The Dominion - student strike

Three ways Quebec can freeze tuition without raising taxes

Tim McSorley — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 20:51:34 +0000

What the media isn't telling you about government spending in Quebec

MONTREAL—Everything and its opposite has been said about Quebec's historic student strike. Strikers and their vocal supporters have been pitted against hostile opinions from the government and middle class Quebeckers. At the heart of much of the debate is concern that without a tuition fee increase the government will instead raise taxes. As Jonathan Mercier, a government lawyer and father of three, explained recently, he supports the principles behind the student strike, but he simply has no faith that the government of Quebec will not raise taxes, leaving no money in his wallet.

Mercier isn't alone in distrusting the government: According to a July 2012 poll, IPSOS Reid found that 95 per cent of Canadians do not trust their politicians. Combine this lack of trust with a constant squeeze on middle class wallets—debt to disposable income ratio for the average Canadian family hit a new record high this summer of 152 per cent—and you have an explosive situation when a student knocks on your door asking for a freeze on their tuition.

With that in mind, here are three quick and dirty ways for finding $300 million under the Quebec Finance Minister’s pillow, without having to raise taxes:

1. Uncovering corruption leads to lower prices in construction industry

The impact of the provincially appointed Charbonneau Commission into allegations of government corruption has already been felt in municipalities across Quebec. In 2011, Quebec City initially forecast a $170 million budget for its road works and infrastructure repairs. However, following the start of the commission's hearings, the construction companies lowered their prices, offering the same services for $130 million: a 25 per cent “savings.” Investigations into corruption are said to be leading construction companies to cease their collusion. According to its annual budget, the government of Quebec plans to spend over $9 billion on road work and infrastructure over the next few years. Even if prices for the provincial government only fall by half as much, let’s say 10 per cent, that equates to $900 million more in the pockets of taxpayers. Eliminating this “subsidy” to the construction industries, known as “extras,” could finance free university education.

Savings: at least $900 million per year.

2. Stop subsidizing the pollution of mining companies

In its 2012 budget, the government of Quebec included $2.2 billion in environmental debt to account for orphan sites. Orphan sites are toxic waste sites left behind when a mining, gas or petroleum company has finished exploiting its allotted land. The government of Quebec refuses to reveal the real costs of cleaning all contaminated sites, noting only that there are at least 679 contaminated sites and that cleanup costs are pegged at $2.2 billion. When the minister in charge of mines, Serge Simard, was asked who will foot the bill for the cleanup of the mines, he was unambiguous: “For sure, the people of Quebec will be the ones paying. It won't be the Martians paying, it will be the people of Quebec.”

Savings: at least $2.2 billion

3. Rethink or eliminate the Plan Nord

The Plan Nord, which aims to ramp up resource development in the northern 70 per cent of the province, seems to be a perfect demonstration of why taxpayers are stuck with never-ending provincial deficits. Studies show that government officials are making unprecedented and unexpected gifts to mining companies. Before the reform to Quebec mining royalties in 2010, the provincial government received $287 million in royalties from mining companies over a 10-year period. Previously considered one of the most generous royalty programmes on the planet, Quebec has since reformed its system, increasing the rate from 12 to 16 per cent in royalties on profits (but not on total production). Quebec should now, in theory, be receiving $400 million per year from an annual mineral production of $8 billion. Profitable mining companies that were once made to invest in infrastructure, such as roads and ports, have now been told the Quebec government will support them via Plan Nord. Over the next 25 years, the government estimates $82 billion will be spent on the Plan Nord (roughly 50 per cent from Hydro-Quebec, 30 per cent from the government and 20 per cent from companies) generating $14.2 billion. The hidden social and environmental costs would be roughly $6.15 billion. We can therefore expect an $8.45 billion deficit over the next 25 years for the Plan Nord.

Savings:
1. Apply the 16 per cent royalty on total mineral production instead of on profits: $1.28 billion in revenue per year.
2. Require companies to build and maintain their own roads: $2.8 billion in savings over 25 years.
3. Rethink the Plan Nord so that it will be affordable for taxpayers, socially just for First Nations and ecologically sound for Earthlings and Martians: at least $8.45 billion in savings over 25 years.

