McGill and Concordia students rally to protest against tuition hikes

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Chanting slogans and bearing placards, they jeered Premier François Legault outdoors his workplaces throughout from McGill.

Printed Mar 13, 2024  •  Final up to date 2 hours in the past  •  4 minute learn

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Chanting “Schooling is a proper, not only for the wealthy and white,” a whole bunch of Concordia College college students marched down Sherbrooke St. Wednesday afternoon earlier than becoming a member of their friends at McGill within the newest protest towards tuition hikes concentrating on anglophone universities in Quebec.

“I don’t imagine within the tuition hikes,” stated Sofia Ciandella, a latest graduate of Concordia’s communications program from New Jersey who’s taking additional programs to enhance her French. “I believe it’s xenophobic and discretionary to people who find themselves excluded in Quebec — particularly within the reality they’re elevating the tutoring for college students coming from francophone nations in Africa but preserving costs the identical for France and Belgium. It’s blatant that race is concerned.”

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The schooling hikes are already being felt on the college, she stated, as purposes from out-of-province and worldwide college students drop, forcing the college to scale back class numbers and providers.

The scholars marched from Concordia College alongside Sherbrooke St. to McGill College, chanting slogans and bearing placards, accompanied by a police escort directing visitors. They stopped earlier than the workplaces of François Legault, located throughout the road from McGill, to hearken to speeches and jeer the premier.

Lots of the college students had been additionally not attending courses after teams representing greater than 20,000 Concordia and McGill college students voted to strike to protest towards the Legault authorities’s tuition overhaul.

College students in arts and sciences at Concordia voted to strike from Monday to Friday this week, whereas the engineering and laptop science college students had been holding a three-day strike beginning Wednesday.

The newest pause in school attendance follows a one-day strike in November and a three-day strike final month.

At Concordia, this week’s walkout will have an effect on about 21,000 college students. At McGill, the place college students had been on spring break final week, teams representing about 1,600 college students voted to strike, pupil leaders stated.

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Angelica Antonakopoulos, tutorial co-ordinator for the Arts and Science Federation of Associations at Concordia, stated college students picketed outdoors of courses to advise different college students of the strike and encourage them to not attend. Some professors cancelled courses in solidarity, whereas others gave asynchronous courses on-line. Others selected to proceed to maintain instructing.

Concordia spokesperson Vannina Maestracci stated Wednesday a small variety of courses had been disrupted by picketing, however the majority of courses went forward as deliberate.

“We perceive that college students wish to categorical their disapproval of the brand new tuition measures, however we imagine that disrupting their very own training, inside college buildings, with impacts solely on fellow college students and the college, is a counter-productive solution to categorical that discontent.”

Final month, Concordia and McGill filed separate lawsuits towards the federal government, looking for judicial evaluations of the tutoring hikes, complaining they may devastate their enrolment, monetary state of affairs and reputations nationally and internationally. Each universities have already reported steep drops in enrolment for subsequent 12 months’s faculty semesters.

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The strike and marches are a solution to put stress on the Quebec authorities, together with lawsuits filed by McGill and Concordia, Antonakopoulos stated.

“We’re hoping to proceed to provide the lawsuits validity and significance within the courtroom of public opinion, and by persevering with to make noise to indicate most people, ‘Hey, we expect that is actually essential.’ ”

They’re additionally a solution to make college students conscious the tutoring hikes is not going to solely have an effect on future college students, but additionally present ones because the drops in income on the already cash-strapped college result in employees reductions, bigger class sizes, fewer instructing assistants and cuts to extracurricular packages like golf equipment and sports activities groups.

“Levels are price one thing retroactively, so if Concordia’s status plummets, then our levels will probably be price much less when it comes to the status of Concordia in 5 to 10 years from now,” Antonakopoulos stated.

Addressing the scholars earlier than the march, Concordia professor Anna Sheftel stated universities are a spot to open ourselves to the world, however “these tuition hikes assault that conception of universities. The CAQ authorities is attempting to isolate us from the world, one thing that’s poisonous not only for universities, not only for instructing and analysis, nevertheless it’s simply poisonous for Quebec.”

Harry Callahan, a third-year pupil from Newfoundland, stated the hikes right here had been already having an influence in his residence province.

“For a lot of of my pals who wished to return to Concordia, they’re in search of extra inexpensive universities now,” he stated. “It’s a disgrace, as a result of Concordia is a pleasant group and the tutoring hikes will actually have an effect.”

Ates Balsoy, a first-year pupil from Turkey, stated he visited Montreal in the summertime of 2022 and fell in love with its vibrant cultural scene. The college has already began lowering some providers, just like the free vegan lunches that had been essential for college students with scarce means. Others are positive to observe, he stated.

“It’s horrible for Quebec as a result of college students assist the financial system by going to cafés and eating places and renting residences,” he stated. “So that they’re capturing their very own legs.”

rbruemmer@postmedia.com

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