Vigil for Quebec City shooting victims unites more than 1,000 people
Abdelkrim Hassane, Mamadou Tanou Barry, Khaled Belkacemi, Aboubaker Thabti, Ibrahima Barry and Azzeddine Soufiane—those are the names of whom a crowd of more than 1,000 people gathered for outside of Parc metro station. It was an act of solidarity against terrorism, racism and discrimination.
Abdelkrim Hassane, Mamadou Tanou Barry, Khaled Belkacemi, Aboubaker Thabti, Ibrahima Barry and Azzeddine Soufiane—those are the names of whom a crowd of more than 1,000 people gathered for outside of Parc metro station. It was an act of solidarity against terrorism, racism and discrimination.
These six men fell victim to an act of terrorism committed at a mosque in Quebec City where many community members had gathered for an evening prayer on Sunday, Jan. 29, according to the National Post.
“Tout le monde déteste les racistes, tout le monde déteste les racistes,” the crowd chanted, over and over.
Claire Caillat, a participant at the vigil, said the large crowd validated the fact that many Canadians and those living in Canada are strong and determined to fight against racism. “This is proof that racism cannot divide us,” she said.
Mohammed Ahmed, another participant, said diversity is an important component of what makes Canada the nation it is today. “Without it, Canada would be tasteless,” he said.
Photo by Savanna Craig.
“People from all over the world come here to contribute to society,” said Ahmed. If we separate Canada in terms of race and culture, Canada will no longer be Canada, he said.
“I’m not surprised that people support the Muslim community because a vast majority of Quebecers do not hold intolerant views towards these minority groups,” said Alex Tyrrell, leader of the Green Party of Quebec and Concordia student who attended the vigil. “It’s really a fringe element of society that holds these discriminatory views.”
Tyrrell criticized the media for providing a presence for and profiting off of intolerant, extremist, right-wing views. “They’re often writing columns against trans people, against women, against minority groups,” said Tyrrell, using the example of journalists Mathieu Bock-Côté and Richard Martineau. “They’re constantly fanning the flames of these issues.”
“I think that that’s something that needs to change as quick as possible because we see what kind of impact these have,” said Tyrrell. “There has been many other hate crimes that have been committed in Quebec over the past few months and years.”
Photo by Savanna Craig.
As some participants began to disperse around 7:30 p.m., many others gathered around a large red tapestry that read “Make Racists Afraid Again.”
“No hate, no fear, everyone is welcome here,” chanted thousands of participants in unison during the vigil.
Photo by Savanna Craig.
Sentiments of peace and acceptance filled the air throughout the evening, voiced by a crowd made up of all different races, backgrounds and religions.
The crowd later dispersed from outside Parc metro and moved East along Jean Talon.
Those affected by police killings and those in support of justice for police brutality gathered outside Montreal’s police union office in the Plateau. Photo by Megan Hunt.
The event honoured all killed by police, but drew on nine specific police deaths in Quebec
On Saturday, Oct. 22, the Justice for Victims of Police Killings Coalition held its seventh annual vigil to commemorate victims of police brutality. The coalition—which consists of friends and family members of eight Canadians who have died as the result of police altercations—and a group of supporters met outside the Fraternité des policiers et policières de Montréal, Montreal’s police union office in the Plateau-Mont-Royal.
The vigil, which purposely coincided with the National Day of Protest in the United States, honoured all victims of police violence, but focused on nine deaths that have occurred in Quebec since the implementation of the Bureau of Independent Investigations (BEI) in June 2016. The BEI was created with the intention of providing objective investigations after shootings and other violent police interventions, but coalition members condemned the organization as “police investigating police.” According to the coalition, eight out of those nine killed were “in crisis,” and instead of being helped by the police, they were killed. In a group statement, the coalition claimed that, “half of the BEI is made up of ex-cops as well as civilians employed by police forces. Almost all the members are white men.”
Speakers at the vigil shared their personal experiences—including Bridget Tolley and Julie Matson, both of whom have lost a parent to police violence. Matson shared harrowing details about the death of her father, Ben Matson. According to Matson, her father was killed by police in 2002 over what she described as a “mild parking dispute” with an off-duty officer. Although the dispute was resolved before police arrived, Ben was chased into an alley by armed officers, beaten and held in prone position—a dangerous position that left him unable to move his body and struggling to breathe, which led to his death by asphyxiation.
Tolley also shared her experience with police violence and injustice. In 2001, her mother, Gladys, was killed by a police cruiser. Tolley claims that the investigative officers did not arrive on scene until eight hours after the accident, and that a coroner never saw her mother’s body. The officer leading the investigation was the brother of the officer responsible for Gladys’ death, Tolley said.
“The case was closed three months after the accident,” Tolley said. “Nobody was notified [about the case closing] until a reporter told me thirteen months later … This is big time conflict of interest. I don’t know what else to say.”
