Léo Bureau-Blouin – The Concordian

Léo Bureau-Blouin, former student leader and current Member of the National Assembly for the Parti Québécois, has come under fire following the provincial government’s announcement of an increase tuition by three per cent in line with the cost of living next year.

Bureau-Blouin, who first came to prominence as the president of the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec during the student protests last year, has stood by the decision of his party to index tuition by roughly $70 a year, a stance that has not pleased his former colleagues.

Martine Desjardins, president for the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, told The Concordian that she was disappointed when Bureau-Blouin chose to support the indexation proposal, but that she was not surprised.

“Personally, when he decided to go up front and support the inflation proposed by the government, it was a shock,” said Desjardins. “But at the same time it’s easy to understand why because he’s like, you know, a deputy and he needs to follow the line of the party,” she said.

Desjardins explained that students felt deceived when Bureau-Blouin went against his initial position for a tuition freeze, something he advocated for as a student.

“There’s no surprise but there’s a lot of deception,” said Desjardins.

Following the announcement of the increase, Bureau-Blouin’s Facebook page became a place for students and protesters to vent their frustrations over his decision to support the indexation. One poster called Bureau-Blouin a traitor and demanded he resign, while another accused him of letting down a generation of students. Conversely, others voiced their support for Bureau-Blouin and congratulated him for his work.

The day after the education summit, Bureau-Blouin wrote that he had received threats and attacks but would still attend a monthly event to meet with his constituents on March 16.

When reached for comment, Bureau-Blouin’s office said that he would not comment on the threats on Facebook but did, however, call the situation “deplorable.”

On Facebook, Bureau-Blouin defended the increase by stating that by the 2015-2016 academic year students would be receiving an average of $1,140 in additional bursaries.

However, Desjardins called into question the suggestion that additional money for financial aid programs would help offset the increase claiming that not all students are eligible for bursaries.

“We know that there are a lot of problems with the financial aid program,” she said. “Actually it’s only 40 per cent of the students that have access to the financial aid program, so what are we doing with the other 60 per cent?”

On the Facebook page for the monthly meeting, critics promised to attend in order to face Bureau-Blouin and demand answers. Spokesperson Camille Robert for the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiantes, the student group in favour of free tuition, asked if he would be using his salary to help cover the cost of the indexation.

Simon-Pierre Lauzon, VP external for the Concordia Student Union, said he was not surprised that Bureau-Blouin’s interests had shifted from those of a student to those of a politician. He hoped, however, that the former student leader would push for student’s interests from within the PQ.

“He cares about his position within his new political context, and at the same time we should stop looking up to him as a peer,” Lauzon said. “He no longer is a FECQ representative, and we should treat him as such,” he said.

Lauzon believes students are now divided between those who see indexation as a realistic compromise and those who are in the streets again because they reject any increase.

“We went in the streets in significant part because we had no seat at the table, and our voices fell on deaf ears,” he said. “With the PQ, although we might not have every single thing we ask, we still have a measurable influence. Our leverage is still very potent, and while the printemps érable is in the PQ’s short term memory we will act to get as much as we can.”

MONTREAL (CUP) – At 20-years-and-seven-months-old, Léo Bureau-Blouin is the youngest candidate running in this campaign to become a member of Quebec’s National Assembly.

Bureau-Blouin became a well-known face in Quebec over the course of his term as president of one of the province’s largest student organizations, the Fédération étudianté collégiale du Québec. After completing two presidential terms on June 1, he joined the ranks of sovereigntist provincial party, the Parti Québécois.

The FECQ is one of four student unions officially representing students throughout the now seven-month long general strike against the Liberal government’s scheduled increase of tuition fees. During his two-year run as president, Bureau-Blouin represented the interests of CÉGEP students in negotiations with government officials.

Bureau-Blouin says he was approached by the PQ in late June and decided to take the party up on their proposition to assist and support him in running as a PQ candidate in the riding Laval-des-Rapides, just north off the Island of Montreal.

He was reached by phone mere days before the election. The interview was conducted primarily in French.

CUP: There’s a stereotype that executives from the student federations often use their roles as student representatives as a launch pad for their political careers. How do you respond to this considering that you are a former FECQ executive who has now joined a major political party?

