MONTREAL—Quebec’s student protesters are back.
After weeks of quiet streets as the banging casseroles were silenced, the summer lull in the longest and largest student protest in Canadian history was shattered on Wednesday as 200 took to Montreal’s night.
On Thursday, CLASSE announced that it would be launching a tour of Quebec’s regions to drum up student fervour, coinciding with an early end to summer.
Under emergency legislation passed by the Charest Liberals in May, Bill 78 orders the province’s militant students out of summer early and back to school in mid-August.
Wielding a new manifesto, telegenic CLASSE spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois announced that Quebec’s student protests were moving beyond tuition and the borders of the province.
The new Canada-wide campaign in the “Nous Sommes Avenir” pamphlet calls for a permanent change to the way politics are conducted, asking for more direct democracy, accountability from politicians and a grocery list of other social demands.
“We have something to say as a generation. We’ve been trying to say it for the past months, but through the mainstream media it’s always a little harder to explain deeply our message.
“Now, the decision we have taken is to go directly to the population and give them this basis of reflection and exchange,” said Nadeau-Dubois, clutching the manifesto.
“This strike revealed a deep dissatisfaction with the way Quebec has been going for the past 15 years,” he said, taking pains to explain the manifesto isn’t an election strategy.
“We are selling our natural resources, our health care, our education and all our public services. Our democracy is easily corrupted. Equality between men and women is slowing. The youth of Quebec is disturbed by all of it.”
With many expecting embattled Premier Jean Charest to call for an election on Sept. 4, the renewed student movement envisioned by Nadeau-Dubois would compete directly with Liberal parliamentarians seeking re-election.
Over the July 14 weekend, members of CLASSE will meet in Quebec City and decide how they will act during the election and which candidates they will support—if any. According to the CLASSE spokesman, a call to election could provide the student movement with another kick to action.
“Premier Charest underestimated the student movement, he underestimated the anger of voters in Argenteuil.
"I wouldn’t be surprised if he underestimated the will of Quebecers to throw him and his corrupt government out of office,” said Nadeau-Dubois, referring to the embarrassing loss of a Liberal fortress during the June 12 byelection.
More restrained student groups, like the college student federation, have already vowed to visit the ridings of key Liberals and disrupt events as local MNAs tour the hustings.
The organizer will also be taking the Quebec message on the road, planning to start a nine-day “student solidarity” tour of Ottawa on Thursday afternoon. CLASSE has planned speaking events on university campuses in several cities, including Kingston, Hamilton, Windsor, Niagara, London, Guelph and Toronto.
The next large student protest in Quebec is planned for July 22.
