Quebec Student Strike in Perspective: General Assembly to Decide Course of Action

Wednesday, March 09, 2005 @06:11PM
by Mazin Almusharaf

The $103 million cuts to loans and bursaries proposed last March by the Charest government have since caused an upheaval of response amongst institutions in the province, most notably in the francophone CEGEPs.

Students have organized classroom walk-outs, public strikes, a massive flyer campaign and have even resorted to such random acts as the mice-in-the-office fiasco which granted them immediate media exposure on a nation-wide scale. The common belief amongst the student community, and sympathetic advisors such as la Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, is that these cuts will make education less accessible in terms of affordability to potential as well as current students.

And the ball is rolling as more schools will decide whether to join in a general student strike. A general assembly has been called for Wednesday, March 9 at Concordia to let the student population decide what course of action should be taken. The Canadian Federation of Students, FEUQ and the Concordia Student Union are all pushing for a strike.

"These cuts have had a disastrous effect on students across the province, and no one can stand idly by," said Tim McSorley, chair of the CFS-Q.

The CSU is a perfect example of the structural handicap in Concordia with only eight executives to execute jobs, according to CSU VP External Arielle Reid.

"It's not as if they could dispatch a foot soldier or two to lend a hand," she said. Reid expressed strong belief that the current student movement is making a difference and that this is the only way to go, saying "it will never work from the top, it has to come from the bottom."

FEUQ was slower to support the strike mandate, though many of its members were in favour. Nick Vikander, VP university affairs for the organization said the strike wasn't their first priority but now it is time to up the pressure.

"Last semester we had some demonstrations, and this semester we've been helping on the ground especially at CEGEPS across Quebec."

Over half of Quebec's 45 CEGEPs shut down in protest mid-November, coupled with student solidarity on the issue and dissent within Charest's own Cabinet make the situation a difficult one to ignore on the part of the provincial administration. In a dramatic political endeavour of which former Education Minister Pierre Reid was a victim, Charest shuffled his cabinet—demoting and raising positions apparently at will and effectively re-uniting his right-wing policies with similar policy-makers. Former Municipal Affairs Minister Jean-Marc Fournier was moved to the education portfolio.

According to McSorley, the new minister will not mean a cakewalk for students fighting for accessible education.

"Fournier was on the de-merger portfolio, selling that. He's good at that," he said, adding that Fournier has done more media interviews since the shuffle than Reid did during his entire mandate as Education Minister.

"Reid wasn't able to convince the public as to why they're making changes [to education]."

Fournier has already taken a firm stance against striking students, saying that they will be responsible to make up for their own lost time. Many students are concerned about lengthening their school year and not being able to get a full summer's work done.

But McSorley hopes that students can set aside individualism for the benefit of the entire education structure. "Cuts are not only a threat to students coming after [those about to graduate], but could do serious harm to Quebec society. This is an issue of a publicly funded system."

Vikander stressed that if students do vote for a strike mandate, they maintain complete control over when they want to return to class.

"Students can choose to have a one-day strike, a three-day strike or longer," he said and subsequent general assemblies will be called to renew the mandate.

McSorley also maintains that while student strikes do not operate in the same way as labour strikes, they can still be effective. "It shows strong solidarity and voice among students that they are united and are willing to give up something they've paid for. This effectively builds public support."

CFS and the CSU are in favour of a three-day strike. Two central demands will be discussed at the GA: to do away with reforms that have been made to education (and effectively reverse the change in ratio of loans and bursaries). The second is calling on McGill and Concordia to adhere to the cap on international tuition. If Wednesday's GA reaches a strike mandate, McSorley said they plan to join in the afternoon demonstration with the Université de Montréal.

The strike would officially begin on March 16 with a day of student protest. "We're exploring different actions. This will not be just a stay-at-home strike," said McSorley.

