To help explain the outrage in Quebec, the Charlatan’s Cassie Aylward and Inayat Singh outline some of the key events from the now year-long battle between students and state.1.March 17, 2011: Quebec Finance Minister Raymond Bachand announces the tuition hike in the government’s budget. Plan is to increase fees by $325 a year over five years, starting in September 2012. The increases would amount to $1,625, taking Quebec’s average tuition from $2,168 to $3,793 a year, representing a 75% increase. Tuition fees would remain lowest in Canada. Bachand says students must pay their “fair share”, according to a Quebec government press release.
2. Nov. 10, 2011: About 20,000 students hold a rally in Montreal protesting the hike, as part of a larger two-day strike by nearly 200,000 students across the province organized by various unions. By the end of the day, riot police are called to McGill’s campus, and four people are arrested.
3. Feb. 13, 2012: Start of the ‘unlimited’ student strike, with fine arts students at UQAM and social work and graduate sociology students at Université Laval initiating strike action. Strike grows exponentially in following weeks.
4. March 22, 2012: A kilometres-long protest rally paralyzes Montreal, with students taking to the streets to oppose the hike. More than 200,000 students have joined the strike by now. The protest is larger than the 1995 Quebec referendum rally, according to the Students Society of McGill University (SSMU) website. Three major student associations, the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ), Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec (FECQ) and the largest, and more militant, Coalition large de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE) are the organizers. CLASSE’s Twitter page threatens actions that will disrupt the economy if tuition hike is not withdrawn.
5. April 18, 2012: About 150 protesters are arrested in Gatineau after protests at the Université du Québec en Outaouais campus in defiance of a court injunction, according to Gatineau police.
6. April 23, 2012: Quebec Education Minister Line Beachamp starts negotiations with student groups, but CLASSE, which represents about half of all striking students, is barred from attending after it refuses to condemn acts of violence. Negotiations eventually break down over the government’s refusal to include CLASSE in talks.
7. May 10, 2012: Smoke bombs tossed into various Montreal subway stations, causing a mass evacuation and temporary shut-down of the system, according to police. Four people, associated with the student protests, are charged with the smoke-bombing, according to Montreal police. No student unions take responsibility for the attacks.
6. May 14, 2012: After weeks of failing negotiations with students, education minister Line Beauchamp gives up her spot in cabinet, she announced in a press conference, and is replaced by Michelle Courchesne. The decision comes just hours after Beauchamp participated in a conference call with student leaders, apparently giving a final attempt to restarting negotiations with the protestors according the CBC.
7. May 18, 2012: Quebec’s provincial government introduces an emergency law, saying protestors cannot wear masks in public and must submit their protest routes to police, according to the bill. The bill, dubbed Bill 78, is called draconian by many in online communities and sparks outrage from protestors who wear masks to a protest that night as a symbol of defiance. Four are arrested, according to a Montreal Police press release.
8. May 22, 2012: To mark the 100th day of strikes, students march along a pre-approved protest route, while a small part of the march break off to march along a different path, where several dozen students were arrested. On May 23, police cause anger when they used a controversial measure called “kettling”— surrounding small groups of people in crowds leaving them with no room to escape, easily catching bystanders or journalists— on protestors.
10. May 24, 2012: With the protests heating up and no end in sight to the nightly marches, Charest puts former chief of staff, Daniel Gagnier, back to the post he’d been away from for three years, with a mandate of restarting negotiations with student leaders with the hopes of putting an end to the uneasiness in the province.
