CLASSE members protest exclusion from tuition hike negotiations.
by Laurent Bastien Corbeil and Henry Gass
MONTREAL, April 25 2012 — Police clashed with protesters for the second time this week as negotiations between three student associations and the Quebec government broke down.
The breakdown came after Education Minister Line Beauchamp barred members of the Coalition de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE) from participating in talks.
The Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ) and the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec (FECQ) left the negotiation table in solidarity with CLASSE.
More than 5,000 protesters gathered at Place Émilie-Gamelin at around 8:30 pm before marching through the streets of downtown Montreal.
The demonstration remained calm until protesters reached the intersection of Ste Catherine and Guy. Demonstrators overturned garbage bins, smashed bank windows, and hurled rocks at police cars.
Riot police intervened at around 10:30 pm by detonating concussion grenades, throwing tear gas canisters, and charging the protesters at the intersection of Ste Catherine and Metcalfe.
After regrouping on Sherbrooke, demonstrators marched down St. Denis and clashed for a second time with police on René Lévesque.
Beer bottles and rocks were thrown as demonstrators scattered before charging riot police.
The crowd dispersed at around 12:00 am.
Small altercations between police and demonstrators continued throughout the night.
Around 60 protestors were arrested at 1:30 am on the corner of St. Dominique and des Pins after being kettled an hour and a half earlier.
The SPVM told The Daily early Thursday morning that they did not have an accurate number on arrests.
Students reject Quebec government’s offer
Thousands crowd Montreal streets for fourth consecutive night
by Laurent Bastien Corbeil
MONTREAL, April 28, 2012 — Students showed their opposition to the latest offer from the Quebec government by marching in droves through the streets of Montreal on Friday.
The protest came hours after the Quebec Premier Jean Charest called for spreading the five-year, $1,625 tuition hike, over seven years.
Because of inflation, Charest’s proposal would amount to an 82 percent hike in tuition fees instead of the original 75 percent.
Thousands of students gathered at Place Émilie-Gamelin at around 8:30 p.m. before marching peacefully through the downtown area.
The protest remained calm until demonstrators reached the intersection of Ste Catherine and Bishop.
At that point, protesters mobbed a marcher who had smashed the window of a Canadian military recruitment office.
Riot police later intervened on the corner of Bleury and Ste. Catherine by splitting the crowd into three groups and arresting several protesters.
Despite the arrests, one officer told the crowd that the march could go on.
Small altercations between protesters and bystanders later occurred on St Laurent.
The crowd dispersed at around 1:00 a.m.
The proposal: The provincial government also said that it would increase access to student bursaries. Under the new plan, students whose family income is less than $45,000 would have access to bursaries, instead of the original $35,000.
$39 million would be added in bursaries and in student loans.
At a press conference on Friday, the Education Minister, Line Beauchamp, said that the new plan would cost students “less than 50 cents per day.”
A commission to overlook university spending would also be established.
The spokespeople of the three largest student associations in Quebec said on Friday that it was unlikely that students would accept the offer.
“This is an offer that is falsely portrayed as a compromise,” Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, spokesperson for the Coalition large de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE), told Radio-Canada in French.
“The hike isn’t diminished; it’s raised. Students and their families won’t have to pay $1,625, but $1,778.”
Talks between the student associations and the government broke down earlier this week after Beauchamp chose to exclude CLASSE, considered the most militant of the student associations, from the negotiation table.
The Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec and the Fédération édutiante collégiale du Québec left negotiations in solidarity.
The offer came as the student strike in protest of the tuition increase, now the longest student strike in Quebec history by nearly a month, enters its eleventh week.
The original version of this article, as well as The McGill Daily's continuing coverage of the Quebec student strike, and more, can be found at www.mcgilldaily.com, or follow @McGillDailyNews on Twitter
About Laurent Bastien Corbeil and Henry Gass
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.