After the vigil, Tolley discussed the financial barriers for families seeking justice. “We don’t have millions of dollars for lawyers. It cost $1000 just to file a police report,” she said. “Families don’t all have the resources [for a lawsuit].”
According to the group’s official statement regarding the event on Facebook, the goal of the coalition and their annual vigil is to commemorate those lost, support the families of victims and call for truly independent, unbiased investigations of police killings.
“All we are asking for is the truth, for the wrongdoings to be fixed, so that we can all live together,” Tolley said. “We’re all human here.”
This past week, images surfaced from Cannes, France where four armed police officers surrounded an innocent woman on the beach. They forced her to remove her garments amongst a bevy of bystanders and issued her a hefty fine for defying a new ban that prohibits her apparel.
The burkini is a swimsuit that essentially covers the entire body and is worn by Islamic women around the world when swimming or sunbathing. It adheres to their religious beliefs regarding veiling, while also allowing them to enjoy typical aquatic activities, such as going to the beach on a sweltering summer day.
Several French municipalities banned the religious swimwear, with the French Prime Minister saying that the swimsuit symbolizes “the enslavement of women,” according to the CBC. However, this past Friday the ban was overturned by a French high court, ruling that municipalities cannot issue fines, according to another report by the CBC.
Nevertheless, the debate has even spread overseas to Quebec. CAQ MNA Nathalie Roy recently advocated for a province-wide ban of the burkini, and linked the religious garment to radical Islam, according to the CBC. Meanwhile, Parti Quebecois leadership candidate Jean-Francois Lisée said to CTV that the hijab and burkini represent “the ultimate symbol of oppression of women.”
These remarks are reminiscent of Pauline Marois’ mandate back in 2012, when her government tried to introduce the draconian Charter of Quebec Values, which drew upon the dark underbelly of Quebec’s xenophobia. Although the charter was never passed, it stirred up quite the controversy and casted many religious minorities—including Muslim women—to the peripheries of society.
Here at The Concordian, we are absolutely mortified by the conversation amongst Quebec’s political elites, and we fully oppose any ban on religious garments. Since when is it appropriate for the government to tell its citizens how to dress?
It was nearly a century ago that women were subjected to similar harassment from the police in North America, but it was because their swimsuits were too short and revealed too much skin, according to an article published in The Huffington Post. An accompanying photo featured in the article reveals a policeman using measuring tape to see if the length of a woman’s bathing suit is preserving her modesty.
It is preposterous and paradoxical to create a policy that would aim to impose that same kind of control. Furthermore, it is blatantly oppressive and misogynistic to tell women how to dress, in order to meet certain standards, or to better blend into society.
We should all have the right to wear whatever we want, whenever we want—even if it signifies our religious beliefs. The beauty of living in a secular and pluralistic society is that people have the power to determine their own destiny, and we think that wearing the burkini or practicing Islam is a part of that. We should be advocating for tolerance and acceptance, rather than resorting to divisive tactics that drive minority groups further towards the fringes of society.
First of three conversations on our shared hybrid identities
A group of participants sat crowded together in a café to discuss the hybrid identities within Quebec, yet this scene took place not in the 1970s, but on Wednesday Sept. 10 at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery on Concordia’s campus.
In collaboration with Just Watch Me, the University of the Streets Café held its first public conversation of the season under the casually flickering lights of a disco ball. Participants gathered around intimately, nestled with a mug of tea or coffee, and became a part of the collective conversation. There were those in the crowd who spoke their mind freely and articulately, and others who began with half-formed ideas, only to finish with more thought-provoking questions. There were also many who simply listened as the dialogue flowed smoothly from English to French.
“We’re looking at questions of identity construction,” said Susan Edey, Coordinator of University of the Streets Café about that night’s talk. This was the first in a series of three talks, the second of which will take place Wednesday Sept. 17. The collaboration with Romeo Gongora, creator of the Just Watch Me space, came about in part because the exhibit also examines identity construction in the context of Quebec. The rest of the conversations in the series will examine identity on a personal level, then identity on a local level. While the conversation itself may look intimidatingly intellectual, many in the crowd spoke of their own personal experiences, mixing their viewpoints in with those who approached the topic from a more academic mindset.
From political discussions and linguistic topics to formative high school experiences, everyone’s input to the discussion was valuable. Many often returned to languages as a signifier of identity, and small wonder that, with several participants noting they perceived a tension between English and French, particularly here in Montreal.
“I find it interesting that some people — the immigrants or some other people from all around the world — were sharing their experiences,” said Julian Angulo, a volunteer with University of the Streets Café.
Although he did not engage, he found himself relating to the speakers. “That helps me a lot because I’ve just been here for two years and I’m trying to find myself.”
For Angulo, the conversations are a way for him to step out of his intense graduate studies and into a more community-engaged world. It also ends up being a way for him to practice both his French and English at the same time.
At the end of the night, a flurry of contacts were exchanged. The conversation, limited to just two hours, could not fully explore every single line of thought.
