News from the Quebec student struggle on Aug 14, 2012

The CLASSE student association held a delegated national conference this past weekend in Montreal. Delegates voted to continue the strike. But they have not won that position at most of the student assemblies taking place since.

Roger Annis

By René Bruemmer, The Gazette, Aug 14, 2012, with files from Roberto Rocha and Christopher Curtis

In the parking lot outside Collège Maisonneuve, Shanie Goyer found herself torn between youthful idealism and practicality Monday. The 19-year-old social sciences major was an early advocate of the protests against the Liberal government’s university tuition increases, picketing with her peers who had boycotted classes since Feb. 22. But after nearly six months out of school and facing the spectre of missing her university year, the ardour was waning. “I’m really divided,” she said. “I still believe in a lot of the ideals that we stood for with the strike. But I also want to finish my term.”

“If I have to miss my university year, it will cost me more than the tuition increases would have,” she said.

Photo: A security guard turns away a student who arrived to study before voting at College de Maisonneuve in Montreal. Students and supporters were picketing outside the school. In the end, the decision would come down to a question of time and money, she said.

On Monday, similar struggles between practicality and fleeting time caught up with the student movement at several of the 14 CEGEPS that had been boycotting classes when the liberal government invoked Bill 78 on May 18, putting their spring session on hold and ordering them back to class this week.

Students turned out en masse and voted for a return to class after nearly six months of boycotts. At Collège de Maisonneuve, 2,200 of the school’s 5,800 students showed up after a concerted effort by administrators to get out the vote, and 1,400 opted to return to class. At CEGEP Édouard-montpetit in Longueuil, more than 600 students voted 90 per cent against continuing the boycott, the Fédération collégiale étudiante du Québec reported. At Marie-Victorin in Montreal North, the vote was 900 to 500 in a favour of a return.

Of eight CEGEPS to hold general assemblies so far, six have voted for a return. The relatively hardline CEGEP St. Laurent voted narrowly on Sunday to continue its boycott, but under the provision at least 20,000 students join them in the strike. If the trend continues, they will not obtain the support they were seeking.

Students who continued the strike would likely lose their semester, the government and Fédération des Cegeps warned, and protesters or organizations who blocked access to schools could face crippling fines.

CEGEP de Vieux Montréal students voted to maintain the boycott by a small margin of 878 to 861, after the final count was subjected to a recount. Protesters from the nightly march briefly invaded their general assembly and this promised to prolong talks. The remaining six CEGEPS are slated to vote this week.

Monday’s votes were disappointing, representatives of CLASSE, the province’s largest and most militant student federation, admitted Monday. On Sunday, they had called on their members to continue the boycotts. But the results were not surprising given the pressure put on students.

“It’s a very hard context, the students are tired after five months of strike, and of course with the repressive bill (the Liberal government’s anti-protest Bill 78) and elections, it’s a hard context for the renewal of the movement,” said Jérémie Bédard-Wien, spokesperson for the Coalition large de l’Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante. But the fire still burns, he said, evidenced by the fact some schools have voted for a one-day strike to be held for the Aug. 22 mass demonstration, and others voted to have another vote after the elections.

A handful of university associations representing more than 5,000 students have voted to continue their strikes, Bédard-Wien said, and more votes are coming. And a protest march was immediately scheduled by another group for Monday night.

“It’s definitely not a decline of the movement,” he said. “I think we’re entering a new chapter — these are not votes for tuition hikes or against the principal of striking as a very effective means of action — these are votes of tiredness.”

The vote results don’t represent a loss, said Fédération collégiale étudiante du Québec (FECQ) president Éliane Laberge, but a change in tactics — the provincial elections.

“On Sept. 5, if another government is elected, maybe we won’t have a tuition increase anymore,” she said.

Meanwhile on Monday, Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay said the city has a commitment from the Quebec government to reimburse it for all the expenses that were caused by student demonstrations, including extra pay for police officers and blue-collar workers.

