Student protests, pro and con
Re: “Do the protesters care about real democracy?” (Editorial, May 3).
The Gazette concludes erroneously that student leaders and their supporters are not acting democratically, and do not understand the concept, because they have flouted either the law or democratic procedures to achieve results.
Just because a law exists does not make it right. Just because governments are elected does not mean that they are beyond reproach or protest.
Our precious sensibilities might be upset by certain tactics; governments and the courts might frown upon actions that would undermine their authority; but our democracy would be ineffectual were such tools removed from the citizens’ arsenal. Just imagine what would have happened had participants in the Arab Spring movements listened to politicians and the army and gone home. J.S.H. Gohar
Brossard
The student’s tuition-fee protest is no longer that. It has been hijacked by other groups screeching for major changes to our society, including anarchists who would destroy it all.
It has morphed into a sometimes violent political movement without anyone in control. Every disaffected person with a gripe can put on a black mask and destroy property at will. They can block thousands of taxpayers from getting to their jobs.
Court injunctions to open schools are ignored as police stand by on the sidelines. This has become an incipient insurrection that has grown into the very antithesis of democracy.
The rule of law must be enforced or we will become Banana Republic North. Bob Mcdevitt
Montreal
I couldn’t help notice the Bench hoodie worn by one of the student protesters in a photo in Thursday’s Gazette.
Out of curiosity, I looked up the price online. It regularly sells for $99.99. Meanwhile, many of my friends and colleagues and I shop at Village des Valeurs, where you can get a hoodie for under $10. To borrow a popular phrase: Just sayin’.
John Woolfrey
Nuns’ Island
The concept of teaching-only universities, as proposed by CLASSE, already exists in U.S. state universities (as opposed to Ivy league universities).
The government could accommodate CLASSE by creating a double-tier system in Quebec: a cut-rate tier, similar to CEGEPS, and a second tier of the traditional, research-oriented universities such as Mcgill and Laval that charge the market rate.
The students would be given a free choice – it seems to satisfy their demands. Hugh Phillips
Montreal
Re: “Our universities need proper funding, and everyone has a part to play” and “The students have taken a position that looks like something from the Tea Party” (Opinion, May 3).
The authors of the former article claim that the government has asked the private sector to pay additional taxes for the universities and now students must do their part.
This overlooks that the Charest government had previously cut the company tax on capital by $890 million and income tax by $950 million, and is now raising tuition fees by $265 million (net of the increase of bursaries).
In the latter article, Don Macpherson claims the government’s tuition increase actually redistributes wealth from the rich to the poor and the middle class.
It’s true that the government has promised that it will cover the fee increase for the poor with increased bursaries, but this doesn’t leave them better off.
As for the middle class, they have to bear the full cost of the fee increase. The increased tuition tax credits referred to by Macpherson would help only students with a taxable net income above $10,640, the personal-deduction amount – unlikely for a full-time student – and even then would cover only 20 per cent of the fee increase.
By contrast, if the fee increase were avoided by reducing income taxes less, roughly 80 per cent of the fee increase would be paid for by the richest 20 per cent of taxpayers, because of the progressive nature of income tax. Robert Hajaly
Montreal
Bravo to Don Macpherson for pointing out that last Sunday’s discussion with the student leaders on Tout le monde en parle was “fawning,” not to mention disappointingly biased and void of intelligent, substantive arguments.
I kept waiting for Guy A. Lepage to ask them point-blank to defend their position based on real economics and the fact that students in Quebec pay so much less than their peers in the rest of Canada, let alone in North America, and instead was subjected to this nauseating love-in for these three admittedly articulate and charismatic student leaders. Tony Boyd
Montreal
I am reminded of a bumper sticker I once saw that read: “Hire a student while they still know everything.” Gerry Silverman
Côte St. Luc