Bureau-Blouin: First of all, if all I had wanted from the start were to create a place in politics for myself, I would have achieved something completely different because it’s a lot of work and a lot of energy. That is to say it is extremely difficult [for others] to interpret someone’s intent for creating a career — [it could be] because they are passionate. We need to encourage youth to be involved in politics. People who talk of these stereotypes present it as if politics are a bad thing but in many ways [political processes] are very positive.

Concerning the number of youth in politics, 10 per cent of the electorate is youth but zero per cent are present in the National Assembly. So it’s time to take part and, as for me, I wish that more young people would run in the next elections because if we want to youth to get involved in politics, it takes young candidates.

CUP: So you have not attended university — do you feel you would make a statement of sorts if you were to become a member of the National Assembly without a university degree?

BB: Regardless, I wish to finish my studies — it’s absolutely necessary to obtain my degree however already in the National Assembly there are several elected members who do not have degrees. It’s not a novelty because in this society, it’s only 20 per cent of the population who obtained university degrees — so it’s normal in governments to have representatives without degrees. But, me, I see myself getting a degree in the long-term, just not right away.

CUP: As the former president of FECQ, you were a representative for CÉGEP students. Do you feel students support you now as an electoral candidate?

BB: Yes, but students, like society, are not one unit — there are people who feel differently, there are all kinds of people who are students — but, I think, yes. I think that the majority of students are happy with what I’m doing. The objective is to demonstrate that we can continue to build in different ways.

CUP: The PQ stance on tuition in the media has been to increase fees on par with inflation — do you think students will be content with this?

BB: What we said was that we will abolish the increase of tuition fees, we will abolish the Charest government’s special law [Law 12], and we spoke of holding financial and business consultations with universities. One of the propositions that were put on the table was to have tuition fees increase at the same rate as the cost of living.

For me, I defend the students’ cause, that is to say that tuition fees should not increase. But I am pragmatic and the objective is to engage with aim to finding a consensus in this discussion and I think what the students really want is not to have a drastic [tuition] increase like what we saw with the Liberals.

CUP: You and PQ leader Pauline Marois called for students to halt any strike actions because, according to your statements at the time, the student conflict plays into the Liberal Party’s strategy. Why did you feel this way and, considering the actions that occurred earlier this week at the Université de Montréal, do you feel the same now?

BB: First of all, the call we made was to end the strike for the duration of the election campaign because the Charest government profited from the student conflict to mask its track record for the last nine years. And the call worked as CÉGEP students decided to go back to class together with universities, with the exception of two faculties at the Université du Québec à Montréal and several modules at U de M — so we’re talking less than 2,000 students.

So why did we do it? Because the Charest government’s strategy is so simple: talk about the student conflict and avoid talking about corruption and collusion, avoid bad reports and shale gas, and the least successful events during their governance. And I think it’s important to not let those issues drop.

CUP: And finally concerning statements by Marois that some characterize as racist and xenophobic —notably the institution of French test for candidates running for public office — what is your view on these statements?

BB: There is already a test for immigrants to Quebec so there’s nothing revolutionary there. It’s already there; it’s just not a standardized test. We are just asking people to have command of French because for Canadian immigrants, you must have a good knowledge of French or English. In Great Britain, you cannot work in the country if you do not have a good knowledge of English — that’s how it works in most countries all over the world. How can you integrate someone into society if you cannot communicate with that person?

CUP: Do you see an irony between the two positions you are seen to represent; being against tuition hikes but for a French test that targets certain communities?

BB: I think it’s two separate things; tuition fee hikes because we think education should be affordable for everyone but, on the other side — [and] it’s two separate things — we think that we need to have a common language to be able to talk together. In Ontario and the rest of Canada, people speak English and understand themselves in one language. If the government can’t say something to the people, we have a big problem.

Right now, there’s a problem that is that more and more people don’t speak French at home in Quebec and for us it’s a huge concern.

For the moment there is already a French test to become a citizen of Quebec, but there is no real verification, there’s no real standardized test. What we want is to make sure people have a real understanding of French when they arrive here in Quebec.

I think it’s a matter of giving the immigrants all the chances they need to be integrated into the society and to emancipate themselves, because I think many people are arriving here in Quebec and they are really frustrated because they have difficulty integrating themselves. But maybe if we were giving people more tools to learn French and if we were saying to them at first, you need to speak French to come here, I think it would be easier for them to become part of the society.