There was little commotion at many CEGEPs as students returned to school Monday at CEGEP André-Laurendeau in LaSalle, or voted to return at other schools, under the watchful eye of discreet police. At André-Laurendeau, the first CEGEP to return to classes after their boycott, teachers handed apples to their 2,900 returning student.

By Allan Woods, Toronto Star, Aug 14, 2012

MONTREAL— The students queued to get into Collège du Maisonneuve in this city’s east end for the first time since February. Boycotts and protests against Quebec Premier Jean Charest’s plan to raise tuition fees have kept them away from classes, but they returned on Monday more informed than ever.

This is bad news for Charest’s Liberal party, which proposed the hikes. Not one student hesitated when asked whether they would support Charest’s bid for a fourth term in power when the province goes to the polls on Sept. 4.

The outlook for the student-loving Parti Québécois or the Coalition Avenir Québec — which is competing for votes on the right of the political spectrum — isn’t much brighter.

“I’m going to vote for Option Nationale or Québec Solidaire,” said Sarah Gagnon-Boisvert, 19. “The Parti Québécois . . . is no better than the Liberals.”

In normal times, this demographic of the Quebec population could be counted on to tune out and not show up in a provincial election. A recent survey for the province’s Director General of Elections put participation among those aged 18 to 34 at 39 per cent. This time around, students are debating the merits and drawbacks of strategic voting.

The loss of a school semester to sometimes-violent protests, as well as the surprise of finding themselves at the heart of this election, has politicized a group of young men and women. Most of them will be voting for the first time in their lives. Make that the second time.

The reason for the queue outside the school was a marathon debate followed by a vote in which students decided to end the boycott and start a truncated semester later this week. It was one of three Montreal-area colleges voting on the sixmonth-old protest movement on Monday. All opted for a return to school.

“I agree with everything that happened. It’s just that it’s time to return to school,” said 19-year-old Charlie Hébert, who waited along with several hundred other students in the summer heat shortly before the debate and vote at Collège du Maisonneuve. Continuing the strike would mean losing yet another semester of classes, which for many means risking a delayed entry into university.

The anger that led to thousands massing nightly in the streets has not dissipated, but reality is setting in. The symbolic red felt squares showing support for the strike can still be seen pinned to shirts, purses and bags. But the hardliners who led the marches through the streets of Montreal this spring and summer and showed up on Monday to set up banners and pass out pamphlets now appear to be in the minority.

“I think that if we’ve been striking for six months we should keep on going,” said Alexandra Courtemanche, 18. Courtemanche was one of the few who said she would consider voting for the PQ if she opts to vote strategically in order to oust the incumbent Liberals. “If not, it will be Option Nationale,” she said of the sovereigntist party launched one year ago by Jean-Martin Aussant, a renegade former member of Marois’ caucus.

The PQ’s Carole Poirier currently holds the riding in which Collège du Maisonneuve sits. Her election sign is front and centre by the school’s entrance, affixed to a lamppost. But it is outnumbered by those of Alexandre Leduc, candidate for Québec Solidaire — the third sovereigntist party running in the election.

If any, Québec Solidaire is the party closest to the beating heart of the student movement. Co-leader Amir Khadir, was a regular at the nightly protests that snaked through Montreal’s streets. His 19year-old daughter, Yalda MachoufKhadir, was arrested this summer, allegedly for ransacking the constituency office of Charest’s former education minister, Line Beauchamp.

If there was any doubt about the party’s convictions before the election began, their trademark policy proposal erased it: free education for all, from kindergarten to university.

By Susan Schwartz, Toronto Star, Aug 13, 2012

As students from 14 CEGEPs in the Montreal area prepare to return to school this week to make up for class time lost to the student boycott last semester, two student associations representing more than half the province’s 400,000 CEGEP and university students unveiled a video Sunday as well as plans for four radio spots intended to encourage Quebecers to vote in the Sept. 4 provincial election.

The message of the video and the radio spots is to encourage people to make a difference by voting. According to one 2008 figure, only 36 per cent of eligible voters ages 18 to 24 voted in the 2008 provincial election.