“I think that the conversation moved. It went to really interesting places,” Edey said, after the crowd had dispersed into the night. “I was glad to see a mixture of Anglophone Quebecers, Canadians, Francophone Quebecers, Allophone Quebecers, and new arrivals. I thought that added to the richness.”
Amongst all the different identities, the conversation that night managed to bridge the language divide and overcome the initial awkwardness of not knowing how to begin.
For more information on future conversations by University of the Streets Café, there is a schedule available online at Concordia’s website for the entire semester in which 12 more conversations are planned.
Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks about the benefits of independence earlier this year. Photo from the Scottish Government (Flickr).
The key difference between Quebec and Scotland’s bids for statehood
Quebecers are intimately acquainted with referendums. The word was on everybody’s lips during the last provincial election, and now, it’s back – but not for us.
For better or for worse, it seems like independence has a date with someone else this time around. On Sept. 18, Scots will head to the polls to possibly undo over 300 years of shared history with England, and the threat of a Not-So-United Kingdom looms over the Western world.
As one of the few Western independence movements, Quebec separatists have obviously taken great interest in the situation across the pond. While she was in office, Pauline Marois even visited Scotland to discuss the similarities between their two movements. However, she was noticeably shafted by her Scottish contemporaries.
Some were surprised, but we shouldn’t have been. Because Marois was making the same mistake that thousands of Quebecers and analysts are making: they’re assuming that the cases of Scotland and Quebec are the same, when they could be anything but.
Let’s look beyond the mutual disdain they each have for the English. Why does Quebec want independence? It comes down to culture, and the fact that Quebec’s is distinct from the rest of Canada. The obvious example here is language, which has shaped the Quebec identity since its genesis. Because of this, Quebec has grown and shaped itself independently from the rest of Canada. We can see this in the legislation that attempts to protect the French language, such as Bill 101, and the culture that comes with it, such as the attempted Charter of Quebec Values.
Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks about the benefits of independence earlier this year. Photo from the Scottish Government (Flickr).
The point here is that Quebec’s quest for independence is a very emotional one. It is entrenched in ideas of culture and identity. Critics often point to the pragmatic parts of Quebec independence – such as currency, economy and Quebec-Canada relations – as its weakest arguments for being an independent state.
Scotland, however, is the opposite. Yes, there are portions of the independence movement that touch on cultural differences, but it is argued in the scope of politics. Why? Because the crux of the Scottish independence argument is representation. Or rather, the lack of it.
Scotland works similarly to Quebec: they elect MPs who go to the national parliament, but there is also a parliament in Edinburgh, which controls regional matters such as health, education, and social work. The pro-independence Government of Scotland believes that those powers and decisions “have been good for Scotland”. The problem lies higher, in the Westminster Parliament.
The Westminster Parliament has 650 MPs. However, only 59 of those MPs are from Scotland. According to the Scottish government, this means that “policies are imposed on Scotland even when they have been opposed by our elected Westminster MPs”. Thus, affairs like welfare, taxes and foreign policy have often been in conflict with what Scotland’s MPs actually voted for.
What this has created is a feeling of disdain for Westminster. Even if Scotland elects MPs of all the same camp, it is likely that Westminster will go the other way simply due to how outnumbered they are. The Scottish government sums it up as a choice “between two futures: taking control in Scotland of our own affairs, or remaining under the control of Westminster”.
Compare this to Quebec, who is second only to Ontario in the amount of seats it holds in the House of Commons. In the 2011 federal election, the NDP won 59 of Quebec’s 75 seats. Quebec basically single-handedly created the official opposition. In contrast to the Scotland situation, one cannot argue that Quebec is under-represented in federal politics.
The Scottish referendum – regardless of its outcome – should be used as an opportunity for Quebec to examine its own ideals. But similar goals don’t make similar circumstances. Scotland is not Quebec, and Quebec is not Scotland. And the faster we understand that, the better our future will be.
Activists and politicians assembled Friday afternoon at Premier Pauline Marois’ doorstep on the corners of McGill College and Sherbrooke Street to show their anger and disappointment at what they consider the rising state-sanctioned exclusion against Quebec’s religious, linguistic, and ethnic minorities.
Conceived by Canadians for Coexistence (CfC), a group advocating for full Canadian inclusion, only a handful of the planned 200-some individuals came out to brave the wind and the rain. Although the weather might have chilled bodies it certainly failed to dampen the fiery rhetoric.
“We’re a group that believes in diversity in inclusion and the PQ is against our beliefs. They’re a group that very clearly believes in exclusion and division,” said founding member Norma O’Donnell, highlighting in particular the rights of Quebec’s religious and anglophone minorities.
When asked on her thoughts as to why anglophone rights aren’t more visible, she said there were many reasons; from sympathetic francophones who remain quiet because of social pressures, to an inability to connect with students.
“It’s seems like students in Quebec are more concerned about their tuition than their rights and freedoms, which is extremely disappointing,” she said about the number of youth protesters, and referring to the recent Charter of Values which would prohibit ostentatious religious displays and clothing by government employees, and last year’s failed Bill 14, which would have strengthened the primacy of the French language.
