by TRACEY LINDEMAN

A year after the largest student strike in Canadian history, students in Quebec are making new demands that could bring an additional $4.9-billion in federal transfers to post-secondary education.

“Tuition as it is is not universally accessible,” says Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) deputy chairperson Bianca Mugyenyi. “It is sending students into poverty. What we’re calling for as a solution to many problems is an increase in funding, and what we’re asking for is $4.9-billion in federal transfers.”

The CFS-Quebec has joined forces with Quebec universities and CEGEPs to create the Coalition for Accessible and Public Education (CAPE), the mobilizing force behind a major demonstration planned for Thursday, March 30.

Apparently, the Charest goverment has been working on getting that $4.9-billion. Five premiers met in Ottawa last month to ask Prime Minister Stephen Harper to increase transfers to each province for post-secondary education. “I think everybody is working for the same goals,” says provincial Education Minister press attaché Marie-Claude Lavigne, adding that Charest met with Harper three times in the past month-and-a-half. “I don’t think you can say this government hasn’t done its job.”

The Charest government, however, disclosed last February the impending release of a policy paper on how to raise tuition for out-of-province and international students, who are already paying annually about $5,000, and up to $14,000, in tuition respectively.

Former Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ) executive Arielle Reid feels that gouging non-Quebecers will ultimately lead to the lifting of the tuition freeze and the deregulation of tuition for Quebec residents.

“Given the record of the Charest goverment and students, I say that students can expect their condition to worsen,” Reid says. “If we give the Charest government an inch, they’ll take a mile, and they’ll take much more.”

On a national scale, Quebecers have got it good. Since the 1996 student strike, Quebec students have enjoyed the lowest tuition in Canada, conservatively pegged by Statistics Canada at $1,900 annually. Montreal, however, is Canada’s poorest city per capita, again according to StatsCan.

“Let’s not compare ourselves to the U.S. or the rest of Canada,” says Mugyenyi. “It’s not, ‘Why aren’t we paying more?’ The question is, ‘Why aren’t they paying less?’”

Last March, about 200,000 students across the province demanded the Quebec goverment fork over the $103-million in bursaries that had been transformed into loans. Education Minister Jean-Marc Fournier complied, sort of, by negotiating a reinvestment of $482-million in bursaries over the next five years.

But the FEUQ, the main negotiator in the strike, is notably absent from the posters advertising the March 30 demo. Mugyenyi extended an invitation to FEUQ to attend CAPE’s mobilization meetings, but FEUQ has yet to respond. Members of CAPE are optimistic, though.

“The call is for members to get involved in the demo, not the federations,” Reid says. “This mobilization needs to be grassroots—it needs to be the students that do it.”

The March 30 demo starts at 2 p.m. at Berri Square. Events are also planned in Quebec City among others, and a March 29 benefit show will take place at El Salon (4388 St-Laurent). For more information, visit www.educationisaright.net.