Quebec Student Protest
- Thread starter dcbogey
- Start date
The whole thing has become a farce and Charest is making it worse by continuing to "negotiate" with the brats. I thought they had a "deal" a couple of weeks ago and all the so called "student leaders" agreed to it, but I guess the students in the streets felt otherwise.
Charest needs to grow a pair and shut down all future negotiations. There simply is no point any more. He just needs to say, "the remainder of this school term is cancelled. In September, your tuition will be X. If you want to register in September, that will be the cost whether you like it or not."
If the problem continues, then you cancel all classes again.
My understanding is that most of the so called "protesters" are liberal arts students. Those students in the professional streams - Medicine, Engineering, business, law are continuing to go to school. Hate to say it, but the fact of the matter is that a liberal arts degress is pretty much useless, so if those students don't want to go to school - then so be it. Don't go. Try working for a living and see how you like that. Quebec Society would not even blink.
The fact of the matter is that whether we like it or not, costs increase. I don't like the fact that my property taxes have increased, or my gasoline bill, but that's the way it goes.
And to the Quebec Professors that are supporting this, I would say, "ok, we'll roll back tuition rates to where they were, provided you agree to a corresponding salary cut" See how that goes over.
Charest needs to grow a pair and shut down all future negotiations. There simply is no point any more. He just needs to say, "the remainder of this school term is cancelled. In September, your tuition will be X. If you want to register in September, that will be the cost whether you like it or not."
If the problem continues, then you cancel all classes again.
My understanding is that most of the so called "protesters" are liberal arts students. Those students in the professional streams - Medicine, Engineering, business, law are continuing to go to school. Hate to say it, but the fact of the matter is that a liberal arts degress is pretty much useless, so if those students don't want to go to school - then so be it. Don't go. Try working for a living and see how you like that. Quebec Society would not even blink.
The fact of the matter is that whether we like it or not, costs increase. I don't like the fact that my property taxes have increased, or my gasoline bill, but that's the way it goes.
And to the Quebec Professors that are supporting this, I would say, "ok, we'll roll back tuition rates to where they were, provided you agree to a corresponding salary cut" See how that goes over.
I think a fairer solution would be to allow the serious students to write their examinations, complete other course work and let those who don’t get Fs (or DNCs or whatever the university’s standard policy is for such individuals). I have not followed the details, but the fact this has continued for so long leads me to think the universities themselves must be complicit. By now, all the student should have either written their final examinations or received zeros for not writing them.
It would likely be necessary to have police protect students wanting to write their examinations but that I what we pay the police to do.
I got stuck in one of their protests during a recent trip to Montreal. T'was a lil scary...
I don't know much about the situation but the weekend I was there I heard of a guy who had all his hair singed off by pepper spray. Luckily he was wearing goggles. He was targeted by police while he tried to stop people from throwing rocks at police. A girl was beaten with a baton by police.
Very scary...
I don't know much about the situation but the weekend I was there I heard of a guy who had all his hair singed off by pepper spray. Luckily he was wearing goggles. He was targeted by police while he tried to stop people from throwing rocks at police. A girl was beaten with a baton by police.
Very scary...
I agree, there are quite a large number of students who want to attend classes.
At the end of the day, this increase is less than a dollar per day.
I read that the more radical group - CLASSE were calling for the universities to eliminate all construction of new facilities, curtail Research and Development and something else I forgot.
In other words, pour all the money into Liberal Arts where they all go and there is little if any return on the investment.
I figure it's only a matter of time before Charest calls up Harper and asks him to send in the Canadian Military. I only hope that Harper has enough brains to say no. This is Quebec's problem. You own it Jean.
While talking to a friend when I was there I learned about Quebec's crazy -high taxes. I know very little about Quebec politics. I was surprised. My friend makes a significant income - much more than he made in Ontario but his take home is far less.
(I know this added nadda to the conversation but it surprised me. We are lucky in Ontario).