“We’ve spoken to students, we’ve encouraged them to participate in these rallies. Students don’t seem to be interested … and that’s where we have to try and bring the two together.”
Photo by Keith Race
Though interviewed well before Monday’s elections, O’Donnell said that one way or another, whoever wins, her group’s ambitions were only just beginning.
“Canadians for Co-Existence, as well as several of our other groups, are very much going to be working alongside these politicians … because we don’t plan to accept the same-old, same-old. We plan to see that whichever party gets into power, that things will be very different. We’re not going to be the same old Anglo groups who sat by quietly and let this happen.”
Echoing O’Donnell’s sentiments was Montreal’s Reverend Darryl Gray, former Kansas state senator and head of English rights group, Alliance Quebec, and current pastor of the Imani Family and Full Gospel Church.
“The reality that there needs to be a stronger voice in the anglophone community is something that concerns me. I think there are those who acknowledge that the PQ government has failed the anglophone community, it has failed communities of faith, it has failed students, it has failed people in ethnic and cultural communities. I think that somebody needs to show up and stand up and speak up,” said Gray.“I’m not concerned about the Bills themselves. It’s about the mindset that would create such a thing.”
Gray, who says he has supported civil rights movements for decades, was careful to draw distinctions and not paint everyone with the same brush.
“There are many people in the PQ … that do not submit or believe in the policies and the behavior and the attitude of their leadership. I think that it’s important to say that. But, having said that, the leadership too often reflects and speaks on behalf of the body — and that is unfortunate.”
“I’m not here to represent the Liberals, or the Green Party, or the NDP. I’m here to represent the person who best speaks to the human condition. Mrs. Marois will have to understand that she’s going to have to stop running away from Montreal, that she’ll have to embrace Montreal for the diversity that it is. I’m here because I need to be here, I’m here because I want to be here.”
Additional speakers included, amongst others, Green Party leader Alex Tyrell and Muslim community activist, Salman Shabad Saidi, who organized Montreal’s first World Hijab Day back in February and has been, like Tyrell, a very vocal critic of the Charter.
“When they introduced the ban on religious symbols, I began to see what direction they [the PQ] were headed,” said Saidi of his motivations. “They were […] laying out the platform for the right demographic — and by right demographic, I mean white, purlaine, speaking the same language.”
Saidi calls the PQ tactics cheap attempts at raising division for political reasons, and mocked Marois’ vision of Quebec.
“We have our own ideas that are based on tolerance, intelligence, diversity, and productivity,” Saidi said, adding that his strong words were necessary to reflect the very real undercurrents in Quebec which are only now beginning to be voiced.
“They’ve unleashed a campaign of hate and intolerance against minorities, [ and these tactics] never embodied any true Quebec values and went against much of the tolerance that this province has been showing.”
Tuition fees have increased, but universities remain underfunded
Tuition fees have been indexed. Tax credits for university students have been slashed by 12 per cent. Universities across the province remain underfunded. And yet, the pots and pans have stayed in kitchen cupboards.
In previous years, any person studying at a postsecondary institution was eligible to get a tax credit equal to 20 per cent of their tuition fees. This rule also applied to any exams that cost money, and the amount could be transferred to parents or even grandparents.
As of this semester, the rate has changed. The government lowered the tax credit to eight per cent.
For a Quebec resident studying at Concordia taking five classes per semester, tuition fees amount to $2,224 per year, according to Concordia’s tuition fee calculator. Twenty per cent of that amount represents a total of $444.80. Eight percent of the tuition fees, on the other hand, amounts to $177.92.
Photo by Nathalie Laflamme
This means that, this year, students who pay income tax will pay $266.88 more when filing their taxes than they did last year. For the students who do not pay taxes, their parents or grandparents will have to face a reduced tax credit.
Over three years, this lowered tax credit rate will cost students a total of $800.64. This new rate will be applied to tuition fees from the semester that started in the winter 2013 semester.
To most students, this represents a lot of money. For the government, it will amount to a ton of money. According to a document published by the CQFF (Centre Québecois de formation en fiscalité), this change should bring $61 million to the government of Quebec between 2014-2015, and $78 million in 2018-2019.
The Parti Quebecois has stated that the money they get from this cut will be reinvested into loans and bursaries.
“The decrease in tax credits associated with tuition fees in and of itself looks like it would be bad for students, but I’ve heard many people involved in student governance argue that, since the money is being rerouted through loans and bursaries, it might actually be beneficial in the long run,” said current Concordia Student Union President Melissa Kate Wheeler. “The CSU is obviously opposed to any funds, be they through tuition itself or tax credits, being taken away from students. However, for this particular issue, it may be a little more complex.”
