Quebec judge rejects Concordia University’s bid to delay province’s tuition hikes

A Quebec Superior Court judge has denied Concordia University’s request to delay a controversial tuition hike for out-of-province and international students. 

Justice Éric Dufour ruled on July 12 that Concordia didn’t demonstrate that the changes represent a clear violation of their rights, therefore rejecting the request for a stay to temporarily suspend significant tuition hikes.

The university, he ruled, did raise serious issues and proved it would suffer serious or irreparable harm.

Dufour, however, ruled that the harm to the public interest from delaying the tuition increase outweighed the harm to the Montreal university. 

Under the Legault government’s new guidelines coming this fall, tuition fees fees are going up by 30 per cent to a minimum of $12,000 dollars for out-of-province students at English-language universities, specifically at Concordia and McGill.

International students will have to pay at least $20,000 dollars, with the Quebec government taking $17,000.

In a written response to CityNews, Concordia University says that two of the three criteria were met for a stay that included Concordia facing serious issues and serious or irreparable harm.

“This request is only one step in the process, and we look forward to our arguments being heard on the merits,” the statement read.

Several Concordia students – including international, out-of-province and Quebec residents – on the Concordia University downtown Montreal campus told CityNews they are opposed to the tuition hikes.

“Considering I’m an international student too, so I felt like pretty disappointed in that because I personally chose Concordia University since the price of the tuition was pretty low compared to other provinces,” said Rishit Mittal, an international student from India who is studying computer engineering.

“It impacted all of those people as well who were coming planning to come here in the fall and winter semesters.”

“It’s quite unfortunate that a lot of people who want to go to Concordia won’t be able to and experience being in Montreal and being in Quebec and having that kind of language back and forth and the culture and stuff,” said Jacs Repei, an out-of-province student from Ontario studying studio arts, adding, “it’s just really disappointing.”

“Montreal before was like seen as a better option for those prices,” said Cristina Macchiagodena, an out-of-province student from Ontario studying film and animation. “If I had looked at the prices, if it had increased and I was looking at it I wouldn’t have decided to come here.”

“I was lucky to be born here. My family’s from Lebanon and so I have a lot of friends that come from outside and I just think like it could have been me then was affected by these tuition hikes,” said a Concordia student and Quebec resident studying electrical engineering.

Last February, McGill University and Concordia University announced they are suing the Quebec government over its decision to hike tuition.

In separate lawsuits, the two Montreal universities said the government’s decision constitutes discrimination under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that the hikes have damaged the schools’ reputations.

Both universities were challenging the hikes, but Concordia wanted tuition fee increases to be delayed until their challenge is heard.

Concordia and McGill University argue the tuition hikes are discriminatory, but the Quebec government says Section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms doesn’t protect people from discrimination based on language.

The Quebec government has defended the tuition hikes, saying that they were imposed, in part, because there are too many people who speak English in Montreal that often leave Quebec after graduating. Quebec will redirect funds to French-language universities.

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.

Concordia told the court that overall, it expects a 12-per-cent decline in registrations and a loss of $21 million in funding.

In the ruling, McGill is listed as the plaintiff that had originally asked for the stay, while Concordia and an individual, Lucas Meldrum, were listed as interveners.

McGill has since asked to postpone its request.

The two universities will argue their case against the tuition increase in court this fall.