MONTREAL - University and CEGEP students in Quebec are not giving up in their efforts to annul a tuition hike.
However student groups are not unanimous in their new approaches.
The Federation etudiante universitaire du Quebec (FEUQ) and the Federation etudiante collegiale du Quebec (FECQ) announced on Monday that they will target Liberal MNAs they perceive as being vulnerable in a door-to-door campaign.
The two organizations have selected 10 politicians, including Transportation Minister Pierre Moreau and Public Security Minister Robert Dutil, and say they will go door-to-door in their ridings in an effort to convince voters not to vote Liberal in the next provincial election.
The FEUQ and FECQ say they will also start a campaign to convince donors not to give any more money to the Liberal party. They will also contact donors and hope to enlist them in a harassment campaign.
"We hope to put pressure to the government," said Martine Desjardins of FEUQ. "When you have several citizens that are calling you, asking questions, when your donor is annoyed by people calling them, we think that is the right way to put pressure on the government."
Desjardins said she hopes that donors will be willing to pull their funding if the government continues with its plan to hike tuition by $1625 by 2017.
In December 2010 the Reseau de Resistance du Quebecois (RRQ) sent letters to Liberal donors demanding they pressure the government into calling an inquiry into the construction industry. That letter campaign prompted the Liberal party to file a complaint with the Surete du Quebec and the Chief Electoral Officer that their donors were being targetted.
Meanwhile the student group Coalition Large de l'Association pour la Solidarite syndicale etudiante (CLASSE), which organized a massive rally in Montreal last Thursday, says it will continue to hold protests and demonstrations with the goal of disrupting the public at large.
First up was a protest outside Montreal City Hall, where Finance Minister Raymond Bachand was announcing funding for a $350 million project to expand the University of Montreal campus.
CLASSE says, however, that its members do not plan on blocking bridges again.
Last week 94 students were fined $494 for blocking the Champlain Bridge.
Later on a second protest began at FEUQ headquarters in Montreal North, then spread into the metro system.
Several windows were shattered aboveground, and police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd and get people out of the Jarry metro stop.
