Another spring, another manifestation. Ten years after the launch of the student spring of 2012, thousands of demonstrators marched peacefully in the streets of Montreal on Tuesday afternoon to denounce the increase in tuition fees.
As these lines were written, the march continued through the streets of downtown. Police officers on bicycles discreetly supervised the demonstration, which took place in calm and good humor.
“It’s spring, the weather is nice and it’s my first demonstration: I want to say that we have to tax the ultra-rich to finance social programs, to invest in education”, says Pola Cormier, activist for a group of socialist students from the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).
“Young people need to go out to express themselves after two years of confinement. We came to support them,” says Martine Huot, literature professor at Cégep du Vieux Montréal.
She was holding a banner with her colleague Marie-Claire Barbeau-Sylvestre, professor of philosophy, who had made a brand new red square to mark the 10th anniversary of maple spring. ” I’m keeping a very good memory of it. We can act collectively in our democracy,” she said.
More than 80,000 CEGEP and university students went on strike on Tuesday, hoping to revive the fervor of the spring of 2012. The movement is calling for free education, from primary to university. The demonstrators met on Tuesday, however, marched for a series of causes: peace in Ukraine, Yemen or Palestine, climate change, social justice, decolonization, the fight against homophobia and many other fights.
Further details will follow.