Students march in downtown Montreal to oppose Quebec's tuition fee increases
Students hoisted signs including one that said 'I love Quebec, but it doesn’t love me'
A group of people chanting slogans and hoisting signs marched through downtown Montreal on Monday to protest tuition fee increases for out-of-province students.
The crowd of several hundred people walked from Dorchester Square past Concordia University to the Roddick Gates, the entrance to McGill University's downtown campus, where people overflowed onto Sherbrooke Street and nearby side streets.
The tuition increases won't affect most of the marchers directly because many of them are students who are already attending a Quebec university — and have acquired rights. But they worry the increases will weaken English institutions and deliver a clear message to anglophone students from the rest of Canada: "You are not welcome here."
"To be told that we're not doing enough to protect the French language and essentially we don't belong here breaks my heart," said Kendra Buchner, a Bishop's student whose sign said, in French, "I love Quebec, but it doesn't love me."
She had a message for Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry, who presented the tuition hike earlier this month and said the government would no longer subsidize the education of out-of-province students who leave after getting their degree.
"You're not giving us any incentive to stay," Buchner said.
The Quebec government has framed the tuition hikes both as a way to balance the funding of English and French institutions and as a way to reduce the number of English-speaking Canadian students in a province where French is seen as threatened.
Students arriving to attend a Quebec university for the fall 2024 semester will have to pay approximately $17,000 in tuition fees, an increase of approximately $8,000 over the current rate.
Many of those who demonstrated hoisted signs, some of which read in French: "Affordable education for all," or "I learn French at Bishop's University."
Many students wore their school's colours — red for McGill and maroon for Concordia. There were also dozens wearing purple, Bishop's University's school colour. They had been bused in for the march from the Sherbrooke campus to Montreal.
One of those students, Charles Doyon Barrieau, a Quebec-born Bishop's student who would not be directly affected by the tuition fee hike said that he would still feel its effects. It will make the university less diverse, he fears, preventing all but the wealthiest out-of-province students from attending.
"I think we can learn so much from people from different backgrounds," he said.
At Bishop's, about 30 per cent of the students are from outside of Quebec. Doubling tuition fees could have a "catastrophic" impact on the university's finances, according to Sébastien Lebel-Grenier, Bishop's rector and vice-chancellor.
Nicolas Baril, a sports studies major at Bishop's and part of the football team's coaching staff, said he is worried about the university's future.
Baril expects the increases to challenge recruiting efforts for the Gaiters, Bishop's sports teams. Many athletes are out-of-province students who probably won't be able to afford to study there anymore, Baril said.
"When they can pay half the price anywhere else in the country it's going to be tough," he said.
"I think the whole school is in danger right now and all of Gaiter athletics."
Premier François Legault told reporters that he thinks his government's proposal is reasonable, citing the high proportion of spots at English universities in Quebec compared to the number of anglophones living in the province.
"Twenty-five per cent of places in universities are in anglophone universities. It's a lot, 25 per cent," he said. "I think that these proposals are reasonable and I think that the three anglophone universities must appreciate that getting 25 per cent of all university students in Quebec, it's a lot and maybe it's a bit too much."
Statistics Canada says that in 2021, about 52 per cent of Quebec could carry on a conversation in English and about 19 per cent of Quebec residents spoke English at least regularly at home.
A spokesperson for Déry issued a statement, saying the minister was aware that the changes can provoke strong reactions.
"Discussions are continuing with the establishments to implement the measures and, at the same time, arrive at a solution tailored to Bishop's particular situation," the statement said.
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With files from Justin Hayward and Kwabena Oduro