In 2012, tens of thousands of students lined the streets of Montreal to fight the proposed tuition fee hike. This period in Quebec’s history is known as the Maple Spring. The Quebec Liberal Party’s original plan was to increase fees by $325 per year over five years. After students acted out, the Liberals changed their plan to an increase of $254 over seven years, with an indexation of tuition. Regardless, students continued to march in the streets, banging on pots and pans.
The original plan would have cost a student completing a three-year undergraduate degree $975. This tax credit cut will cost the same student $800.64.
Léo Bureau-Blouin was president of the Fédération étudiante collegial du Québec (FECQ) and one of the leaders of the Maple Spring protests. He is now the PQ candidate for the Laval-des-Rapides riding, and believes this cut in tax credits will be beneficial to students.
“Since financial aid for students constitutes a more effective tool than a non-refundable tax credit when we are trying to facilitate access to education, I believe that this measure will be beneficial for the students who need it most,” Bureau-Blouin said.
Concordia President Alan Shepard believes that this cut is a good change if it means more students will have access to loans and bursaries.
“It’s an interesting public policy decision because, I’m not in the government, but what I assume they are trying to do is … [funnel] additional support to students of more modest means, that’s the ambition. I’m an advocate for people of modest means having an opportunity to go to university,” Shepard said.
This cut will not change the fact that Quebec universities are underfunded.
“Whether or not you agree with the hike or other types of funding, the problem is that our universities are underfunded. We, as students, know that,” Cameron Ahmad, a Concordia student and president of the Young Liberals of Canada in Quebec, said. “The equipment we have, the resources we have, they’re good, but they’re not as good as they could or should be.”
Philippe Ghayad, an economics professor at Dawson College, believes that, economically, the original tuition fee hike plan made more sense.
“The Liberal plan makes more sense to me. It is more progressive than the PQ plan…Low tuition rates are like subsidizing the rich since they can afford to pay more. Adjusting tuition rates with tax credits, loans and bursaries gives an incentive to low-income earners to continue their studies,” Ghayad said.
Ahmad believes that the province’s youth needs to speak up.
“If we look at the facts, if we look at the consequences it has had on people, it’s a tuition increase regardless. I think, just as young people, we need to speak up against this, and we need to make sure that people are aware,” Ahmad said. “This is the most blatant type of hypocrisy in politics right now, and they shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this. We, as young people, should remind the population that when a politician says something, we should hold them to account for it. And we shouldn’t let them get away with trying to slip us a fast one.”
Although students have not taken to the streets, many Quebec university rectors have protested in their own way. Fifteen Quebec university rectors, led by Guy Breton, president of l’Université de Montréal, took out full-page ads on March 17 in both The Gazette and La Presse, demanding that the next elected government increase university funding to the Canadian average by 2020.
According to Statistics Canada and the Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO), student funding for universities, per student, is currently $10,844 in Quebec. In the rest of Canada, the average is $15,798.
Shepard was one of the rectors who signed the ad. The idea behind it was to bring attention to the funding gap.
“What the rectors want, and what they’re worried about, is how to lead a university network across Quebec that is as competitive as it can be with other institutions outside of Quebec,” Shepard said. “We want, not surprisingly, the best kinds of education we can offer students. When the students arrive here, we want them to have equal opportunity with people in the rest of Canada…and it is difficult to deliver on all of those initiatives, all those ambitions, if the per student funding is substantially lower.”
After last year’s education summit, the government promised that they would reinvest $1.7 billion into universities over the next seven years. A portion of the money would help universities cover increasing costs. For the other portion, the schools would work with the government in order to decide where the money would be invested. The money would go mostly towards academic and student services; not administration.
According to Bureau-Blouin, this money will come from the expansion of economic activity and the control of provincial expenses.
Concordia had been communicating with the government about the funding they would receive, and about what programs would be invested in. All negotiations were put on hold when the general provincial election was called.
“Without that reinvestment … we won’t have the money necessary to become competitive on the North American market and internationally. We’re going to struggle at maintaining our reputation and maintaining the quality of education in Quebec because our competitors will go deeper and deeper compared to us,” said Concordia University’s controller, Daniel Therrien.
As controller, Therrien works with financial services and controls expenditures.
The PQ is the only party to have promised to reinvest this money into education. If they do not win the election, it is unknown whether the new government will pick up where the PQ left off, or invest the money elsewhere.
“A new government coming in could change the direction completely,” Therrien said.
During this academic year, tuition rates were indexed at a rate of 2.6 per cent. It was recently decided that the indexation rate would decrease to a rate of 2.2 per starting in the fall.
Although this will mean a little more money for universities, it will not solve their funding issues. It will essentially mean that they will now be able to afford to keep up with most of their current expenses, something that, when tuition fees were frozen, they could not do, as their costs technically increased every year.
Although the cost of living is currently increasing at a rate of 2.2 per cent, many expenses at Concordia, like salaries, library e-journals, and scientific equipment, increase at much higher rates.
