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Updated: Fri Apr. 13 2012 10:55:00 AM
by Barry Wilson, Executive Producer, CTV Montreal, OPINION
MONTREAL — Any modicum of sympathy from the public that the students may have enjoyed has melted away quicker than this past winter's snow and ice
This is a protest. I refuse to use the word "strike" because it is not one, as there has been no withdrawal of services or negotiation for a collective agreement and no employer has suffered.
The only ones who will really feel the pain are the students themselves.
This protest has turned ugly and nasty and it seems that every group with a grievance is using the student protest to sow unrest, as they are so fond of doing.
For many of these kids, it's not a question of protesting tuition hikes.
They want free university for all. Maybe we should pay them to go to school.
And their self-appointed leaders seem to think of themselves as latter day Che Gueverras struggling against the tyranny of a democratically-elected government.
This is not a social crisis.
What are they learning in university?
Enough is enough.
Enough vandalism, enough intimidation, enough threatening the lives of ministers, enough wearing masks.
Students who actually want to go to class are treated like outcasts. I applaud the ones who show the courage to attend class and those who go to court to guarantee their rights.
And now, many of the students have the audacity to ask for special consideration and a longer year so they don't lose their semesters.
Here's the thing: most students are not on strike.
Those who are and continue to be deserve whatever they get.
You make choices.
The students have made their point.
The government opened the door by improving the student aid program.
It can help those in real need. But it will not go any further.
The majority of Quebecers are with the government on this.
Premier Charest finally has an issue on which he can possibly call an election.
The students want the government to negotiate.
Negotiate with whom? The three different student associations can't agree with each other.
And who gave these groups mandates to negotiate in the first place?
If the government sits down with anyone, maybe it should be the parents who pay most of the freight.
Let's get some perspective here.
These freedom fighters should look around the world to see how good they have it.
We don't live in a country where young people are enslaved in forced labour.
We don't live in a country where young women face the horror of genital mutilation.
We don't live in a country where there is no education. No chance to escape a lifetime of poverty and misery.
We don't live in a country when people are dying of starvation.
Our students have it pretty good. And you know, indeed sometimes youth is wasted on the young.
Ozzie
2
Indulge me, if you will, to share a little of my story:
I’m from Australia – an entirely opposite country in almost every conceivable way, though I find many similarities with Quebec in particular, in that they both have very special cultures, which each want to grow into their place on the global stage, without entirely sacrificing their unique identity for $$.
Quebec’s entirely protectionist policies are reminiscent of Australia’s some 15yrs back. Matter of fact, we actually had free public-funded university for everyone in the 1980s – it ended up as a massive national debt problem because there were plenty of kids enrolled in courses with no job opportunities & taking forever to graduate. Australia also introduced plastic money & eradicated pennies around the same time. We created something like your RRSPs here, only the employer pays into it rather than the employee, to address the fact that we had a large older generation & low national savings.
Anyway…
So I come here & absolutely love the people & the joie de vivre du Quebec, & I consider making my life here. I get a nice job offer at a consulting firm, pending an evaluation of my two business-stream degrees at the appropriate government office. So I hand them in with the job offer letter & get told that it’ll be a 2wk wait, as I have an employment offer. 11mths later I’m still waiting on that evaluation (which I paid for). I missed out on the job. Eventually found another, which I’m entirely overqualified for.
I’m educated & well-travelled. As you say, I’m wiser for it. The glaring societal problems in Qc are difficult for me to ignore, as I know it doesn’t have to be this way. I’ve decided to go home where my education & skills will be valued, where there will be more opportunity for me, & where I can have hope in the future of my society. This is a real shame for me because there’s a lot I like here. It’s also a real shame for Qc, because they are losing a well-educated taxpayer (of which there are far too few) who could have & wanted to contribute so much more.
2
Indulge me, if you will, to share a little of my story:
I’m from Australia – an entirely opposite country in almost every conceivable way, though I find many similarities with Quebec in particular, in that they both have very special cultures, which each want to grow into their place on the global stage, without entirely sacrificing their unique identity for $$.
Quebec’s entirely protectionist policies are reminiscent of Australia’s some 15yrs back. Matter of fact, we actually had free public-funded university for everyone in the 1980s – it ended up as a massive national debt problem because there were plenty of kids enrolled in courses with no job opportunities & taking forever to graduate. Australia also introduced plastic money & eradicated pennies around the same time. We created something like your RRSPs here, only the employer pays into it rather than the employee, to address the fact that we had a large older generation & low national savings.
Anyway…
So I come here & absolutely love the people & the joie de vivre du Quebec, & I consider making my life here. I get a nice job offer at a consulting firm, pending an evaluation of my two business-stream degrees at the appropriate government office. So I hand them in with the job offer letter & get told that it’ll be a 2wk wait, as I have an employment offer. 11mths later I’m still waiting on that evaluation (which I paid for). I missed out on the job. Eventually found another, which I’m entirely overqualified for.
I’m educated & well-travelled. As you say, I’m wiser for it. The glaring societal problems in Qc are difficult for me to ignore, as I know it doesn’t have to be this way. I’ve decided to go home where my education & skills will be valued, where there will be more opportunity for me, & where I can have hope in the future of my society. This is a real shame for me because there’s a lot I like here. It’s also a real shame for Qc, because they are losing a well-educated taxpayer (of which there are far too few) who could have & wanted to contribute so much more.
Ozzie
1.
@ jeffn84
You’re dreaming…
Books I will give it to you, it would not be unwise for the world to move towards an entirely online format.
But teachers, not a limited resource? You can’t seriously be that delusional...
As you say they are limited to the number of teaching graduates, yes. Producing teaching graduates costs money. Money is a severely limited resource around this province. Isn’t this what has spawned the entire tuition hike / student protest to begin with – ie. There isn’t enough public funding around to pay for everyone to become teachers so we can have the unlimited supply of them that you fantasise?
Teachers are also limited in the sense that there is a demand for them (if no-one wants to learn, then there will be no demand for teachers, they will be of reduced value, and accordingly paid less, which will reduce some proportion of
1.
@ jeffn84
You’re dreaming…
Books I will give it to you, it would not be unwise for the world to move towards an entirely online format.
But teachers, not a limited resource? You can’t seriously be that delusional...
As you say they are limited to the number of teaching graduates, yes. Producing teaching graduates costs money. Money is a severely limited resource around this province. Isn’t this what has spawned the entire tuition hike / student protest to begin with – ie. There isn’t enough public funding around to pay for everyone to become teachers so we can have the unlimited supply of them that you fantasise?
Teachers are also limited in the sense that there is a demand for them (if no-one wants to learn, then there will be no demand for teachers, they will be of reduced value, and accordingly paid less, which will reduce some proportion of
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