It's time to go home.

It's time to pack up the tents and call it day.

The Occupy Montreal movement and dozens of others were effective for about a week.

People did pay some attention, although the message coming out of the camp was often confusing and misdirected.

Our patience is now running thin, and the occupiers have the audacity to want to make it a little more permanent.

They want to build wooden shacks to help them survive the cold Montreal winter; ice fishing huts in downtown Montreal.

Mayor Tremblay must be firm on this.

We simply cannot have a huge outdoor shelter at Victoria Square--or anywhere else.

Give it up. It's time.

They made their point although I'm not sure they really accomplished much.

I'm pretty sure that 99% of people would probably agree with me.


Even with hike, tuition is cheap

Quebec is, sans doute, the nanny state of nanny states.

So it's not surprising that students have come to expect to pay rock bottom tuition fees; they don't really know any different.

But someone has to pay.

That means the million or so Quebecers who actually pay income tax every year to support our rather lavish social programs.

Tuition fees have been frozen for most of the last 40 years.

Universities need the money and the government can't keep racking up insane levels of debt, which increases by an estimated $31 million a day.

A university education is a wonderful thing, a thing of value, but let's get some perspective here.

Even with hikes of $325 a year over five years, Quebec will still have the lowest tuition fees in Canada; half of what students pay in Ontario.

I agree that the government can and should be more generous in financial aid to help those who truly need it, but at the end of the day, the students, like the occupiers, must realize there is no free ride or free lunch.


Paying the price for freedom

Every November 11th, we should all pause and remember that freedom has its price.

It is usually something that is won and it always comes at a great cost.

On this Remembrance Day, as always, we pay tribute and mourn the terrible losses.

We should also give thanks for our newest veterans.

It may have not been a popular war for many Canadians, but 158 of our soldiers were killed in Afghanistan.

Hundreds more were injured and countless suffer post traumatic stress and other afflictions.

Like our heroes from other wars and other times, these vets too deserve our gratitude and our care.

Lest we forget.