Don’t pursue the degree if you can’t pay the extremely high fee

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Student organizers from the group Free Education Montreal held a debate on March 30, bringing together students, researchers, and the president of Concordia University. They grappled with some big questions about the future of post-secondary education: what should be its role in society? Who should pay for the cost of education? And how will tuition hikes impact accessibility?

GRIP-UQAM activists work to transform food politics & challenge economic structure

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To learn about some of the work being done by student activists at the Université du Québec à Montréal, I visited a small but feisty focal point of student militancy known as GRIP-UQAM.

In these days of impending climate chaos and and shrinking biodiversity, many of the student groups sponsored by the GRIP are working on projects aimed at reversing environmental destruction — with a notable focus on transforming the wasteful processes that go into the production of food.

Thousands protest Quebec budget, riot police confront youth in Montreal’s World Trade Centre

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On April 1 in Montreal, students demonstrated alongside feminist groups, labour unions, and community groups, protesting an austere budget just released by the Quebec government.

Quebec students say the Education Ministry owes them $35 million

March 11: Students carry banner readinng "Courchesne, we want our $35 million"

Hundreds of students from colleges and universities across the province of Quebec gathered in Montreal on March 11, demanding that Minister of Education Michelle Courchesne invest $35 million dollars of  money from the federal government into bursaries for students.

The federal government previously provided $80 million annually to Quebec through the Canada Millenium Scholarship Foundation, but that foundation reached the end of its mandate and dissolved in January.

Audio: Student leaders fight for bursaries, against tuition hikes in Quebec; New research policy conceals weapons research at McGill University

This is the first edition of Unofficial Transcript Radio, a series of newscasts focussing on the Canadian student movement.

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IN THIS EPISODE:

The challenge of grassroots organizing for Canadian student organizations

Post-secondary students took to the streets on February 17 to protest statements by the Quebec Minister of Education, Michelle Courchesne, indicating that heightened tuition rates are in the offing.

Courchesne ignited the fury of students by saying that tuition hikes may soon go beyond the $50 per semester increases that students are paying until 2012.

In an interview with the Montreal newspaper La Presse, she said that a “consensus” is emerging in favour of the de-freeze in Quebec.

“When I speak of consensus, I exclude students,” she remarked. “But … more and more, the importance of increasing tuition rates is becoming apparent.”