As a former English student - can't deny the worthlesness of a degree in the arts lol
(I know this added nadda to the conversation but it surprised me. We are lucky in Ontario).
As a former English student - can't deny the worthlesness of a degree in the arts lol
I also read something like that and had to shake my head with dismay. It would just continue the downward trend in the relative ranking of Quebec universities.
Margaret Wente at the Globe and Mail has also compared the Quebec students to the Greeks:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ters-are-the-greeks-of-canada/article2437462/
Harper, meanwhile is out at the G8 lecturing the Euro's that they should forgo austerity and try stimulus and free trade.
Meanwhile he's putting more people out of work here.
This year I've heard of more people losing jobs then I have in decades.
Teachers, public servants, media, financial, arts, they are all cutting back.
I think fighting for social services is acceptable, the liberal offer was a non-starter, they essentially said that the students could be part of a committee to find cuts in University funding, and if they did they could apply that to tuition.
They are taking it to an extreme, but the government needs to talk to them, if not it should be within their rights to continue to protest.
Meanwhile he's putting more people out of work here.
This year I've heard of more people losing jobs then I have in decades.
Teachers, public servants, media, financial, arts, they are all cutting back.
I think fighting for social services is acceptable, the liberal offer was a non-starter, they essentially said that the students could be part of a committee to find cuts in University funding, and if they did they could apply that to tuition.
They are taking it to an extreme, but the government needs to talk to them, if not it should be within their rights to continue to protest.
Groggy you are being idiotic as usual.
This is totally a provincial matter and Quebec would have a fit if they thought Harper was meddling. Furthermore this isn't about cutbacks at all its about users paying their fair share so that money will be there for other social programs. As others have said, even after the increases which will be phased in over a 7 years Quebec students will still be paying less than the rest of the country. In Quebec they call these people "baby gate" ( pronounced gaw'tay) which means essentially spoiled brats.
I was in Montreal on Wednesday and Thursday in a hotel in Old Montreal and there was a demonstration there. A poll indicates this is only supported by less than 10% of students in the province with the exception of the University of Montreal where it is higher. The Liberal Government of Charest has little wiggle room on this subject as they can't really be seen to capitulate at this late date. BTW all 3 parties provincially supported this increase when it was first introduced.
The general population seems to have little sympathy for the students.
This is totally a provincial matter and Quebec would have a fit if they thought Harper was meddling. Furthermore this isn't about cutbacks at all its about users paying their fair share so that money will be there for other social programs. As others have said, even after the increases which will be phased in over a 7 years Quebec students will still be paying less than the rest of the country. In Quebec they call these people "baby gate" ( pronounced gaw'tay) which means essentially spoiled brats.
I was in Montreal on Wednesday and Thursday in a hotel in Old Montreal and there was a demonstration there. A poll indicates this is only supported by less than 10% of students in the province with the exception of the University of Montreal where it is higher. The Liberal Government of Charest has little wiggle room on this subject as they can't really be seen to capitulate at this late date. BTW all 3 parties provincially supported this increase when it was first introduced.
The general population seems to have little sympathy for the students.
No, my dear conservative $5 loser, it is about equal access to education. You would not understand that concept.
I wouldn't spend that $5 yet... the media is working with the POTUS to keep the public distracted from the economy....
$1,625 over 5 years... that's just funny. At some point people need to go from being completely dependent on the state (free K-12 education) to partially responsible for themselves (massively subsidized education at University level) to, hold your breath for it, self reliant.... oh the horror....
Doesn't look like I'm alone in this view... even in Quebec..
Support for the government in the tuition dispute stood at 45%, up from 39 =% a month earlier, while in the same period support for the students fell to 33% from 36% a month earlier.
Read more: http://www.canada.com/Student+protests+helping+Quebec+Liberals/6636301/story.html#ixzz1vQa7vxdZ
OTB