“It is important that the maximum number of students turn out to vote,” said Éliane Laberge, president of the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec, which along with the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec held a weekend strategy meeting at CEGEP Ahuntsic. “It is important to elect a government that will represent us.”

The French video is online at votons.ca and on YouTube. For now, the radio spots will air in French only, although there could be English spots as well, said FECQ press attaché Mathieu LeBlanc. The website also lists several events planned for the week of Aug. 13 to encourage students to vote.

Both student associations object to the plan by Premier Jean Charest’s Liberals to raise tuition by $1,778 over the next seven years. “We have been campaigning against the tuition hike for two years,” she said.

Students at three of 14 CEGEPs that were boycotting classes in protest when the government ordered the spring session be put on hold until this week voted last week to return to class. The rest are to vote this week.

But even if the students vote to return to classes, it should not be interpreted as a sign they are backing down, said FEUQ president Martine Desjardins. “Our goal has not changed: what we are after is a freeze in tuition.”

The boycott was one way to highlight their goal — urging people to vote is another, she said. It’s not about telling people who to vote for or who not to vote for, Desjardins said. Rather, it is about “the need to elect a government that will represent us.”

The Coalition Avenir Québec has proposed a tuition increase of $200 a year over five years. Parti Québecois leader Pauline Marois has promised to freeze the planned hikes.

The student uprising earlier this year against the Liberal government’s plan to raise tuition was so strong it prompted an emergency law — Bill 78, now known as Law 12 — an act to enable students to receive instruction from the postsecondary institutions they attend.

Montreal’s police department issued a statement Friday in which it said the police would not intervene “without the request of the executives of the educational institutions,” but that “if a police officer witnesses criminal acts, he or she may intervene at any time according to the Criminal Code. The offenders will then be subject to criminal prosecution.”

Desjardins said students have been asked to respect the law and not to prevent students from entering schools. “We don’t want to give tools to the Liberals or the Coalition to use against us,” she said.

By Allan Woods, Toronto Star, Aug 13, 2012

MONTREAL— Liberal Leader Jean Charest knows a thing or two about politics. He has been involved in it his entire adult life. But his knowledge of history, and the edict that it rarely repeats itself, is about to be tested this week.

His electoral battle for a fourth term as premier has been built on the disorder of protesting students that was sewn last spring in Quebec’s streets, including four months of demonstrations, rioters battling with police and picket lines on school campuses. The pitch to voters that only he is capable of bringing to heel the disorder that was inspired by his plan to hike tuition fees is premised on the belief that students will once again opt for the streets over their classes.

This is the week, then, to which Charest’s re-election campaign has been building, as the province’s college students are called back to make up the semester that was cut short in the face of last spring’s chaos. So far, it doesn’t look good for the Liberal leader.

Students at three colleges have voted so far on whether to continue the strike or return to class. Voter participation has been horrendous, but students have so far opted either for an end to the boycotts, or an electoral “truce” — the latter so that they do not unintentionally bolster Charest’s argument. Almost a dozen others will vote later this week and the province, including the politicians on the lookout for votes in the Sept. 4 election, is holding its breath.

Administrators at two of the colleges voting on Monday have decided to delay the start of class until Tuesday so that those students passionate about politics do not clash with those students passionate about resuming their education.

Such is the anticipation that the Montreal Police have set up a dedicated telephone line for media inquiries related to the start of the school year.

Of the three main political parties competing to form the next government, none has sided more closely with the striking students than Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois, who held a rally Saturday night with star candidate Leo Bureau-Blouin, the former head of the province’s college student association. She promised that a PQ government would immediately freeze college and university tuition fees and abolish a controversial law Charest brought in to try to crack down on last spring’s violence.

Marois may have also felt some relief last week when the leader of the most radical of the student groups, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, stepped down from his post, taking away one more target for Charest’s campaign attacks. “I leave with only one regret,” Nadeau-Dubois wrote in an open letter published in Montreal’s Le Devoir newspaper. “I regret that I am quitting my functions while Quebec is still led by Jean Charest, a contemptuous premier who has been violent towards Quebec and its youth.”

