SAINTE-MARIE, QUE.—Two thousand professors in Quebec and around the world have signed a manifesto declaring their support for striking students in the province, a move that forced Premier Jean Charest on Monday to once again defend his controversial Bill 78.
Making a pro-student statement in the midst of a heated provincial election campaign, lecturers from the province’s colleges and universities are criticizing the emergency legislation for forcing students and teachers back to school next week.
Among other controversial regulations — including strict rules governing street protests — the emergency law ruled that the semester, which had been suspended due to the protests, resume mid-August.
Striking students, however, still have cast their ballots to determine if they will abide by the law. Voting begins Tuesday.
Université de Montréal professor Michel Seymour told a Quebec radio station that the professors who signed the manifesto will support students no matter what they decide.
“My job is not to cross picket lines,” he told CJAD in Montreal. “My job is to teach my students.”
While Bill 78 was decried by protesters, a poll conducted after the legislation was passed showed public support for the government’s position at its highest level ever.
Well aware of the approval ratings, Charest defended the zero-tolerance approach while campaigning in Sainte-Marie on Monday, and said Bill 78 will not be repealed if he is re-elected.
“(The protesters) can’t stop students from entering the classroom through intimidation or violence,” he told reporters. “I think that’s fundamental to what our core values are. And I continue to think that — I have not changed my mind.”
For the one-third of Quebec students who did not complete the spring semester, deciding whether to go back to school presents a strategic dilemma: Do they suspend the fight, or do they keep it alive and risk provoking exasperated Quebecers into voting for Charest, knowing he will crack down on students?
CLASSE, the most militant of the student groups, have said they will still have battles to fight no matter what happens on the issue of university tuition.
But Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault said Quebecers cannot wait for CLASSE to decide the level of tuition increase.
“It has to also be a decision from all the citizens in Quebec, because we need to have better financing for universities,” Legault said in Drummondville, Que. on Monday. “If some of the money is not coming from students it will have to come again from the taxpayers and I think they pay already too much tax.”
CAQ has suggested reducing the proposed tuition hike to $200 per year and delaying its implementation until January, as well as getting rid of some of the more controversial measures contained in Bill 78.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Wendy Gillis
Making a pro-student statement in the midst of a heated provincial election campaign, lecturers from the province’s colleges and universities are criticizing the emergency legislation for forcing students and teachers back to school next week.
Among other controversial regulations — including strict rules governing street protests — the emergency law ruled that the semester, which had been suspended due to the protests, resume mid-August.
Striking students, however, still have cast their ballots to determine if they will abide by the law. Voting begins Tuesday.
Université de Montréal professor Michel Seymour told a Quebec radio station that the professors who signed the manifesto will support students no matter what they decide.
“My job is not to cross picket lines,” he told CJAD in Montreal. “My job is to teach my students.”
While Bill 78 was decried by protesters, a poll conducted after the legislation was passed showed public support for the government’s position at its highest level ever.
Well aware of the approval ratings, Charest defended the zero-tolerance approach while campaigning in Sainte-Marie on Monday, and said Bill 78 will not be repealed if he is re-elected.
“(The protesters) can’t stop students from entering the classroom through intimidation or violence,” he told reporters. “I think that’s fundamental to what our core values are. And I continue to think that — I have not changed my mind.”
For the one-third of Quebec students who did not complete the spring semester, deciding whether to go back to school presents a strategic dilemma: Do they suspend the fight, or do they keep it alive and risk provoking exasperated Quebecers into voting for Charest, knowing he will crack down on students?
CLASSE, the most militant of the student groups, have said they will still have battles to fight no matter what happens on the issue of university tuition.
But Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault said Quebecers cannot wait for CLASSE to decide the level of tuition increase.
“It has to also be a decision from all the citizens in Quebec, because we need to have better financing for universities,” Legault said in Drummondville, Que. on Monday. “If some of the money is not coming from students it will have to come again from the taxpayers and I think they pay already too much tax.”
CAQ has suggested reducing the proposed tuition hike to $200 per year and delaying its implementation until January, as well as getting rid of some of the more controversial measures contained in Bill 78.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Wendy Gillis
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