Cooperation between Montreal's universities and CEGEPs reached similar heights in 1996 and Université de Montréal and UQAM have a long history of mobilization. Meanwhile Anglophone institutions in Quebec have been slower to join the movement. At UQAM, a school-wide faculty vote finds the institution as a whole divided on the issue. Certain faculties, such as the Arts, Education, Languages and Communications, and Political Science have voted for an indefinite suspension of class. The School of Management students voted against the strike.

Strangers in the Night: CKUT Benefit An Evening of Performances, Presentations and Politics

When a stranger strolls into your home, uninvited and unannounced, you tend to react. When that very same stranger insists on asking lots of questions, rearranging belongings, and in effect, telling you what to do, that reaction might take on dark overtones.

The war correspondent walks into people's homes every day. He asks his questions, probes his surroundings and alters them constantly with his thoughts and words. How are we to receive him?

Never before have journalists been so targeted in the world. Last year alone there have been forty-seven outright killings of journalists. This is by no means a characteristic norm of journalism, but rather a direct result of the mainstream media's coverage on war. It is the stranger who blasts his way through your front door, that asks all the wrong questions (occasionally coming up with his very own answers) and it is the stranger who does so in full view of a cocked, loaded, and ready to fire foreign unit dressed in army uniforms.

In times of war the media takes on grand proportions. It is the means through which the world is informed, it is the lifeline of millions of working minds, and it is the creator of reality. To those who don't know any better, fact, reality, and entertainment are all wrapped up in a pleasant half-an-hour news package-with commercials.

Media, War & Occupation

On a chilly Sunday evening, April 9, a crowd of activists, artists and professionals gathered at La Sala Rossa, a hall awash in maroon walls and shadowy corners in Mile End. It was gradually filled with avid listeners, energetic fans and the occasional journalist who gathered to attend the annual CKUT Radio 2006 Funding Drive.

This year the theme was "Media, War and Occupation, from Afghanistan to Iraq" and the event featured talks by Jooneed Khan, an international affairs reporter at La Presse, and Sonali Kolakhtar, a women's rights activist, as well as performances by the Narcisyst of the Euphrates, an Iraqi hip-hop artist, and the soothing melodies of the Oud instrument, played by the Hassan al-Hadi band.

The Bad Guys

Jooneed Khan has witnessed the realities of war on a people under occupation first hand. He was in Baghdad in 1990 and again in 2003 where several times, both before and after the American invasion, he witnessed the plight of a citizenry that has been bombarded continuously for over a decade. He has spoken to families, taxi drivers and strangers, so reporting and collecting information from the locals, whom he stresses are an essential part of any real story.

A quiet looking, inquisitive man, he described how the mainstream media only entered Baghdad on the heels of the army. He explained that the notion of "embedded journalists" is a product of World War II, when reporters lived and travelled with the army. Now the select few, mainly corporate media correspondents, witness events through the lens of American war machines. One can only assume that they report accordingly.

"We are the bad guys now" he said, sadness filling his eyes. He told of the "completely staged"-and globally broadcast-fall of Saddam's statue as it occurred before his eyes. His story revealed that the crowd was airlifted into the square to pose for the millions of viewers around the world who would be mesmerized by the image of Iraqi's celebrating the onset of occupation and the symbolic fall of a towering tyrant.

"The U.S. has turned us into beggars."

Sonali Kolakhtar, a pleasant and sincere woman who has lived in the

United States for many years, delivered a passionate statement about the situation of women in Afghanistan, the role of the media and the absolute mess that Western interference has created there.

She described Afghanistan as being "used, abused and abandoned by the international community," a claim she backed up with facts of media coverage since the invasion and the distinct increase in drug production. "The people didn't want the Taliban, they didn't want Western occupation and they didn't want the Northern Alliance-the warlords who are in power now."

With clarity and conviction, Sonali spoke her mind to an attentive, highly enthusiastic Montreal crowd. Her voice occasionally rose along with her emotions, and her accusations fell upon the ears of a Canadian audience concerned about their country's role in Afghanistan-the importance of which was only enhanced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's choice of Kandahar as his first foreign trip.

