I have been following the 2012 Quebec student protests with personal interest.
My first experience with student protests was in 1957 when the Montreal Transportation Commission decided to raise the bus ticket cost from 13 cents to 15 cents. The McGill Student Union called for a mass march on the Hotel de Ville in old Montreal. It was a wonderfully crisp and sunny day as more than 2,000 of us took to the streets of downtown Montreal.
Arriving at city hall, we had rousing student orations and flag waving. A city official came out and told us that the MTC had gone bankrupt and the province owned it. We needed to take our march to Quebec City. There were shouts of disbelief and frustration. But the sun was going down. We were hungry and had books to crack. We walked back to campus.
On the way, some buses had been stopped. Then taxis. Air was let out of tires. Stupid, we thought. Time to go home. There was nothing damaged. That evening, the riot began. Only a handful of students were involved. The McGill Student Union was fined $10,000. Bus ticket prices stayed at 15 cents.
Montreal is not new to riots – anti Second World War conscription; Rocket Richard’s suspension; the fallout of “vive le QuĂ©bec libre”; Stanley Cup playoff riots in 1993 and 2008; the Concordia anti-Netanyahu riot of 2002; Gun ’n Roses riot 1998 … to name a few.
The 2012 Quebec student protests are therefore not out of character in our sister province. This time the action started with a demand for a tuition freeze and free post secondary education. Sadly, frustrated labour unions, student separatist politicos and disaffected Pequiste hard-liners have taken over.
Barricades with banging pots and pans have been copied from the abortive Chilean university student protest movement. Student strikes have been good media copy but are a joke since almost all of the protesters had already completed their year-end exams. Flash mobs and occupations are now being added. These are the kindling wood for mob violence. There have been no deaths yet, but there have been more than 25 injuries and nearly 3,000 arrests made – to date.
What is tragic about this is the loss of an important societal issue where respectful debate should be taking place – namely the students’ original goal of ‘free’ post-secondary education.
When my dad went to school, most of his age group stopped school at Grade 8. When I was in high school (shortly after the Great Flood) only 20 per cent of my high school Grade 9 class went on to university. You could get a good job with a Grade 10 early education-leaving diploma and a high school graduation diploma was an accepted educational goal for most employers and families.
Not today. Just about anyone who wants a job, which pays enough to raise a family, needs post-secondary education – whether it be an apprenticeship, a diploma or a degree. So would it not make sense to extend the same type of public funding structure to post-secondary institutions as to our high schools?
At least do it to the bachelor degree or equivalent level. Stop the wasteful and unnecessary bureaucracy, individual and family stress and the university politics of student loans. Let our young people, who need the basic education we demand to meet our societal requirements for economic survival, concentrate on learning.
Education will never be free. But it is surely time to realign how we pay for it so that it recognizes the realities of the 21st century.
Alan Murdock is a local pediatrician.