His regret may be short-lived. Charest’s Liberals are trailing the PQ in the most recent polls and a survey conducted in the premier’s riding of Sherbrooke has all but declared him defeated. That was the context for the Liberal leader’s campaign stop over the weekend in Victoriaville to meet with the youth wing of the party. It was in the same town, and in front of the same hotel, last May that Liberal party executives were greeted with violent protests stopped only by tear gas.

This time, despite protest organizers calling for “scorched earth,” police vastly outnumbered the dozen or so demonstrators who bothered to show up.

That did not stop Charest, who has on several occasions denied that he stands to profit from a clash between police and those opposed to his government. “It is a sad period that we aren’t able to forget, and that we must not forget,” he told the partisan crowd. “We have to keep these events in mind when we make our choice on Sept. 4.”

Quatre des cégeps les plus militants de la province ont été le théâtre de débats longs et houleux, lundi, lorsque des milliers d’élèves se sont réunis afin de décider de poursuivre ou non la grève. Les résultats, serrés, témoignent d’une véritable déchirure dans le mouvement étudiant. Mais pour la première fois depuis six mois, ceux qui souhaitaient retourner en classe ont parlé plus fort.

La journée, première d’une rentrée forcée étalée sur une semaine, s’annonçait mouvementée. Si les débordements craints n’ont pas eu lieu, les élèves se sont livrés à une véritable guerre de mots.

Dès les premières minutes, l’assemblée générale des élèves du cégep Marie-Victorin a dérapé. «Moi, je me câlisse de tous les points d’information à l’ordre du jour. Personne ne vit dans une grotte. Tout le monde sait ce qui se passe avec la grève. Tout ce que je veux, c’est retourner à l’école», a lancé un élève.

La remarque a donné le ton. Les huées n’ont pas tardé. Les répliques acides non plus. «T’avais juste à être présent lors des dernières assemblées si tu voulais ton mot à dire», lui a répondu une jeune femme. «Je travaille, moi. Je n’ai pas juste ça à faire», a rétorqué l’autre.

Ils étaient environ 1600, entassés dans plus de quatre salles à l’ambiance explosive, tous inquiets à l’idée que l’autre camp se sauve avec la victoire. Dans les minutes précédant la rencontre, certains élèves ont distribué des carrés rouges devant l’établissement, mais assez peu ont trouvé preneur.

À l’intérieur, les opposants au mouvement de grève ont tenté de couper court à la discussion afin de passer plus rapidement au vote – sans succès. Il aura finalement fallu cinq heures d’échanges intenses avant que les membres ne soient finalement invités à lever leurs cartons pour se prononcer pour ou contre la poursuite de la grève.

Lorsque les partisans du retour en classe ont compris qu’ils avaient gagné, des cris de joie ont éclaté partout dans l’établissement, où les cours avaient été suspendus pour éviter des débordements qui ne sont pas venus. En tout, 971 personnes ont voté pour le retour en classe et 590 contre.

Des militans dévastés

À la sortie, de jeunes militants étaient complètement dévastés, convaincus d’avoir fait la grève pour rien. «Je suis fâché. Beaucoup plus que je ne l’aurais cru», a confié Thomas Gauthier, élève de deuxième trimestre en musique classique. À fleur de peau, le jeune homme ne trouvait pas les mots justes pour décrire ses sentiments. «C’est très émotif comme situation, a-t-il dit. Il fallait tenir notre bout. Ce n’était pas le temps de lâcher.»

Derrière lui, trois élèves en technique d’éducation spécialisée, toutes mères de famille, partageaient leur déception. «J’ai quatre enfants et je suis monoparentale. Je ne vois pas comment je pourrai tous les envoyer à l’université», a dit en soupirant Line Caouette.

«Pour nous, c’est une véritable perte de temps de faire la grève, mais on l’a fait pour nos enfants», a expliqué Andrée Beaudet. Son amie Patricia Barsalou a renchéri: «Si mon enfant veut être médecin, je ne veux pas qu’un manque d’argent brise son rêve.»