“If the cost of goods, services and labour goes up by at least 2 per cent and the tuition is indexed by 2 per cent you haven’t done anything to fundamentally close the gap with the rest of Canada. You’re maintaining status quo. As a general rule of thumb, inflation in universities has been running across Canada 4 to 5 per cent per year, depending on what jurisdiction you’re in. So lets say that inflation is 4 per cent and you have 2 per cent, you’re already losing ground,” Shepard said.
“Our internal costs, when you look at security, you look at gas, our fixed costs, they grew at about that rate. However, the biggest component of the costs of university is salary…on average [salaries increase at a rate of] 3.2 per cent [per year],” Therrien said. He explained that, since the university is unionized, salaries are based on a 12-step scale of collective agreements. Every step on the scale means a higher salary increase every year, the minimum being a 2 per cent increase.
According to Therrien, the school’s income will increase by around $2 million because of the new indexation plan, but this will not allow the school to improve their services.
“It’s not even enough to cover our increase in costs…if we don’t grow our student population, I won’t even be able to make my costs, and I’m not even talking about reinvesting. So the tuition indexation is only bringing us a certain portion of the money we need to maintain the operation,” Therrien said.
Therrien also explained that increasing the amount of students at the school is not as easy as it seems, as the school needs to maintain its reputation, and can only support so many students without affecting the quality of the education being offered.
“Any money helps the university, that’s for sure. But the indexing is only giving me an opportunity to maintain what were doing. There is no growth with that, there is no reinvestment,” Therrien said.
According to Ghayad, indexing tuition fees makes sense, since, with the inflation rate, costs go up for universities every year. It is also logical to index tuition fees because salaries follow the inflation rate.
He believes that not indexing tuition fees could cause “a large gap between revenue and expenditures for the universities. Deficits need to be paid off by someone in society sooner or later.”
“If it were not indexed, sooner or later tuition rates would increase as they did in the past, like in the early 1990s, and it was a large jump in tuition. I think a transparent and expected increase of about 2 per cent annually, which is the inflation rate more or less, would be better than the possible outcomes mentioned. I think that the tax credit is going to hurt more students overall than the indexation plan,” Ghayad said.
One of the main reason Pauline Marois was voted in as premier back in 2012 was because one of her electoral promises was not to raise tuition fees.And yet, in more ways than one, the cost of superior education has increased. Ahmad believes that this whole situation will have a negative impact on how the province’s youth perceives politics.
“I think that, with this, what the PQ has managed to do is to make a lot of young people cynical about politics, because they’ve gone back on a lot of their election promises in a very short period of time,” Ahmad said. “How can young people be inspired by politics or believe in their politicians when they’re going back on their promises?”
Two years after the Maple Spring, a compromise between students, universities, and the government has not yet been reached. The results of the next provincial election will, no matter who is elected, impact the face of superior education. Only time will tell whether these changes will be positive or negative, and how the population will react.
An ideal future for Quebec would involve coexistence for anglos and francophones. Graphic by Jenny Kwan.
Why one student believes that our differences should ultimately unite us
Quebec is a province of political strife. I think that’s been made obvious in recent months. As long as I can remember, English and French were seen as two different species of people in Quebec. They mostly live together peacefully, but when push comes to shove, it’s always French pitted against English. That is why Quebec is stalled as it watches its neighboring provinces flourish.
An ideal future for Quebec would involve coexistence for anglos and francophones. Graphic by Jenny Kwan.
In Quebec, there are a few who laugh at what is going on, deeming it ridiculous and childish. They laugh at the OQLF and their mission, they laugh at the so called Charter of Values that will supposedly unite Quebec, and they laugh at the anglophones who refuse to learn French. These are the bilingual citizens; and with any luck, they’re the ones that will save Quebec.
Quebec has been blessed with an opportunity: we are a French province within an English country, with an enormous allophone population. These are factors that are blissfully ignored by closed-minded, unilingual people that bring this province down. They fail to see the potential that Quebec could have. Imagine a Quebec where everyone embraced bilingualism, and where everyone would speak two languages. Is this difficult to achieve? Absolutely not.
I learned to speak English, French, and Greek before going to elementary school. I didn’t know or cared why (or how) I knew three languages, I just knew them. It was only when I got older that I realized what knowing more than one language could mean. I was marketing myself without even knowing it. It has also allowed me to look at the political situation in Quebec from a neutral eye and try to understand the mindset of the ongoing conflict, and how it can be resolved without another referendum.
“As Canada teeters on the verge of fracturing, I am sometimes subject to fits of sentiment about this cockeyed country I grew up in and still call home. Impatient with our two founding races, I wonder why, instead of constantly picking at the scabs of their differences, they couldn’t learn to celebrate what binds them together,” wrote esteemed Canadian novelist Mordecai Richler, a Montrealer with a particular interest in Quebec’s language policies, in his book Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! Requiem for a divided country.
