Elisha Lerner / McGill Tribune

Elisha Lerner / McGill Tribune

Over 20,000 students from all over Quebec gathered on Thursday, Nov. 10 at Place Émile-Gamelin near UQAM to demonstrate against the provincial government’s proposed tuition increases. The Quebec government announced that it would be increasing university tuition for local students by $1,625 over five years.

McGill students gathered at the Roddick Gates before moving down McGill College to join those demonstrating from Concordia. In an opening statement to the demonstrators at McGill, Joël Pedneault, SSMU’s VP External Affairs, explained that demonstrators were there to protest the tuition increase not only on behalf of current  students, but for an entire generation of future ones as well.

 “We’re also here for the people who can’t be here,” Pedneault said. “We’re here for a public education system, one that’s accessible to everybody regardless of their means … we’re here for the future of everyone who’s young, who’s old, who’s about to be born in this province.”

Joëlle Shaw, a McGill art history student and local Montrealer, explained that she was protesting because this was the first year she was almost unable to pay her tuition fees.

“I asked for money from the government to help me out and I got something absolutely ridiculous because they considered that, even if I haven’t been living with my parents for two years, I’m still a dependent student.”

“I’m really happy to see McGill participating because this tends to be considered like a francophone university movement, and it’s not, and [we] need to all be in this together because it affects everyone,” Shaw said.

Picket signs reading “Angry Anglos en grève,” testified to the strong presence of anglophone students from McGill, Concordia, Dawson, and Vanier College. Students from UQAM, University of Laval, University of Sherbrooke, and CEGEP Sainte Félicien near Lac St. Jean demonstrated too. The protest included students from Rimouski, Saguenay Lac St. Jean in Chicoutimi, and Salaberry-de-Valleyfield. Not only were there universities present, but Quebec Solidaire, the Quebec University Student Federation (FEUQ), and MUNACA were part of the crowd.

Also attending were seven students from the University of Ottawa.

“We’re here because we want to show solidarity with the students of Quebec. Also, because Quebec is kind of like a model for us. Ontario has the highest tuition fees in all of Canada, so if Quebec tuition fees start going up [it’s a bad sign],” Sarah Eastwood, an international development student from the University of Ottawa, said.

Speaking to the effects this tuition increase would have on Quebec students, Martine Desjardins, president of FEUQ, said it would limit many students’ ability to receive financial aid from the government and that the increase would effectively render 7,000 students unable to attend university.

“For us, it says, is it really the quality and the competency of students that counts or is it their wallets? The answer is the quality of students,” Desjardins asserted.

Simon Gosselin, a representative for La Table de concertation étudiante du Québec (TaCEQ), a group of students from the University of Laval, the University of Sherbrooke, and McGill, echoed Desjardins’ statement. 

“The government is fishing in the pockets of students instead of taking real responsibility without a real guarantee for Quebec’s future,” Gosselin said.

The protestors moved from UQAM toward McGill College, where the demonstration ended in front of the Roddick Gates. Montreal police confirmed that four arrests were made in response to the demonstration. These consisted of two arrests for assaults on a police officer, one for obstructing a police officer, and another for municipal violence.

“In general I would say everything went really, really well and smooth,” Officer Jean-Pierre Brabant said. “There was a little bit of mischief [in front of] the [Premier’s] office [building], but except that, nothing more.”