Luca Palladino is a HEC Business School graduate who studied capitalism to understand the nature of the beast. He studied economics but had to read Adam Smith and Karl Marx in secret because they only taught him math at school. You can follow his work at @lukaesque.

John and the crooks

Quebec Government Looks to "Lock-Out" Striking Students

dawn — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:25:09 +0000

Libs threaten to suspend classes unless pickets lifted

Editor's note: Bill 78 was introduced in the National Assembly late Thursday night, and goes even further than what is laid out below. To read the bill itself, click here [PDF, French]. Check the Montreal Media Co-op for updates and more details.

MONTREAL—After fourteen weeks of student strikes in Quebec, the provincial Liberals announced Wednesday they will introduce a law that would suspend the rest of this semester at colleges and universities if striking students do not stop holding picket lines or enforcing strike votes.

Bill 78, "A Law Allowing Students to Receive the Education Provided by the School Which They Attend", was introduced in the National Assembly in Quebec City after deadline late Thursday night.

Student representatives were fast to denounce the proposed regulation on Wednesday night, calling it a "lock-out" and saying it will only add "fuel to the fire."

"Tonight, the government spit in the face of a generation...We will remember how we were treated tonight for a long time," said Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, co-spokesperson for the Enlarged Coalition of the Association for a Solidarity Among Student Unions (CLASSE), at a press conference.

As the government's intentions became clear, an array of voices spoke out against the government using legislating to deal with the conflict, including the Quebec Bar Association, and even a group of students which is actively mobilizing in favor of the tuition fee increase.

Across Québec, over 155,000 students remain on strike at 14 colleges and 11 universities. Since the government made its latest offer to students, some 325,000 students have voted against it. It is the longest student strike in Quebec and Canadian history, launched in opposition to the provincial government's plan to increase tuition fees by 82 per cent over seven years.

Wednesday's proposal from the government came in two parts:

First, at schools where students are on strike, students, administrators and teachers must come to an agreement that would allow any student who wishes to return to class—even those whose associations have voted in favor of the strike—to be able to do so. This requires putting an end to all pickets lines or any other disruptive tactics used to ensure the strike vote is respected. If such an agreement is reached, classes will continue normally for the remainder of the semester.

For those schools where such an agreement is not reached, classes will be suspended immediately, and will resume in August, with each school taking on the task of determining what the schedule should look like. The example of the Université de Montréal has been given, where winter semester classes are being suspended until mid-August. They will then run until the end of September. The Fall semester will begin at the start of October—a month late—and finish in mid-January.

The second part of the proposed law will serve to "guarantee the right to education," according to a government press release. It is believed that this means the government will introduce methods to enforce the ban on picket lines, possibly through major fines. The exact details will only be revealed when the bill is introduced in the National Assembly on Thursday night.

Following the announcement, over a thousand people took to the streets of Quebec City, while up to another 20,000 people marched in Montreal.

The effect of the law, according to CLASSE, is essentially the same as a lock-out: at schools where students are still on strike, they either stop enforcing picket lines - eliminating any power that the strike may have - or they will see classes suspended, removing the element that they are striking against.

"This is a lockout, in the end, because it stops students from exercising their democratic rights in general assemblies," said Jeanne Reynolds, CLASSE's co-spokesperson.

The Quebec Federation of University Students and the Quebec Federation of College Students also spoke out soon after the government announcement. They said that they are already preparing to launch a legal challenge against the legislation, should it be adopted. The Liberal party has a majority of seats in the National Assembly, so there is little doubt it will pass.

The proposed law comes as tensions have continued to rise on campuses.

As the strike continues, more and more students have turned to the courts to seek injunctions allowing them to return to class, even if their student associations have voted by a majority to strike. In most cases, these injunctions have been approved. Thought student unions are officially recognized under Quebec law, their right to collectively strike is not. Therefore the courts and the government see participation in the strike as a personal choice. The result is that if one student out of several hundred - or in some cases, out of thousands - requests an injunction to return to class, they have received it.

While the right of students to strike is not legislated, it has been accepted as a practice in the past.

As court injunctions multiply, striking students have taken action to protect the legitimacy of their strike votes. The result has been hard picket lines and classroom disruptions. In response, both local and provincial police have been dispatched to campuses, ratcheting up tension and resulting in arrests, injuries (often from batons), and tear gas and pepper spray being used.

"Each [member of the National Assembly] who votes in favor of this law will have to live with consequences," said Reynolds. "Government intransigence has already seriously injured individuals."

CLASSE has called for a major demonstration in Montreal on May 22, two months after some 300,000 marched against the tuition fee increase, to show that the opposition remains.

An extended version of this article first appeared in the Montéal Media Co-op. Tim McSorley is a journalist and an editor member of the Media Co-op.

Night March in Montreal

Quebec Student Strike Marches Into Eleventh Week

Tim McSorley — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:37:04 +0000

Fifteen thousand take to Montreal streets as Quebec government plays semantics, blocks negotiations

MONTREAL—It didn't take long; as always, the consensus among the media came quickly: "Downtown turns into battlefield," "Another demonstration goes sour," "Montreal student demonstration turns violent," "Violence breaks out during student protest"...

At the end of a day where 15,000 people took to the streets, a day that saw the provincial government play the worst kind of politics during negotiations with student representatives, you'd be hard-pressed to get any of that from the night's headlines.

Also invisible from those opening lines were any mention of police actions—actions which, if you were watching the live stream from CUTV, checking out clips on Youtube, or even following nearly any Twitter feed (let alone if you were actually at the protest)—did more to set off tensions than anything protesters did two nights ago.

The events of April 26 were set in motion by Education Minister Line Beauchamp's announcement that she was expelling the Coalition Large de l'Association pour une Solidarite Syndicale Etudiante from the negotiating session, which were meant to find a resolution to the 11-week-old student strike that has swept the province.

CLASSE represents 50 per cent of the 180,000 students on strike and was largely responsible for launching the strike in the first place. It has also been a constant thorn in the side of the government, organizing the most radical acts of civil disobedience and maintaining a firm line demanding the continuation of the province's tuition fee freeze.

Why were they expelled? After the coalition adopted a clear position against violence towards people, but encouraged civil disobedience, Minister Beauchamp demanded that CLASSE agree to a 48-hour truce for negotiations. During this time, the union would be allowed to organize traditional protests (which it did Wednesday afternoon), but not engage in economic disruption. While CLASSE did not have a mandate to sign a truce, it did state that it had no disruptive actions planned for the next 48 hours.

The Federation des Etudiants Universitaire du Quebec as well as the Federation des Etudiants Collegial du Quebec (FEUQ and FECQ) had already previously spoken out against "violent actions," including acts of vandalism and civil disobedience.

On Monday at 4pm, all three associations sat down with government representatives for the first time since the strike began.

Less than 40 hours later though, it was all over.

Since the start of the strike, CLASSE has maintained a website featuring a Google calendar that showed all student actions across the province, including those that involved actions that the government defines as disruptive or violent. This didn't appear to be a problem to start the truce, but it did serve as the excuse to end it. The ostensible reason was a march last Tuesday night that was announced on the Google calendar included at least one count of property destruction (a broken window), and confrontation with police, resulting in five arrests.

Clearly looking for a pretext to attempt once again to split the tuition freeze movement and to marginalize the association with the most radical—and persistent—membership, Minister Beauchamp took to the airwaves at 2pm Wednesday, announcing that CLASSE was expelled from the negotiations. Within several minutes, the other two federations walked away in solidarity.

A protest had already been called a week earlier for Wednesday night, and the government's arbitrary discussion to cut short negotiations—before, by most accounts, they had even really started—led to people understandably being angry and looking for a way to express their anger.

As Daniel Crespo, one of the organizers of last night's demonstration, told Cyberpresse:

«Évidemment on souhaite une manif énergique. Calme, c'est pas le mot...En ce moment, je crois que le sentiment qui se vit au sein des étudiant-e-s c'est la colère. Alors le calme, je ne crois pas qu'on en ait.»

"Obviously, we're hoping for an energetic demo. Calm isn't the word...Right now, I think the feeling students have is anger. So 'calm'? I don't think we have any."

That said, I have been in the middle of much angrier marches than what hit Montreal last night.

Fifteen thousand people were in the streets last night. Fifteen thousand who were fed up with a government that earlier in the day essentially spit in the face of the student strike movement, demonstrating the same condescension, arrogance and rejectionism that has characterized their approach to this movement, one of the largest social movements in the history of not just Quebec, but of Canada.

And despite all this anger, it was mostly channeled through chanting and speeches. All it took though was a few paint balloons and six broken windows before 15,000 people were announced illegal. Targeted for property destruction were banks, Loto-Quebec and a military recruitment centre: not random targets, but symbols of the government and the economic powers which are behind the push for higher tuition fees and with them higher debt. When the government refuses to negotiate in good faith for over two months, and slams the door when negotiations finally begin, is it any wonder that people would turn their frustrations on the symbols of that government and those who back them?

The response of police was unannounced and muscled. I was just a few metres from where the first percussion grenade went off, in the middle of the crowd, and I feel confident saying that the use of these weapons came before most—if anyone—in the streets knew that the march had been declared an illegal assembly. It was only after the crowd scattered that a voice was heard over the police loudspeaker announcing that the march was illegal. And looking to accounts posted on social media, I'm definitely not alone in that assessment. By the time the announcement was heard, police were already forcing their way into the crowd, separating it, with small groups of people scattering in all directions near the corner of Peel and Ste-Catherine.

From other parts of the march have come reports of police on horses charging crowds, excessive use of pepper spray and gas, batoning and tear gassing. It was only after this excessive intervention that the more aggressive tactics—a car lit on fire, more windows smashed, rocks thrown at police—took place.

Some will clearly argue that once a single window is broken, the law is broken and police have every right to intervene. But can six broken windows justify the police aggression documented on Wednesday night? And if six broken windows can make 15,000 people targetable for dispersion and arrest, then what does a tear gas cannister to the chest, or a concussion grenade to the eye, or a baton to the head or ribs, or a car ramming through a crowd equal? All are clearly more dangerous to the health and safety of individual people: police aren't taking on objects when they aggress, they are taking on flesh and blood.

When all was done—around 1am—85 people were arrested (70 in a mass arrest near St-Dominique and des Pins at the very end), accounts of police brutality were innumerable on social media, and students and supporters were vowing to fight on.

This morning, Quebec Premier Jean Charest was once again denouncing student violence as the obstacle of continued negotiation, playing out the same tired lines he and Minister Beauchamp have had on repeat for weeks. Tired lines that have, and will, do nothing to end this conflict.

Tim McSorley is an editor with The Dominion and a member of the Montreal Media Co-op.

This article was originally published by the Montreal Media Co-op.

April 25 night march in Montreal 1

April 25 night march in Montreal 2

November in Review

Stuart Neatby — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 04:55:15 +0000

Worker and Student Strikes, War Resistance, Climate Change Topples Howard

In France, an unprecedented strike of transport workers erupted throughout Paris, sparking waves of walkouts of public employees, students, teachers, and postal workers. The strike was the first major challenge for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was elected in May on a free-market platform. In line with this platform, Sarkozy has proposed a sweeping reform plan of France's public sector. The strikes began after rail workers took to the streets in protest of a bill that would increase their pension contribution period. The transport workers, whose strike shut down all but 90 of Paris' 700 fast train lines, were joined days later by public sector workers, who staged walk-outs in protest of plans to lay off 23,000. By late November, after weeks of class disruptions, several student unions struck as well in opposition to plans to privatize France's exclusively public post-secondary universities. At the peak of these strikes, a multi-sector 24-hour walk-out brought hundreds of thousands into the streets of Paris on November 20th. Although the rail workers strike effectively ended on November 22nd, after 42 of the 45 committees representing the striking workers voted to suspend their work stoppage, some public sector unions have warned that new strikes could begin next month.

In Quebec, 38 Student Unions and students associations representing about 58,000 University and CEGEP students participated in multi-day strike actions in response to the de-freezing of tuition fees by the Charest government. The strikes were called by the Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Etudiante (ASSÉ), a province-wide union of student associations. On November 15th, a one-day strike was called across the province and 2000 marched in Montreal against the Charest government's post-secondary education plans. This march came two days after 300 students staged an occupation of the CEGEP du Vieux-Montréal. Police responded with overwhelming brutality, arresting 150. Other students faced police attacks after staging a sit-in at the office of Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) rector Claude Corbo. The demands of ASSE are wide-reaching, and include free and accessible post-secondary education for all students in Quebec. Organizers have hinted at further strike action in the winter term.

In Olympia, Washington hundreds of anti-war demonstrators successfully blockaded the entry of military equipment returning from Iraq. This military port town is used to ship military equipment to and from Iraq, including armoured transport 'striker' vehicles. Blockades on November 9th shut down military traffic into and out of Olympia for 18 hours. Roving highway blockades throughout the town further impeded the entry of military equipment. Civilian shipments were allowed to enter and leave the port. Police responded with force, arresting 66 in total over the week and a half of actions and heavily pepper-spraying, tear gassing, and shooting demonstrators with rubber bullets. After several more days of protest actions, another sit-down blockade brought the military port to a halt for another 13 hours on November 13th. Said protest organizer Phan Nguyen: "We also encourage other communities to look around and just see what all the possibilities are and understand that they are capable of doing this."

The Canadian Supreme Court refused to even hear the case of Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey, the first two war resisters to have publicly travelled to Canada in order to refuse to fight the war in Iraq. They are expected to face deportation proceedings. The War Resisters support campaign held protests in eight Canadian cities and is appealing to supporters to bombard Canadian MP's with letters and faxes asking for a parliamentary provision allowing Hughey and Hinzman to remain in Canada.

In Pakistan following the imposition of marshal law by military dictator Pervez Musharraf, thousands of political opposition activists, lawyers, judges, human rights activists, and political workers were rounded up and arrested within days. Musharraf's crackdown occurred as the Pakistani Supreme Court was to rule on his eligibility to run for a second term in office. The Supreme Court had shown an unprecedented judicial independence on numerous occasions, perhaps most notably in its June ruling against the privatization of Pakistan's state steel mill due to its proposed sale to a Russian-lead consortium linked to the current Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. Despite the military crackdown, protests, particularly by students and lawyers, have continued into December throughout the country demanding the re-instatement of the Supreme Court judges and the resignation of President Musharraf. Contrary to its own rhetoric, the US government has maintained steady political and economic support to Musharraf throughout the month, despite the brutal repression being meted out. US officials later applauded the President's announcement that he would name himself president of the country for another five-year term. Musharraf has stated that the marshal law will be lifted on December 16th.

A No Border Camp organized by immigrant rights activists along the US-Mexican border was attacked by approximately 100 border control guards, who used with pepper gas pellets, tazers, and batons against 30 peaceful demonstrators. The camp was set up to challenge neo-liberal capitalism, border militarization and migration controls. Demonstrators had conducted a number of non-violent actions, including a cross-border kissing booth where activists on both sides of the border kissed through holes in the border fence separating southern California from Mexico. Three were arrested in total. Another no border camp, was held in Montreal at the Laval Detention Centre, where refugees, immigrants, and non-status people are detained by the Canadian Border Services Agency.

Anti-uranium mining activist and grandmother Donna Dillman has moved her hunger strike from Sharbot Lake to the Queen's Park legislature in Toronto. Dillman's hunger strike began in solidarity with two first nations communities, Shabot Obaadjiwan and Ardoch Algonquin, who had occupied a uranium mine on unceded land currently under the proprietorship of Frontenac Ventures. Like Dillman, the majority of non-native community members in the region were supportive of the occupation, which ended last month. Dillman's hunger strike enters its sixtieth day as of this writing, and she has pledged to remain camped out in her car in front of the legislature until a moratorium on uranium mining is enacted.

Environmentalists in Nova Scotia have won a major victory after a government-appointed panel deemed that a proposed gravel quarry near the rural town of Digby would cause irreversible environmental impacts upon the coastal eco-system. A US-based company had planned a 150-hectare basalt quarry and a marine terminal along the Digby neck peninsula. The quarry would produce gravel exclusively for export to the United States. The proposal was killed this month after the Nova Scotia government upheld the ruling of the independent panel.

In Tanzania, Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold was hit by a strike of over 1,000 of its workers, bringing the company's operations within the country to a halt. The workers were striking over a number of grievances with Barrick, including salaries, meagre healthcare allowances and non-payment of risk allowances. In response Barrick fired hundreds of workers who participated in the walk-out. The Tanzania Mines and Construction Workers Union responded by taking Barrick to court, to seek an injunction on replacing the fired workers until the company had addressed the union's grievances. The legal decision on the injunction is pending as of this writing. Meanwhile, days before the miners strike began, over one thousand marched against Barrick's proposed Pascua Lama project in the streets of Santiago, Chile

In Venezuala, Hugo Chavez has been handed the first loss of his term in office after a national referendum on constitutional reform yielded a rejection by a margin of less than a percentage point. The proposed changes to the constitution included the expansion of state cooperatives and participatory community councils, the reduction of the work-day to six hours, the creation of a new class of 'social' property, the expansion of social security benefits to workers in the informal sector, and, most controversial of all, the lengthening of the presidential term from six to seven years and a removal of term limits for President. Although Chavez still maintains overwhelming popularity within the country, the vote yielded a high abstention rate, indicating that even among supporters of Chavez's social project there were some widely-felt reservations with the proposed reforms. The opposition campaign against the amendments was heavily financed by the CIA and the US government, who continue to work to destabilize the Chavez-led government.

The British Columbian Supreme Court gave a boost to aboriginal land claims in Canada after ruling that the Tsilhqot'in First Nation be granted ownership rights of the Chilcotin region, a two thousand square kilometre region of the province. But the outcome of this legal case, which took a decade to complete, has much wider reaching implications. In his 458-page ruling, BC Supreme Court judge David Vickers deemed decisions about forestry and mining upon unceded territory to be illegitimate without consultation and agreement with First Nations communities. He also ruled that traditional hunting and trapping areas be admissible as jurisdiction of land claims. The ruling stopped short of a binding legal decision, but the provincial government has been ordered to pick up the full legal tab of the case, which amounts to $30 million in legal fees.

In Australia the government of conservative prime minister John Howard, one of the closest allies of the Bush administration, was soundly defeated in this month's elections. Climate change and Iraq were the dominant issues of the campaign. National demonstrations against the Howard government's refusal to adopt the Kyoto Protocol drew 115,000 two weeks prior to the election. In-coming Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has pledged to adopt the Kyoto treaty and withdraw Australia's 550 combat troops from Iraq by 2008, although hundreds of troops will remain in the country in 'supportive' roles. There are also no plans to withdraw Australia's 1,000 troops in Afghanistan.

In the lead-up to the international conference on global warming in Bali, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the organizing body behind the conference, released a new report revealing that greenhouse gas Emissions from the world's richest countries were "at an all-time high." The two countries with the most drastic increases in GHG emissions were also the sole two hold-outs to the Kyoto process amongst the developed nations of the world: the United States and Australia. Meanwhile, Rajendra K. Pachauri, chair of the Nobel Prize-winning Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, has called Canadian PM Stephen Harper's unwillingness to support binding GHG emissions-reduction targets, unless they apply equally to developing countries, an "opportunistic" action. Said Pachauri: "This particular government has been a government of skeptics. They do not want to do anything on climate change."

Student Strike 2007

Striker