Anyone who has grown up and lived in Quebec loves Quebec. They’ll always complain about it, though. But despite the oppression felt by both sides, they still call it home. So for people that are trying to make it something its not, why not just let it be? Let Quebec flourish in two languages, and let us anglophones live in peace. Quebec will always be unique, whether it’s a country or a part of Canada. Every allophone and anglophone living in Quebec would kid themselves if they said Quebec didn’t have their own unique culture. However, this unique culture is also the drive behind separatist Quebecers. Sure, maybe Quebec was meant to be a country. But after having preserved the French language, and even having it flourish within Canada, separating now would only be a greedy, idealist win that would ruin Quebec.
I can’t stand watching the province I grew up in be consumed by so much negativity towards the so called other side. Instead, let’s encourage everyone to learn Canada’s two official languages and watch this province flourish. Lead by example and who knows, maybe the rest of Canada will speak French one day.
The minister responsible for the proposed Charter of Values, Bernard Drainville, declined to attend a debate on said charter, held earlier this week by the Graduate Student Association. He declined for reasons of security, saying that he felt the risk of things getting out of control were too high at this event, according to CTV. Yes, there was a well-publicized protest outside the room where the debate was to take place but a protest in itself is only a threat if violence is threatened.
The announcement of the protest, posted on QPIRG’s (Quebec Public Interest Research Group) website, solicited students and other community members to gather outside H-767 at 11:30 a.m. The posting contained no threat towards Drainville. It stated simply that, “QPIRG Concordia is encouraging both community and student members who oppose Bill 60 to mobilize this coming Thursday.” Drainville’s choice to boycott the debate implies that he did not think that his arguments for Bill 60 could stand up to the arguments of those who oppose this bill.
If Drainville really believes that Bill 60 has merit, he should have felt no fear in facing the people gathered against it. A person with strong convictions does not back down from a fight.
There was a lot of media present at the debate and it was a perfect opportunity for Drainville to make his points heard. Instead, his absence ensured that arguments against the bill were the only thing attendees heard.
Perhaps Drainville feared that a debate sponsored by a university would provoke questions that would poke holes in the ideology behind Bill 60. Especially since Concordia is mostly known to be in opposition of the Charter. Perhaps this was the real risk he saw in coming to Concordia on Thursday.
The PQ didn’t seem to feel there was any security risk when they attended debates about the tuition freeze during the student strike, but then in that circumstance they were on the side that had the most supporters.
The PQ should be embarrassed by Drainville’s conduct. By not showing up to defend his Charter he gave the Charter’s opponents all the power. His absence clearly shows a lack of conviction in Bill 60. If Drainville isn’t willing to do everything in his power to convince people of the validity of this bill, then it would appear that Drainville doesn’t really believe in Bill 60 and that says a lot.
It was the showdown that wasn’t. Concordia University’s Graduate Students’ Association organized a debate about the highly-contested Charter of Values proposed by the Parti Québécois, which included Minister responsible for Democratic Institutions Bernard Drainville. The minister backed out the morning of, citing safety concerns.
With less than three hours before the debate in Montreal on Thursday morning (Nov. 28), Drainville announced his decision to pull out due to a planned demonstration by students denouncing the charter. In a statement released by the PQ, it cites that Concordia could not guarantee security for Drainville or attendees in the wake of a protest.
“We see that a group of people are threatening to disturb the debate instead of allowing us to have a democratic discussion,” said Drainville in the statement. “I sincerely regret this situation.”
However, the debate continued and so did the protest against the charter that consisted of approximately 10–15 students.
“We need to walk out on the street without being seen as others,” said protest organizer Christina Xydous, from Quebec Public Interest Research Group.
Jaggi Singh, a well-known Montreal activist and organizer of the demonstration, denounced the charter entirely.
“I’m not saying Bernard Drainville is a bad person,” said Singh. “But he is complicit in racism.”
The debate turned into more of a discussion with Liberal MNA Kathleen Weil and Québec Solidaire’s André Frappier, who both mocked Drainville and the PQ’s absence to discuss a bill proposed by them.
Frappier called Drainville’s absence “disappointing” while Weil said that she was sure the debate would still be peaceful if Drainville was present. The discussion lasted about two hours; both Weil and Frappier explained why they could not support Bill 60. Frappier said while his party supports secularism and sovereignty, the proposed legislation isn’t appropriate.
“What does that even mean, Quebec values?” asked Frappier. “We are horrified to see a process like this that puts others aside.”
Weil echoed the statements, explaining that Bill 60 will fail in court and called it “inapplicable.”
“It’s too disruptive for Quebec society to be living this debate,” said Weil. “You don’t legislate because people are fed up — there has to be a real problem.”
Following the debate, students asked questions regarding the legislation, though some of them couldn’t be answered by Weil or Frappier since the bill was proposed by the PQ.
Drainville has visited francophone universities such as Université Laval in Quebec City to defend the PQ’s charter over the last few months. The debate at Concordia passed without incident.