She compared the roles of the American forces to those of the Canadian, who have announced that they shall be taking leadership of the operations in the battle-ridden territory. This is NATO's first

adventure outside the lands of its member countries and a real test of its raison d'être. Sonali, who is the host of Uprising Radio in Los Angeles, said "let's be very clear-the U.S. is in charge, the U.S. is

making policy; and Canada will follow."

Awareness, Responsibility and Reflection

The media's role in shaping reality is a great responsibility, but it is also a great tool. Sonali Kolakhtar explained to the crowd her notion of "silence as a propaganda tool," where she cites purposeful silences in the media as a way of sidelining certain issues. The plight of Afghani women is but an example.

The CKUT event eventually led to a night of conversation, music and a general sense of cultural awareness. The Narcisyt of Euphrates sang his heart out in a series of songs filled with Arabic words, religious references and nationalistic statements as the night was brought to a close with the oud and percussion band Hassan Al-Hadi. The mood quickly changed from the fact spewing speeches of experienced activists to the artistic expression of the young.

A Day's Work on the Battlefield; Al Jazeera Refuses to be Silenced

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It takes a special breed of journalists to report from the war zone. In an environment of constant bombing, certain chaos and hardly visible conclusion, a select few set out to the dangerous task of informing the rest of the world.

While most people flock away from the horrific scenes that accompany every war, the foreign correspondent is instead drawn to them like a moth to the flame. He remains as long as possible, hovering in the vicinity while living in a mixture of fear and exhilaration, prediction and hope, even if only to secure a last snapshot or capture the right moment.

Such was the case for Taysir Alluni. One of the last reporters to leave Kabul in the wake of the American invasion, the foreign correspondent for Al Jazeera - a Qatar based news network - covered the suffering of the Afghani people extensively. During a period of relative silence from the Western media, it is rumoured that Alluni’s coverage raised eyebrows. In a notable departure from the mainstream, Al JAzeera continued to air the shocking live images of maimed children, charred land and the consequences of war unhampered by American warnings.

A Syrian born Spanish citizen, Alluni is widely recognized as the first to interview Osama Bin Laden only weeks after 9/11. What may easily have passed as another day at the office, and surely an assignment to inspire any journalist, would become an important event not only for the man, but the issue of press freedom as a whole.

What is essentially a forum for public debate; the media has found itself increasingly restricted in coverage of war. It has become quite a risky business. Coalition forces in Baghdad host a number of “embedded journalists” – a Pentagon term for the few who are not targeted by the military – and care little about the rest. Already, seventy two journalists have died on duty. Alluni himself barely escaped the bombing of Al Jazeera’s Baghdad office during his last days on the battlefield which is Iraq.

Surely exhausted and mentally spent from many a death experience, Alluni returned to Spain where he found himself accused of collaborating with, and membership of, his very own sources. The irony of his predicament is inescapable. Logically, the search for truth which is journalism leads to a variety of sources and the more the merrier. Yet this professional norm, and rather obvious conclusion, has been instead twisted into an image of corruption, espionage and malpractice.

He has spent over a year in Spanish custody where he still maintains his innocence, saying “If I am sentenced here, then I am paying simply for my job”. Al Jazeera, human rights groups and the Paris based Reporters Without Borders insist that the evidence is “circumstantial”.

He was hardly alone though. Twenty four men stood accused by the Spanish High Court of aiding terrorism in what has been labelled “Europe’s Biggest Al Qaida Trial” by the media. Its conclusion has found eighteen men, all of Arabic descent, receiving sentences ranging from Aluuni’s six to thirty five years. The rest were acquitted.

The trial has sparked a flurry of support for both Taysir Alluni and his employers. Instead of creating the impression of a loathsome, hostile Al JAzeera, the bombing of its offices, murder of its cameraman and six year sentence against its correspondent seems to have backfired. What emerges is a relatively small yet passionately adamant news network that refuses to be quiet.