CANADA

Students to maintain pressure, despite fee freeze pledge

Students aren’t throwing away their red squares just yet. The Coalition large de l’association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante, or CLASSE, said last Thursday that students must remain vigilant to ensure a real tuition freeze is brought in by the Parti Québécois, writes Karen Seidman for The Montreal Gazette.

CLASSE, along with the other main student associations, says it is opposed to tuition being indexed to the cost of living, which is what the PQ – elected last week to lead the province – had pledged during its campaign. What’s more, CLASSE wants something beyond the tuition freeze promised by the PQ. It wants the boost to the loans and bursaries system promised by the Liberals, as well.

So, despite a pledge from PQ leader Pauline Marois on Wednesday to cancel the tuition increase and repeal Bill 78 by decree, the seventh consecutive student demonstration on the 22nd of the month is still planned for September, and students say they’re not going to abandon their mobilisation so quickly.
Full report on The Montreal Gazette site