Même des élèves qui ont voté contre la grève ont dit ressentir un certain malaise. «Je croyais en la lutte, mais l’école est plus importante», a dit Célia Robicheau. D’autres cégépiens ont plutôt poussé un long soupir de soulagement.

Retour en classe

Au même moment, les élèves du cégep André-Laurendeau étaient les premiers à retourner en classe, sans les heurts appréhendés. Ceux du cégep du Vieux Montréal ont débattu pendant cinq heures avant de reconduire la grève, tard lundi soir, par une infime minorité (879 pour, 861 contre). Les élèves des collèges Édouard-Montpetit et de Maisonneuve ont quant à eux opté pour la fin des moyens de pression. L’association étudiante d’Édouard-Montpetit n’a pas révélé les résultats précis, alors que celle du Collège de Maisonneuve avance le chiffre de 62% des votes pour le retour en classe.

Les «pro-grèves» avaient pourtant été particulièrement bruyants dans les heures précédant la rencontre. Dès 8h, ils étaient quelques centaines devant les portes de l’établissement du quartier Rosemont, bannières et casseroles en main – un mélange d’élèves et de citoyens qui souhaitaient manifester leur appui. Ils avaient bon espoir que le mouvement ne s’essoufflerait pas.

«La loi 78 n’a pas fonctionné, les élections non plus, dit-il. On a plus à gagner en continuant la lutte», martelait Saul Provençal, inscrit en technique informatique. Selon lui, le rapport de force des étudiants n’a jamais été meilleur qu’en ce moment. Ses camarades n’ont toutefois pas adhéré à cet argument.

Au Collège Édouard-Montpetit, l’assemblée a même refusé le droit de parole à un représentant de la CLASSE, qui souhaitait faire un état des lieux. Dans les autres cégeps, on a accepté d’entendre les représentants de la coalition, mais l’appel à poursuivre la grève malgré la période électorale, lancé dimanche, n’a pas été écouté.

Pour le moment, 8 des 14 cégeps touchés par la grève ont tenu un vote. Outre le cégep du Vieux-Montréal, seul le cégep de Saint-Laurent a choisi de reconduire la grève, à condition qu’au moins 20 000 élèves et étudiants fassent de même au Québec. Certaines facultés universitaires se sont aussi prononcées pour la grève.

***

Qui rentre quand? (Who returns to class, and when?)

Lundi 13 août
Cégep André-Laurendeau: Les élèves ont voté à 80% pour la fin de la grève. Ils sont rentrés en classe dans le calme.

Mardi 14 août
Collège de Valleyfield: Les élèves ont voté à 61% pour la fin de la grève.
Collège de Maisonneuve: Les élèves ont voté à 62% pour la fin de la grève.
Cégep Marie-Victorin: Les élèves ont voté à 61% pour la fin de la grève.

Mercredi 15 août
Collège Édouard-Montpetit: Les élèves ont voté à forte majorité pour la fin de la grève.
Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe: Les élèves votent aujourd’hui.

Jeudi 16 août
Collège Lionel-Groulx: Les élèves votent aujourd’hui.
Collège Montmorency: Date de l’assemblée générale à déterminer.
Cégep de Saint-Jérôme: Les élèves ont voté à forte majorité pour une trêve électorale.

Vendredi 17 août
Collège Ahuntsic: Les élèves votent jeudi.
Collège de Bois-de-Boulogne: Les élèves votent jeudi.
Collège de Rosemont: Les élèves votent jeudi.
Cégep de Saint-Laurent: Les élèves ont voté à 52% pour la poursuite de la grève.
Cégep du Vieux Montréal: Les élèves ont voté à 50,5% pour la poursuite de la grève.

Lundi 27 août
Université du Québec à Montréal: L’Association facultaire étudiante des sciences humaines a voté pour la grève. D’autres assemblées sont à venir.
Université de Montréal: Deux associations départementales ont voté pour la grève. D’autres assemblées sont à venir.
Université Laval: Assemblées générales à venir.
Université de Sherbrooke: L’Association générale des étudiants en lettres et communication (cycles supérieurs) a voté pour la grève. D’autres assemblées sont à venir.