  • Face-Scanner Clearview accepts the limits of the legal settlement | Economic news
  • Ex-minister embroiled in Hellenic row over staff cuts

Archives

  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions