On her first day in office, Quebec premier Pauline Marois has eliminated the university tuition fee hike and repealed Bill 78 which restricted public demonstrations, according to The Globe and Mail.
Marois announced that tuition prices would remain at $2,168 a year, according to The Globe.
“These two decisions [cancelling tuition increases and repealing the legislation] will allow us to bring back peace and re-establish rights and freedoms,” Marois told to The Globe.
“Sept. 20 will be etched in the annals of history in Quebec,” tweeted the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec. “We have moved from confrontation to construction.”
Last winter, a countless number of students marched in protest against the $254 a year tuition hike that would have occurred over the next seven years, according to the Montreal Gazette.
“Marois, who was criticized by the Liberals for wearing a symbolic red square in solidarity with students for much of the conflict, made a promise to cancel the tuition increase — and she moved quickly to fulfill that commitment,” the Gazette stated.
Despite making students happy for removing the tuition increased, there still remains the issue of university funding, according to the Gazette.
“[I]f it is not through tuition increases, then we must look at alternative solutions,” Olivier Marcil, McGill University’s vice-principal of communications and external relations told the Gazette.
