The Quebec university student strike that has been going on since Valentine’s Day and is now jeopardizing the students’ own school year? In case you missed it, about 170,000 college students have missed class time and are pleased to do what they term as a strike. Staging unpredictable marches and blockades. They’ve been blocking schools, business, buildings, and even bridges. The relentless storm of protests in every major Quebec City has exasperated officials and sent police overtime costs soaring. Some demonstrations have been violent with students throwing bricks, rocks and bottles at police who replied with stun grenades and pepper spray and making arrests.
What are the students protesting?
The provincial government’s proposed tuition hikes. Quebec university students currently pay the lowest tuition fees in Canada. All due to Quebec's Provincial government proposal to phase in a $1,625 per year increase over five years which equals $350 per year. Meanwhile, Quebec university students will still be paying the lowest tuition fees in the country. And yet, students have been coercing fellow students to stay away from classes and intimidating anyone who wants to cross picket lines to go to school until Jean Charest’s Quebec’s Provincial liberal leader caves in and revokes the university tuition increase.
Are these people nuts?
Years from now, these so-called intelligent post-secondary students who willingly followed along and took part in this nonsense will be all grown up with careers and families. They will look back on what they did, probably hang their heads in shame, and say to themselves, “What were we thinking”? If there was ever living proof to the saying that youth is wasted on the young, this would be it. It shouldn’t take a university degree to realize that vandalism is not protest.
Now this strike, or protest, has been going on as these things tend to for a good while and the numbers who showed up in the city of Montreal are impressive. Yet the cause to cancel an announced increase in student fees of a mere $350 a year over five years is not a triumphant movement of justice or equity the students may believe it to be. It’s grand with actions of the likes of a mob. Not to mention they have been received financial assistance with their plight by what is termed, “unions.” Yet now the leader of Quebec is being accused of illegal allegations in accepting funds from these “unions”.
Yes the power of getting what you want is relentless.
When any type of protest takes that turn, without qualification I believe the worthiness of it should be condemned.
It is simply wrong, and wrong not to say it is wrong.
Some students in Quebec have condemned it.
They understand what is right and wrong.
Other student leaders are playing cute, neither condoning nor condemning because
they say they have no “mandate” to do so.
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-599-x/2011007/c-g/c-g001-eng.htm
ReplyDeleteThe closest I could find of the expences for going to University in Canada although it's three years old I would assume it
would be 15% higher..yet.
Costs increase. Sad but true. Getting caught up in the crowd is also sad.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that the cost of tuition continues to rise while the ability to get a job after graduation decreases. In the US over 50% of last years college grads are still unemployed with the next few weeks graduating even more students. People are graduating college with debts in the 6 figures with no job opportunities to begin paying their debt back. My daughter is graduating on Friday with a Bachelors in Science in Interdisciplinary Object Design. It is a new field - 3D rapid prototyping - ie designing something on the computer and printing it in solid form. Even though she will be graduating Friday she has already signed up for classes in the fall an another local college because her college did not teach the programming language needed by companies already doing this printing. In order to get a job she must learn this language. So the colleges are not even teaching what industry needs students to know. And that is why they are protesting. It isn't as much about the pay hike as what they are paying for. A degree that will not get them what they are paying to learn.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to read about. I don't have any comments otherwise :)
ReplyDeleteGrammy I have not been on here for a day nor have I kept up with it as much as
ReplyDeleteI wished to yet in reading there from what I have briefly read - it has opened
all sorts of propoganda. Jean Charet had his home nearly bombed, there is
talk of martial law being introduced and there are increases in cost. Yet
there are good reasons to strike and this in my own thoughts did not have
the merit.
I do see your point Sharon - New York followed suit with the idea of what was going on in Quebec. Yet I do believe that education is one area which
ReplyDeleteis the last one to be touched. If one compares the cost of University in Canada to that of the United States - American students are paying five times
the cost. The reason why in Quebec that they are not of the same as in the US. Mind you education should be the last resort to make cuts. In this case
Jean Charet - the provincial leader made the choices and as in all areas there are areas which do face some increases. I don't know of anyone whom
attends university which does not wish to have a degree. This type of strike is counter productive. As I don't think that within THIS case there was
a huge increase. As well, there are opportunities here, mind you this does go back in history as Quebec has never felt it was apart of Canada. In
this area Canada is different I can't say that the cost of University is comparable to the price in the USA.
Faye there was over 170,000 students within Quebec which have created more havoc which
ReplyDeletewent far beyond the norm.