Concordia University students protesting tuition hikes in Montreal

Students from Concordia University rallied in front of the Quebec minister of higher education’s Montreal office Wednesday afternoon in the wake of tuition hikes imposed on out-of-province and international students in anglophone universities.

The protesters are asking that Pascale Déry step down from her role, painting “Déry démissionne” in big red letters on the pavement outside her office.

“I believe that Déry’s response or lack thereof is very indicative of a public official that has failed to fulfill the purposes of their job and perhaps they are unfit to sit in office if they don’t wish to work with the people that she is meant to represent,” said Angelica Antonakopoulis, the academic coordinator of the Arts and Science Federation of Associations.

The group Students Against Tuition Hikes For Free Tuition is calling the tuition hike “ineffective and extreme measures for francization.”

“This is already affecting international students that want to come to Quebec,” said Audrey Beaudoin, vice-president of mobilization at the Concordia Association for Students in English. “I want her (Déry) to know that this is already and is going to further impact the economy in Quebec.”

The Quebec government plans to increase fees at Concordia and McGill from roughly $9,000 to $12,000, despite an expert committee recommending against it earlier this year.

“Pascale Déry has already ignored students on several demands in respect of tuition hikes as well as her ignoring students demanding paid internships,” said Antonakopoulis. “We decided to get right to her door and make our message clear.

“The current government is banking on the fact that we’re going to be complicit.”

The students have been mobilizing since last fall. A protest was held in October and was followed by a one-day strike in November, a three-day strike at the end of January, and most recently, a week-long strike of around 30,000 students in March.

“The student body and a lot of students in general are really fed up with having to strike every five to 10 years, so now it’s come to a point of free tuition or nothing,” Beaudoin said.

The Quebec government has defended the tuition hike, saying it was imposed, in part, because there are too many people who speak English in Montreal.

Both Concordia and McGill have said they’ve recorded significant drops in applications since Quebec announced the tuition hike in October and have warned it could trigger a steep drop in enrolment and devastate their finances.

“When we lose that money, we lose what makes Concordia Concordia, so we’ll ultimately lose,” Antonakopoulis said.

CityNews reached out to the Ministry of Higher Education for comment but did not immediately her back.

– With files from CityNews Montreal’s Anastasia Dextrene