Thousands of students protest education cuts in downtown Montreal

Thousands of students gathered at Dorchester Square, Friday, to protest austerity measures and growing financial insecurity.

The demonstration, organized by the Coalition de résistance pour l’unité étudiante syndicale (CRUES), wrapped up a week of strikes and called for reform to student bursaries and increased funding in post-secondary education from the Quebec government.

“Right now, students are struggling just to eat and to find a place to live. We need help to deal with the rising cost of living—and yet financial aid hasn’t been updated since 1986. That’s a real problem,” said Elki Mercier, a coordinator with CRUES.

With trumpets and bagpipes blaring, students marched in downtown Montreal to protest cuts to education.

CRUES said hiring freezes were hurting student services and leaving campus infrastructure to crumble—something Daphnée Lussier said she sees every day at CEGEP Saint-Laurent.

“The place looks like a mental hospital. There’s no life there. It’s really depressing,” Lussier, a theatre student said. “Most of the cinema students that go to the CEGEP building are fully isolated from the rest of the student population, which really sucks.”

“Our school buildings are also falling apart. We’re calling for major re-investment in school infrastructure,” added Naïma Le Nédic, internal coordinator, CRUES.

“Honestly, we’re kind of being pushed to the limit right now. The cost of living is so high. Inflation keeps going up. And on top of that, tuition fees—both at university and at CEGEP—are just outrageous,” added Le Nédic.

Students like Emylya Bouchard said they worried about theirs classmates struggling to make ends meet.

“Some people live very far away, so they have to come here and pay on their own. And they’re very young. So I think it’s very useful for them to have the support that they need to help continue their studies because some people just have to stop studying because of that.  So personally, yeah, I think it can impact a lot of people,” said Bouchard.

“I’ve like struggled so, so, so much just finding an apartment after three years of renting, a good credit, everything, it’s like the housing crisis is crazy. I can barely feed myself and it shouldn’t be like that. We need to treat the root of the problem,” said Josiane Morin-Gagné.