A take on the Quebec student protests...

Many post-secondary students in Quebec have been taking to the streets for the last while, officially striking from the classroom in protest of proposed tuition hikes. They have attracted widespread criticism from folks across Canada, chastising them as spoiled brats and denouncing what has occasionally erupted into violent action. Even other students across the country oppose the protests, typically citing the already low tuition rates Quebec students pay compared to the rest of us.

Quebec students protesting (Image: Montreal Gazette)

Personally, the entire issue has me sitting on the fence. In many ways, I support the students. I think the demand to keep tuition rates low and even moving towards free education is, for the most part, justified. I have a lot of trouble buying the argument put forward that these students should shut their yap because tuition is already expensive everywhere else. That kind of argument seems to encourage a race-to-the-bottom mentality: we pay more than we should for our schooling, so you should, too. By the same logic, we could look to the United States - where tuition rates exponentially eclipse Canadian rates - and say, hey, we've got it pretty good. But that doesn't make it right. I firmly believe that education is one of the best investments a government can make, especially because of the positive benefits that come to society as a whole. 

Moreover, sometimes people lose sight of the realities facing young people these days. Rob Carrick did a job good highlighting the incredible rise in cost of living since the 1980s, including rises in tuition and real estate prices - the average cost of a house in Toronto these days is over $500,000, but was less than $100,000 in 1984. Tuition was less than $1,000 per year - now it's over $5,000. Far too many students are and will be stuck with huge amounts of student debt to pay. Add to that an ailing job market and yes, life is not as easy for the young adult as it was decades ago - notwithstanding the sure costs we will have bear for climate change, environmental damage, a glut in health care costs, social security and everything else our elders have left us, but I digress.  



Now, it is important to note that much of the controversy has come from the type of students that are reported to be doing the protesting: liberal-arts students. I, along with many of the students, agree that a liberal-arts degree is a useful thing to have a fosters a more thoughtful, critically-thinking population. I have a liberal-arts degree and I found it a tremendous experience. But realities have to be faced: the job market is not that good for arts degree holders. Abstract arguments about a society moving away from the proper valuation of these degrees aside, students who entered these degree programs need to take some responsibility for choosing to embark on a path with such bleak employment prospects. Many have had to supplement these degrees with further education, like a Masters degree or trade school. Case in point, my law school class is filled with liberal-arts degree holders who are here for employability's sake.

But not all the blame can be put on the students. They have been fed disingenuous lines for some time about job prospects and the value of a university education. Margaret Wente, who is seemingly always (to paraphrase a friend of mine) on a crusade to rid the world of progressive thought and liberal-arts students in a survival-of-the-fittest fashion, at least throws some of the blame on universities. The universities themselves need to be held partly accountable for the rise in tuition rates. Many schools justify the rising costs on aging infrastructure and insufficient government funding. In some cases, schools justify the costs with expected earnings upon graduation. And in one case - though I'm sure it is not isolated - a correspondent informed me that a business school was granted an exemption from a provincial tuition freeze and allowed to double its fees. The reason? Its fees were already much lower than comparable schools in the country and low fees do not reflect the prestige the school desired. And of course, while schools cut low-paid support staff, they pay senior administration absurdly high salaries. When I last checked, there is a nary a university president that makes less than $300,000 a year, plus an array of benefits.

One must not forget the contribution of faculty unions, which have a considerable level of pull. A few former professors of mine have pointed out that they get paid too much, especially at the expense of students. Sure, getting such a position is tough and requires many years of hard work, but once you get there, it can be pretty cushy. In the interest of full disclosure, one of my parents belongs to such a union and the benefits have been good to our family, including helping to pay my way through university, but most students aren't so lucky.

The problems in universities are complex and varied, and every party is terrific at passing the buck, but as things stand, students seem to get the short end of the stick.    

But maybe low tuition is not the key. One friend suggested that having free or lower tuition can be good, but there are already plenty of families that would be disproportionately benefited because they can already afford university costs as they stand now. Instead, the focus should be on providing needs-based funding and bursaries. This carries significant merit and would certainly help, but someone would still have to cough up the cash. And there is the danger that such a policy might burden those that have frugally saved for education while unfairly helping those that spent money in other ways, sometimes irresponsibly. The current Canadian consumer debt problem is evidence that such a spend-happy society is alive and kicking. Either way, the free-rider problem is tough to evade.

But much of my general support for the idea behind the student protests has been extinguished as a result of some actions taken. I feel for those members of the public whose lives have been interrupted. Of course, when push comes to shove, protests can be an effective way of getting your message across. But violence and riots are embarrassing. Sure, the violence can probably be blamed on a small percentage of the protesters and was no doubt fueled in part by police action. I don't claim to have all the answers to this problem, but violence is not on my list.

And lastly, recent actions taken by members of the protesting groups on their fellow students has left me absolutely livid. It was reported today that around 100 masked protesters marched through a Montreal university in an effort to disrupt the classes attended by students who did not want to participate in the strike. Some of these students even went as far to get court-enforced injunctions to go to school. The protesters reportedly pushed around books, stood on desks, flicked lights on and off and banged drums, all in a successful effort to disrupt classes. Unsurprisingly, shouting matches erupted. I would be pissed, too. After all, they paid their money to go to school.

Perhaps what bothered me the most was the shouts of "scab" from protesters towards students that wanted to go to school. These students are not "scabs" - they are far from it. "Scabs" exist in workplace and labour disputes, and are usually the most despised when labour and work conditions are dreadful. Instead of standing with their striking colleagues to fight against these poor conditions, they keep working or are hired by their employers - much to the chagrin of the striking colleagues, as many "scabs" will do it for the money or to curry favour with management. These students are not brought in by management in an effort to undermine the protests or continue business as usual for "the man". In fact, many of them probably agree with the underlying message in the protests. But they are not workers involved in a labour dispute - they are students who have paid good money for the provision of a service and are doing their best to make sure that service is provided. Going after your fellow students only alienates your cause further.

I was raised in a union household, and although I have come to feel that many modern unions abuse their power a little too much - yes, that means you, TTC - you can thank unions and the labour movement for modern workplace conditions, which includes sticking together and in some cases decrying "scabs". But the student protests are a totally different matter. Throwing the word "scab" around is an insult to the years of hard work put together by the labour movement.

These "hardcore protesters" are part of what I believe to be a mostly just cause, but you are an embarrassment to the cause and an embarrassment to students all over Canada.