The student strike in Quebec over the proposed tuition hikes by Premier Jean Charest and the Liberal government has entered its 14th week, and since the mayhem began, we have seen students clash with police, public property vandalized, smoke bombs set off and plastic baton rounds, or rubber bullets, fired at protestors.
There’s no keeping a lid on something like this as the world has eyes, or rather, Twitter and Facebook. The strike has even achieved the status of a moniker thanks to The Guardian. It’s being called ‘Maple Spring’ in honour of the Arab Spring. Clever enough.
To really judge the situation I think everyone needs to take a step outside his or her own shoes and look at what’s happened with education, particularly post-secondary, in Quebec since the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s.
From what I’ve read, before the Quiet Revolution, higher education in Quebec was only available to a few French Canadians due to the cost and their generally low level of formal education. But to reflect the changing values of the province, where education was no longer considered a luxury, but a right, the provincial government focused on having free education.
With that in mind, it’s not difficult to understand why Quebec has the lowest average tuition fees in the county at $2,168 per year (Alberta is the second highest at $5,662). Last March, the Liberals proposed to hike tuition to $1,625 over five years, which would still make Quebec tuitions the lowest in Canada.
At first glance, it doesn’t really seem fair, does it? Why does every other student in the county have to deal with the monetary conundrums associated with attending college or university and not Quebec students? I know firsthand what it’s like to spend a summer worrying about earning enough cash to afford tuition and having milk in the fridge.
However, in an interview with CBC, University of Montreal political science professor Pierre Martin said that for some Quebec students, other Canadian universities “might just as well be on some other planet.” He also said he sees the post-secondary education system in Quebec as “distinct” due to the province’s language, history and culture.
For some people living in Western Canada, this is like a big can of fuel being tossed on the fire. This type of situation and these types of statements will certainly contribute towards the animosity between eastern and western provinces, especially Quebec.
Students attending these “distinct” universities might not know that around 65,000 Albertans consider French as their mother tongue, according to the 2006 census by Statistic Canada, and in places such as St. Paul, French culture in embraced both in schools and around the community. The University of Alberta even has its own French campus. Sadly, this doesn’t create as much attention as throwing bags full of bricks on to the subway tracks.
Despite the comparisons to other universities, the proposed hike is still a 75 per cent increase for Quebec students who are used to having low fees. As a result, it will be difficult for families to send their kids to post-secondary schooling and those fortunate enough to attend may inherit massive amounts of debt, just like students in other parts of the country. Despite this, the government’s position on the hikes has been relatively firm and the issue is now at a standstill, with an estimated 120,000 students still boycotting classes.
So what happens now? Student groups continue to plan public protests causing “economic disruptions” and the government says it won’t back down on raising tuition. I agree with assistant sociology professor at McGill University, Jason Carmichael, who suggested having a referendum on the question of tuition-fee hikes.
“Force both sides to clearly explain their arguments, leave the question in the hands of the people, and take away the argument democracy is being undermined to continue the protests,” he said in an interview with the Montreal Gazette.
The Liberals’ main opposition, the separatist Parti Québécois, has allied with the protestors, but according to a recent online poll published in The Economist, 79 per cent of Quebeckers oppose raising income taxes to pay for universities.
In a fairytale world, post-secondary education is free for everyone no matter where you live, your religious beliefs, your cultural background or whether you have a dislike for people living on the other side of your own country. Student groups reference places like Denmark and Brazil where tuition is free, but this isn’t Europe or South America.
The last time I checked, Europe’s economy was in the dumps and the Wall Street Journal recently announced the number of armored cars in Brazil has doubled. Take your pick.
