BY VICTORIA MERCER AND VICKY MERCIER
MONTREAL - Chanting "So-so-so, Solidarité," (Solidarity) a crowd of 5,000 college and university students marched through downtown Montreal as part of a cross-Canada day of action February 7, protesting cuts in education and social programs by the federal government. Among the banners in both French and English were, "Education is a right, not a privilege," "Why not tax a bank," and "Social programs don't cause debt."
In all, more than 20,000 students in some 30 cities across Canada joined the protest action. It was called by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and the college and university student organizations in Quebec.
The largest mobilizations took place in British Colombia. About 7,000 each marched in Victoria and Vancouver with rallies in other cities. In Toronto, about 2,000 young people rallied in front of the provincial government legislature.
Bonny Shotropa, a 40-year-old student at Douglas College in Vancouver, said: "I'm worried about tuition fees going up and also cuts to social programs because I'm a single mom on social assistance."
"If we can come together, we can change things. If we come together - all the universities and colleges - the government can't do what it wants," said Cathy De-Lucia from Dawson College at the march in Montreal.
The federal cutbacks, announced in February 1995, aim to reduce by Can$7 billion, the transfers to provinces for health, education, and welfare, as well as funding for unemployment insurance. On September 20 last year, 8,000 students marched in Montreal.
The transfer payments for education and social programs will henceforth be made in one lump sum to the provinces beginning in April. Each provincial government will decide how the funds are spent. Many students say this erodes the principle of national standards and see it as Ottawa's way to divide and decentralize opposition to the cuts.
`We're strong when we're all together'
An important focus of the protests was the huge profits
that banks and corporations are making. One student leader
who spoke at the end of the Montreal rally said, "It doesn't
make sense that students should be obliged to go deeper into
debt while the five biggest banks make record profits." He
received lengthy applause when he declared, "We're strong
when we're all together: Quebecois, anglophone, and Native
Indian."
Student leaders of the CFS say the federal government should collect billions in deferred and unpaid taxes of wealthy individuals and corporations rather than make further cuts in education and social programs. In many cities, demonstrators marched through financial districts to underscore these points.
Many marchers in Montreal carried Quebec flags. Olivier, a student at a community college in Sorel, was asked how he thought the fight against the cuts could be won. He responded, "Vote yes in the next referendum" for Quebec independence. Olivier came to the demonstration by bus along with 100 other students from the community college.
In Vancouver, dozens of teachers came out to the demonstration. Throughout British Colombia, eight locals of the College Institute Educator's Association staged rotating strikes for several weeks before the marches, following a breakdown of negotiations.
Students are debating whether to support the teachers' strike. Some activists from Vancouver City College's Langara campus argued that students getting by on loans didn't need to support teachers making $50,000 a year.
In Toronto, several hundred demonstrators broke through barricades and entered the Ontario legislature. Some windows and furniture were smashed. Four youth were arrested and face criminal charges of "intimidating a legislature." They are charged under a never-before-used law dating from 1892 that carries a maximum sentence of 14 years.
Defending unemployment insurance
Other important mobilizations against government cuts
occurred in the same week as the student protest.
On February 5, more than 5,000 people across the Gaspe region of eastern Quebec and the four provinces of Atlantic Canada mobilized to protest cuts in unemployment insurance. The largest rally was 2,500 people in Tracadie, northern New Brunswick, where many protesters carried Acadian flags. The Acadians are a French-speaking oppressed nationality in that region.
On February 9, workers in Gaspe once again protested the unemployment insurance reform. This time, 3,000 workers in many villages blocked the main highway through the region for several hours.
On February 6, 750 striking workers at the Bridgestone- Firestone tire factory in Joliettte, Quebec voted by 84 percent to reject a company "final offer" and continue their strike.
Hundreds of coal miners and their families in Sydney, Nova Scotia, confronted the federal government minister responsible for the Cape Breton region over his refusal to invest money in opening a new coal mine. Twelve hundred miners were laid off from Phalen Mine in November. It is being closed because of unsafe roof conditions.
Provincial government workers in Ontario will soon be staging the first strike vote in their history against threatened layoffs of thousands.
Mick McDonald from Toronto and Beverly Bernardo from Vancouver contributed to this article. Vicky Mercier is a member of the Young Socialists and the International Association of Machinists at Canadair in Montreal.