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Vol. 76/No. 19      May 14, 2012

 
Students in Quebec reject gov’t
offer in fight over tuition hikes
 
BY JOHN STEELE  
MONTREAL—Rejecting a revised tuition raise announced by Quebec Premier Jean Charest April 27, some 170,000 university and CEGEP (junior college) students, now in the 12th week of a strike against fee increases, continue to boycott classes and demonstrate in Montreal and across Quebec.

The students are demanding the Liberal government repeal its legislation raising tuition fees by $1,625 over the next five years to $3,793 by 2017, a 75 percent increase.

Charest said the government would extend the increase over seven years, and then begin indexing further raises to the cost-of-living.

At a number of protests police riot squads, employing pepper spray, tear gas, and clubs, have attacked students and dispersed demonstrators with mass arrests.

Seizing on incidents of vandalism associated with the protests in Montreal, Education Minister Line Beauchamp unsuccessfully attempted to divide the three student organizations leading the protests by violence-baiting the CLASSE, which represents almost 50 percent of the striking students and includes some anarchist forces.

After Beauchamp excluded the CLASSE from discussions last week, leaders of the FEUQ and FECQ student federations withdrew from the talks.  
 
 
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