All Posts Tagged With: "Leo Bureau-Blouin"
Ex-Quebec student leader called ‘traitor’
Leo Bureau-Blouin’s office hit with red paint
A former leader within Quebec’s student movement is taking flak from some of his old allies now that he’s an elected politician and tuition fees are going up.
Leo Bureau-Blouin, who was elected last fall under the Parti Quebecois banner, says he’s gotten threats and attacks on a Facebook page he uses to publicize a monthly meeting with constituents.
Some of the posters on the page called him a “loser” and “traitor.”
Bureau-Blouin’s constituency office was targeted in protests earlier this week and had red paint splattered on it during the night.
Premier Pauline Marois announced at the end of a summit on education on Tuesday that the government was rejecting calls for a tuition freeze. Instead, fees are being hiked three per cent in accordance with the cost of living.
That’s about $70 per year.
Parti Quebecois proposes tuition indexation
Plan would raise fees by $70 per year
Premier Marois and Education Minister Duchesne at the summit (Paul Chiasson/CP)
Quebec students who staged a memorable series of protests last spring could see their efforts result in a roughly 80 per cent discount on planned tuition hikes.
The Parti Quebecois government has tabled its plan for tuition increases, a long-awaited development in a political dispute that rocked Quebec last year and was dubbed by students as the Maple Spring.
The plan involves indexing university tuition by three per cent a year — which amounts to about $70 annually. That is sharply lower than the $325 yearly hikes sought by the previous Liberal government, which then adjusted the proposed increases to $254 per year, over seven years.
The planned hikes prompted huge and often rowdy protests, with the PQ siding with the student protesters ahead of last summer’s election campaign.
Premier Pauline Marois then cancelled the Liberal tuition increases after taking power.
Continue reading Parti Quebecois proposes tuition indexation
Quebec’s education summit begins under heavy security
Politicians’ offices vandalized
Quebec’s long-awaited education summit kicked off under heavy security Monday, a year after a student crisis rattled the province.
Steel crowd-control barriers, a gauntlet of security checkpoints and bag searches greeted participants at the Montreal building housing the two-day event.
Inside the venue, the discussions were courteous. School administrators, politicians, student leaders and social groups outlined their visions for Quebec’s post-secondary education system, talks that explored topics such as university funding and financial aid for students.
Outside the building, police officers circled the neighbourhood on bicycle, sat in vans packed with riot gear and discretely kept watch over the area from the shadows of residential doorways.
The streets around the hall were quiet, however, except for a small group of professors protesting tuition-fee hikes Monday.
It was in stark contrast to the months of massive, nightly protests that consumed Montreal last year in a student crisis sparked by the former Liberal government’s plans to hike tuition fees. The student movement dubbed itself the Maple Spring.
Continue reading Quebec’s education summit begins under heavy security
10 stories students are talking about today
Murderous felines, sexy engineers, burning buses…
Sukanto Debnath/Flickr
Here we give you the 10 stories that Canadian students are talking about today. Like us on Facebook for your daily fix.
1. Nearly one in three U.S. cats is a stone-cold killer, according to the University of Georgia, which spied on more than 60 felines with video cameras. Their favorite victims are lizards, snakes and frogs, followed by small mammals (poor chipmunks!), insects and worms (uh, gross), and finally, birds. Considering the gravity of this news, is it too soon to ask if claw control is the answer?
Continue reading 10 stories students are talking about today
Quebec is getting messy again
Some students aren’t planning to go back to classes
Photo by yanik_crepeau on Flickr
Students in Quebec face a big decision right now. CEGEPs and universities are legally required to reopen before the end of August to finish off the terms that were put on hold when students boycotted classes to protest tuition hikes this spring. If they continue to skip, they’ll lose their semesters.
Almost all shuttered CEGEPs will reopen by Aug. 17. Universities will also reopen later in the month. The Université du Québec à Montréal, most widely affected by the boycotts, reopens Aug. 27.
Conveniently for Premier Jean Charest, there’s an election scheduled for Sept. 4., just a couple weeks after when—in his own words—the public must choose between classes and “the street.”
Quebec protest leaders hint at compromise
College leader willing to discuss amount of hike
Leaders of at least two of the three large student groups who organized Quebec’s student “strike” movement suggest that a compromise could soon end the 106-day conflict.
Martine Desjardins, leader of university group FEUC, told CBC News on Sunday that negotiations with the provincial government will resume this afternoon.
Leo Bureau-Blouin, president of college student group FECQ, told The House on Saturday that if Premier Jean Charest lessened the planned tuition increase—most recently proposed at $1,778 over seven years—then students may end their protests. He did not suggest a specific amount.
