Anatomy of a crisis after 100 days of protest

A timeline of the Quebec student strike against tuition hikes, which will mark its 100th day Tuesday with a daytime rally starting at 2 p.m. at Quartier des Spectacles. May 2003: University administrators call for Jean Charest’s Liberal government to lift the freeze on tuition fees. “God won’t pay. Someone will have to take the bill,” said Jean-marie Toulouse, principal of École des Hautes études commerciales Montréal. Charest says his government will maintain the freeze for duration of his first mandate. At $1,862, Quebec’s average undergraduate tuition is less than half the Canadian average of $4,025. February 2004: The National Assembly launches hearings into the quality, accessibility and funding of universities. Students vow to man the barricades against increases in tuition and other fees. Universities cite studies showing Quebec institutions are underfunded by $375 million a year. November 2004: University and CEGEP students from across province take to streets to protest a government plan to convert $103 million from bursaries to loans. April 2005: After months of protests and winter-long strikes by more than 100,000 students, Education Minister Jean-marc Fournier reinstates the $103 million in bursary money. November 2007: About 2,000 of 58,000 university and CEGEP students on strike against a $100 per year hike in tuition fees take to the streets of Montreal. The event is part of a three-day strike marked by hundreds of arrests on charges of vandalism and public mischief. February 2010: Former Parti Québécois premier Lucien Bouchard joins former Liberal and PQ finance ministers, business leaders and retired rectors urging Charest government to end the tuition freeze. They suggest universities be allowed to raise fees to $3,000 to $8,000. December 2010: University principals and rectors urge a $1,500 hike in tuition fees over five years in the name of “intergenerational equity.” They cite a study saying it would take $1,500 just to cover inflation and bring fees in line with the $545 Quebec students paid in 1969. March 2011: Quebec announces plan to raise university tuition by $325 a year over five years, beginning in September 2012. Over that period, rates will climb by 80 per cent, from $2,168 to $3,793. Protesters – including three senior executives of the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante – occupy Finance Minister Raymond Bachand’s office. July 2011: CLASSE spokesperson Gabriel NadeauDubois accuses Montreal police of “a wave of repression” against student protests. “You can chase us, arrest us and hit us but you will never succeed in intimidating us,” he says. November2011: 30,000people march to protest tuition hikes. The peaceful event ends with the occupation of Mcgill University’s administration building. Feb. 21, 2012: 36,000 students, who makeup roughly nine per cent of Quebec’s 400,000 university and CEGEP students, go on strike. Their emblem is a red square, a play on the notion that impoverished students are “squarely in the red.” March 7: The number of students on strike continues to climb. Police use tear gas and flash bombs after more than 1,000 protesters block the entrance to the Loto-québec building. March 22: An estimated 200,000 people take to the streets. Despite the presence of small pockets of masked protesters, the event is peaceful. April 12: Day marked by 12 hours of rotating protests through the downtown core. Education Minister Line Beauchamp applauds efforts by Valleyfield CEGEP to try to open its doors and urges other universities and colleges to do what is needed to resume classes. About 185,000 students are on strike, with 90,000 threatening to boycott classes until the tuition hike is repealed. April 19: As efforts to reopen campuses are met by protests and clashes with police, Education Minister Line Beauchamp calls student leaders to the negotiating table. She banishes CLASSE unless it denounces acts of violence, but other student groups demand CLASSE be included. May 1: Students present a counter offer which calls for indexing administrative costs at universities, a move they say would release $189 million toward teaching and research costs. May 3: Charest and Beauch amppresenta proposal that would spread the increase over seven years instead of five. Student groups claim the government has ignored their chief demand that tuition remain frozen at $2,168. During a demonstration outside a Liberal Party meeting in Victoriaville, police use tear gas after a student protest deteriorates with a group of masked protesters hurling rocks and bottles and setting off fireworks. May 8: Student groups reject a tentative agreement hammered out between Beauchamp and student groups. May 14: Education Minister Line Beauchamp resigns from cabinet and the national Assembly, saying she could no longer be part of the solution. Beauchamp had raised the possibility of a moratorium, delaying the $1,778 fee hike, but student leaders waited all weekend before returning her calls. Within an hour, Charest appoints Treasury Board President Michelle Courchesne to take her place. May 17: The Charest government adopts Bill 78, special legislation which suspends the academic year at 14 CEGEPS and university faculties where students are still on strike. The legislation, which expires on July 1, 2013, includes strict rules on demonstrations by groups of 50 or more protesters and heavy fines for those who defy the law. This leads to charges that it infringes on charter rights to expression and free assembly. May 18: Molotov cocktails are hurled at police, who respond by using CS spray. There are 69 arrests. May 19: Saturday night march quickly deteriorates when protesters light bonfires on St. Denis St. Police use pepper spray and 116 people are arrested. The red-square movement gets a celebrity stamp of approval from likes of Arcade Fire (who wear them while performing on Saturday Night Live) and filmmakers Xavier Dolan and Michael Moore. May 20: More than 300 people are arrested in night violence marked when protesters hurl asphalt at police. Montreal police throw percussion bombs and charge into the crowd repeatedly in a battle that lasts several hours. More than 300 people are arrested, 10 officers and 10 protesters are injured, at least one seriously. May 21: CLASSE launches a counter-attack to Bill 78, vowing to defy the law and “refuse to cede to intimidation.” May 22: Unions urge members to join students for a huge rally against Bill 78 scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. at the Quartier des Spectacles.