On Oct. 19, McGill announced a pause in the rollout of its five-year, $50 million Rayonnement du français initiative, intended to increase access to French-learning resources in order to improve students’ and staff’s knowledge of the language. In an email to the McGill community on Oct. 25, Principal and Vice-Chancellor[Read More…]
Tag: quebec
Evictions of encampments encroach on equitable housing solutions
As the housing crisis in Montreal persists, neither the city government nor its citizens are addressing the unhoused population with the empathy and urgency they deserve. A coalition of residents from Saint-Henri recently expressed anger over a decision to build a four-storey housing complex for unhoused individuals and a supervised[Read More…]
Students decry tuition hikes during SSMU town hall
On the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 25, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) held a town hall to discuss the Quebec government’s proposed tuition increases for out-of-province students. Students and organizers voiced concerns over the policy’s impacts on access to education and quality of learning and discussed ways to[Read More…]
Support workers against the collapse of the public sector
Since the end of September, public-sector employees unionized under the Centrale des syndicats du Québec, Confédération des syndicats nationaux, the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux and the Fédération travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec, in Quebec have been marching to demand better pay[Read More…]
The Tribune Explains: Quebec tuition increases
On Oct. 13, the Quebec government announced its plan to increase tuition for out-of-province Canadian university students. The policy will nearly double out-of-province tuition at McGill from the current $8,992 to $17,000 annually for Arts students. With concerns swirling around the McGill community about how this will affect students and[Read More…]
We need collective action against Quebec’s push for financially inaccessible education
On Oct. 13, the Quebec government announced that tuition for incoming out-of-province Canadian students hoping to study at Quebec universities would double, at both anglophone and francophone post-secondary institutions. This measure will come into effect for all incoming students in Fall 2024 and would entirely reshape the province’s educational landscape.[Read More…]
McGill students and staff respond to new language requirements for the PEQ
On June 7, the Quebec government, led by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) in the National Assembly, implemented changes to the Programme de l’expérience québécoise (PEQ)—a program which many international students at McGill rely on as a path to permanent residency. The PEQ has two branches: One for temporary foreign[Read More…]
Quebec needs real housing solutions, not Bill 31
On Sept. 20, hearings about Bill 31 wrapped up in the National Assembly. The bill proposes a number of changes to current housing legislation, including altering eviction procedures and allowing landlords to prevent lease transfers. Since the bill’s tabling, housing group coalitions such as Regroupement des comités logement et associations[Read More…]
Counter-protestors rally against anti-trans demonstrators outside Roddick Gates
Over 400 people congregated in front of the Roddick Gates on Sherbrooke on Sept. 20 to join the Protect our Trans Siblings counter-protest against the 1 Million March 4 Children. There was a heavy police presence on-site to separate the two sides, which later confronted each other in heated exchanges[Read More…]
New French language funding cannot be a tool of linguistic domination
Tension over the use of French and English is nothing new for the city of Montreal. Decades of disputes between self-appointed defendants of French and those who recognize language laws’ discriminatory nature have brewed a debate so polarized that middle ground seems like a fantasy. Plowing straight through this precarious[Read More…]
