Beauchamp rejects reopening talks
Government needs to “get a grip and assume its responsibilities,” FEUQ says
QUEBEC – Students seeking a return to discussions with the Quebec government to end an 11-week student strike were rebuffed Thursday when Education Minister Line Beauchamp rejected their proposal to resume talks.
The students say they are eager to sit down to discuss alternatives to the $1,625 tuition-fee hike the Charest government wants to impose.
“I think both of us are responsible,” said Martine Desjardins, president of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, taking a share of the blame for the dispute. “We’re taking it. Where is the government on this?”
Talks began on Monday, after Beauchamp proposed a 48-hour truce, asking students to refrain from disruptive actions, but ended on Wednesday when Beauchamp banished the classe, the coalition large de l’association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante, from the table. She accused the association, representing almost half the 180,000 student strikers, of advocating violence and holds them responsible for an illegal demonstration Tuesday in Montreal.
The CLASSE has repeatedly denied it favours violence, saying it deplores violent action that could hurt people. But the government continues to tag the CLASSE and its spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-dubois as violent, refusing them a place at the table.
“We could refuse to discuss with the government because there was police brutality,” Nadeau-dubois told reporters. “But we don’t because we think we have a responsibility to solve the conflict.”
The FEUQ, representing university students, had renewed its offer of last Sunday to have two CLASSE negotiators sit at the table with the FEUQ team. FEUQ president Martine Desjardins and Léo Bureau-blouin of the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec, representing CÉGEP students, again appealed for calm.
“I feel like (this is) Groundhog Day,” Desjardins said, referring to the 1993 film about a TV weatherman reliving the same day over and over.
Beauchamp delivered her message through her spokesperson that the CLASSE was not welcome at the table, even as part of the FEUQ dele- gation. “The premier was clear,” the spokesperson said, adding that the CLASSE tolerates “economic and social disorder.”
The FEUQ replied that “the negotiations remain suspended until the government gets a grip and assumes its responsibilities.”
Desjardins said that Beauchamp does not attend the talks in person. She is represented by Montreal lawyer Pierre Pilote, who has no mandate to discuss tuition fees. “It is completely legitimate that we name our people,” Desjardins said.
Thursday morning, following another night of violence, Premier Jean Charest joined Beauchamp in suggesting the Classe was also responsible for a Wednesday demonstration in Montreal that started peacefully but was declared illegal by police after a minority who infiltrated the march began damaging vehicles.
“We live in a democracy and issues are not resolved through intimidation and violence,” a stern Charest said.
“The decision was announced a year ago after extensive consultations,” he said. “Some students, not all – a majority are in class – ... have chosen to boycott courses.”
Asked whether removing the CLASSE from the discussions may have provoked the Wednesday violence, Charest objected to the question, saying, “It says to those who committed acts of violence they are not responsible for it.”
Desjardins said the premier’s scapegoating NadeauDubois “makes no sense.”
“Mr. Nadeau should not bear the full burden of the whole student movement on his back,” she said. “This is enough childishness.”
Nadeau-dubois, defending himself, said, “The CLASSE is not a marginal organization. The CLASSE is not a violent organization. The CLASSE has never called for violence, has never encouraged violence, never, never.”
Desjardins suggested Beauchamp has a “personal vendetta” against NadeauDubois, dating back to a September 2010 occupation by the CLASSE of her Montreal office.
“It is personal,” Beauchamp admitted on RadioCanada’s Tout le monde en parle talk show in March, recalling that her receptionist’s glasses were broken.
“We were sorry at the time,” Nadeau-dubois said. “We are totally sorry today.”
Calling what happened “a very unfortunate incident,” he adding that in personalizing the dispute Beauchamp “doesn’t want to lose face.”
“I think it is not a very mature attitude,” the CLASSE spokesperson said.