April 2015
MONTREAL —Young protesters skirmish with police
in riot gear in downtown Montreal. Students trying to attend lectures are turned
back by striking classmates calling them scabs.
At first glance, the early days of Quebec’s “Printemps
2015” action launched this week look a lot like the student protests
that gripped the province in the spring of 2012.
But there are signs of a shift in attitudes that
will make it harder for the students to rekindle the spirit of three years ago,
when opposition politicians and ordinary folk joined in their pot-banging
protests against higher tuition.
The administration at the Université du Québec à
Montréal, which in 2012 stood by as roaming mobs broke up classes, has signaled
a significant change in approach.
On Friday, the eve of the latest student
mobilization, the university advised nine students that they face either
one-year suspensions or, in more serious cases, outright expulsion as a result
of actions committed during protests on campus over the past two years.
The administration says it cannot comment on the
cases for privacy reasons, but student groups challenging the disciplinary
action posted some details on Facebook. They said the students, who will face
disciplinary hearings in the coming weeks, are accused of contravening a
university bylaw on the protection of people and property in connection with six
different incidents.
The incidents include three days last year when
classes were disrupted to enforce a student strike and a recruiting session last
January when a federal civil servant was prevented from talking about job
opportunities for graduates with the Department of Natural Resources.
Among those facing possible expulsion is Justine
Boulanger, a student representative on the university’s board of directors and
executive committee. Her supporters said she is accused of “blocking a corridor”
and raising her voice, among other things. They called the actions an assault on
freedom of expression and academic freedom.
Ms. Boulanger told Le Devoir that the
threat of expulsion is unprecedented. “It’s the first time the university has
issued notice of disciplinary action for political activities,” she said.
It appears to be a sign that UQAM has taken to
heart a recent warning from faculty members. In a letter published last month,
14 political science professors wrote that the university faces a serious
crisis. “For a few years now, our university has fallen prey to the actions of a
minority: courses stopped by self-proclaimed, sometimes masked, commandos,
intimidations, harassment, shoving, acts of vandalism and ransacking,
disruptions of meetings and conferences, repeated strikes,” they wrote.
In Quebec City, Education Minister François
Blais had a sobering message of his own for the striking students. He warned
that unlike in 2012, the government is not going to bend over backwards to make
sure students can make up classes, and they could lose their semester. “I don’t
see how I can take money from primary or high schools to fund people who have
walked out of university,” he said.
The provincial student group ASSÉ says
associations representing nearly 50,000 on 10 university and college campuses
have declared a strike of at least two weeks to protest a range of issues,
including provincial government budget cuts and fossil-fuel projects.
Mr. Blais
challenged
the students’ use of the
term
strike. “There cannot be a right to strike, a
right that prevents some students from studying,” he told the legislature. He
said university and college administrators “have an obligation to permit access
to their classrooms. They have the means and they have the resources, sometimes
even the possibility of penalties.”
It is now left to the universities to enforce
these marching orders. Université Laval
in Quebec City, for one, has room for improvement. On Monday the administration
did nothing to prevent protesting students from disrupting classes. In one
incident captured on video, a university security guard even helped enforce the
strike, telling a student trying to enter a barricaded class that he had to
abide by his faculty association’s strike vote.
In a statement Tuesday, the university said
“students choosing not to attend their classes are invited to respect the
choices of those who prefer to attend.” It added that all demonstrations have to
be respectful and in accordance with university regulations.
National Post, March 24, 2015.
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