Faced with the crisis that has shaken education, I have often gone to bed with a heavy heart these days, wondering what a simple citizen like me could do to help our teachers from the Autonomous Federation of Education ( FAE) in their standoff with the Legault government. After a while, I got tired of honking at them every morning to show my support. At first, that was perhaps enough, but after more than a month without pay, it was a bit as if I was shouting at them: “Don’t give up, girls, your struggle is important for my grandchildren!” But keep sinking financially…”
It hit me like a brick wall and, strangely enough, it brought back to me feelings experienced during the tragedy of the little girl from Granby, although there was no direct link and the two situations were not related. common measure. I have never been able to cope with what happened to that unfortunate child and I don’t think I ever will.
I also feel the same unpleasant uneasiness (and the same guilt) when I think back to the Polytechnique massacre or, more recently, to that of Uvalde, in Texas; feelings which have no reason to exist, I know – because in any case, I was not there to intervene – but which haunt me nonetheless.
But today, it’s different. I’m here… The situation is unfolding before my eyes and I tell myself that I have no excuses.
I have never considered myself a feminist before. Having witnessed the birth of the “movement” in the 1970s which led to the emancipation of women, I had become accustomed to associating the latter with more committed activists. But since the birth of my two granddaughters, I have had to review and update my definition! And if feminism is indeed a “system of values” with which we can identify without being militant ourselves (as my four sons recently pointed out to me), then yes, I have no other choice but to proclaim myself a feminist!
However, although there are more and more men in the teaching and health sector, we must admit that the struggle led by state union members is one, mainly, of women. . They are still in the majority, as we know, whether in the field of health, social services or education. This is why I would like to appeal to the general population, but particularly to the men of Quebec.
Being a baby boomer, I would like to say that it is high time to come to the aid of our daughters, to tell the women of Quebec to lay down their arms and pass the torch, that we, the guys, are going to take the relay in this battle; but our women do not need to be saved, and clearly do not need help to defend themselves!
At the forefront of most of the social revolutions and major reforms found in contemporary history, they have been fighting valiantly for decades to have their rights recognized, to put an end to precariousness, to war , to sexism, to preserve their always fragile achievements: pay equity, right to abortion, education, housing and so on.
Without claiming to be the only ones who can relieve them of this burden, we can, however, help to lighten it. Several men, as we saw at the citizen demonstration on December 22, are already doing so. Others, more numerous every day, stand up in their names… I invite us to continue on this path, whatever our motivations may be.
Let’s do it for the nurses who are tongue-tied, for the little girl from Granby who is no more, for her big sisters from Poly and Dawson, for all the Afghan women reduced to silence, for our neighbors to the south whose access to free choice is once again threatened, for Mahsa Amini who lifted the veil on the atrocity reserved for Iranian women, for all the victims of rape culture, for our little Cédrika Provencher, disappeared but never forgotten…
It is for all of them that I decided at 63 to emerge from the anonymity that is so dear to me; it is for them that I am speaking here, for my precious granddaughters, for the exhausted teachers of the FAE who did not steal this agreement in principle obtained by snatching, for our nurses who cry out help and to whom we entrust what is most precious and most fragile: our children, our parents, our sick, while refusing them decent working conditions.
A just and honorable cause
Mr. Legault, I am convinced that you are doing what you believe is right at this time and that you have the interests of Quebec at heart. You expressed the wish, often repeated during the campaign, to create dozens of well-paid jobs. Here you have the opportunity to create hundreds of thousands and wipe the slate clean from the last few months. “Winning” at all costs is not always synonymous with success. We have a tragic example of this right now, with the IDF in Gaza.
I ask you not to force our Quebec women to bow down after walking so proudly, with their foreheads held high; please don’t try to “reduce” them, even though they have never been so big. That would be a serious mistake: because I suspect them of being as determined as they are irreducible!
The people (your voters) have understood that their cause is just and honorable and something tells me that deep down, you know it too. Avoid humiliating them by forcing them to accept compromises that would be dishonorable for them, dramatic for the fate of our children and dangerous for the future of Quebec.
They have made enough compromises: it is now up to you and us to go towards them. Because education and health remain in crisis. Embrace their cause. You accepted the agreement proposed by the FAE and the other unions. Well done ! Do the same with the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec and roll up your sleeves. Quebecers will be grateful to you when the time comes.