Gabriel Nadeau-dubois
Maybe it’s his bad-boy image, but Gabriel NadeauDubois is definitely the rock star of the student movement, the guy most likely to make girls’ hearts flutter as he takes the Liberal government to task for imposing tuition hikes. Like JFK and FDR, GND is well-known enough to be referred to by his initials. But he is far more controversial than those political leaders.
He is the one dubbed a radical, the one blamed for all the violence sparked by the 11-week strike (deservedly or not) and the only one caricatured as one of the most despised men to ever walk the Earth: Osama bin Laden (most definitely undeservedly).
At 21, he’s the spokesperson for the Coalition large de l’association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE), characterized by Education Minister Line Beauchamp as too radical because she says it refused to condemn violent acts done in the name of strikers. That he’s the only one of the three leaders who had to ask police to intervene when he received death threats goes with the territory, as does the Facebook page set up calling for his resignation which has received more than 3,800 likes.
A comment on that page illustrates the type of criticism constantly fired at Nadeau-dubois: “CLASSE tried to shut down this Facebook page. That’s their policy, try to intimidate anyone who doesn’t think like you.”
This surprises his Grade 11 math teacher at the private Collège Regina Assumpta. Lucie Hamel has nothing but good things to say about a star student who was both intelligent and charismatic. “He was very open to ideas and discussion.”
He was elected class president by a strong majority and, when he participated in the 2007 Forum des Jeunes Canadiens – where young leaders from across the country engage firsthand in democratic debates – he was elected “prime minister” by his peers.
He is driven, according to his good friend and former press aide Anne-marie Provost, by “wanting to change the world.”
She says CLASSE is more “political” than the other groups, and admits GND may be “combative.” For him, she says, activism is not a passing fad or recent passion – it’s a lifestyle. He comes from a family of militants and he’s grown up being involved in social movements.
A student at Université du Québec à Montréal in history and society, his goal is to be a professor. He has no plans to pursue politics, says Provost.