The Charter of Values, known as Bill 60, aims to promote secularism in the public sector by prohibiting civil servants from wearing “ostentatious” religious symbols and limiting time off based on religious grounds. It also seeks to amend Quebec’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms by outlining measures for reasonable accommodations. The PQ announced Bill 60 in early September and it has garnered a mixture of opposition and support.
In a speech on Nov. 1, Premier Pauline Marois announced the Parti Québécois’ plans to electrify transportation in the province.
The PQ released a 113-page public document outlining a three-year plan that would cost $516 million.
Among other expenses, the government will invest $35 million to create the Institut du transport électrique, $50 million to attract companies in the field of electric transportation and spend $220 million to foster the electric transport industry.
“The goal is to make Québec a world leader in electric transportation,” said Marois, as quoted on the Quebec government website. “With this exciting project, we can create wealth here in Québec while reducing our greenhouse gas emissions in order to attain our ambitious targets by 2020.”
The PQ claims the project will play an important role in creating new jobs; in her speech, Marois stated the plan will create 2,000 jobs.
The government believes the Institut du transport électrique would attract world class researchers to the province. As it states on their website, this institution would also encourage “research teams from Québec universities and specialized centres to participate in the research and build ties between researchers and industry in Québec and abroad.”
The plan’s objectives consist of making Quebec a global leader in the transportation electrification field, capitalizing on Quebec’s expertise in electricity, building the future around a high-performance sector and making Quebec a model to follow.
The major projects of the plan include adding more than 12,000 electric vehicles to the current 4.4 million personal vehicles in Quebec, over three years and incorporating an electric trolley-bus network into the province. Funding will also be made available to add 525 electric taxis to the roads.
As reported in The Gazette and on CTV news, Marois said that consumers will be eligible for grants of up to $8,000 for electric or hybrid cars and $1,000 to install a charging station at home.
Furthermore, a section of St. Michel would be electrified with 25 trams, the blue metro line would be extended, and a light rail — an electric railway system — would be created on the Champlain Bridge.
Marois noted only $30 million for this plan would be new money, while the rest would come from the Green Fund. Created in 2006, this fund’s goal is to support environmental measures aimed at promoting sustainable development.
While the intentions of this plan are valuable, several Quebecers have expressed their concern over the cost and budgeting. Coalition Avenir Québec economy critic, Stéphane Le Bouyonnec, told CTV Montreal,
“To try to accelerate the electrification of transportation could be very costly and we know our government is broke.”
Organizations like Frontier College offer services that reach out to over five hundred adult learners. Photo Jade Adams
A recent study published by Quebec’s Conseil supérieur de l’éducation explores data from a 2003, Statistics Canada survey that says, according to the five levels of literacy outlined, 49 per cent of Quebecers fit into categories one and two. These two categories represent the lowest levels of literacy and fall below level three, which is considered to be the minimum level needed in order to function in everyday society.
Though the study suggests ways to boost literacy levels through looking at various trouble areas, the study received a lot of media coverage that focused on the shocking fact that almost half of Quebecers were found to be illiterate. This statistic and others in the study, however, are not as straightforward as they seem.
The original study had individuals answer various questions that were ranked by difficulty with one being the lowest difficulty level and five being the highest. Categorized in the lowest level did not mean a person could not complete any difficult tasks. Instead, it meant this person was most at ease with the lower level questions. Level three was defined as the level needed to function in society, and the study showed that many participants fell within levels one and two — the lowest on the literacy scale. Researchers conducting the study combined the numbers of levels one and two to make up the 49 per cent.
“The statistics overshadow the strong message that the report was proposing,” said Linda Shohet, executive director at The Centre for Literacy.
She clarifies that levels one and two are discrete and says that these levels should not have been added together to obtain the alarming overall number. Instead, Shohet hopes people can look away from the statistics to focus on the positive recommendations of the report since the report does bring the issue of literacy into the spotlight and calls for the government as well as other organizations to action in order to solve the problem.
Melanie Valcin, Quebec manager of the National Literacy Organization at Frontier College, describes the study’s recommendation as a call for the mobilization of all adult education actors to develop efficient policies and practices to curb the problem. Interestingly, the study focuses on a multifaceted approach that involves learning in both formal and informal environments.
“At Frontier College, we do our part by reaching over five hundred adult learners and more than two thousand children in Quebec,” said Valcin. “We develop partnerships with other organizations such as women shelters, family resource centres, immigrant worker organizations and aboriginal organizations to reach our learners.”
New data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) will be released within the week. This new survey will take technology’s role into consideration which will make a big difference due to our society’s changing relationship with society.
In addition, this new survey will eliminate level three as a literacy cutoff. Therefore, there will be no literacy levels seen to be below or above what is needed to live in contemporary society. As Linda Shohet from The Centre for Literacy explains, “there was no data to support the idea that people ranked in levels one or two could not function in society.”
These new statistics will give the government, different literacy organizations, and the general public an idea of how statistics have changed since 2003. Though even without seeing the statistics, we can all be sure that literacy will continue to be an important issue in Quebec that demands the participation of many groups in order to see improvement.
