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Massive student strike in Quebec

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  • #1

    Massive student strike in Quebec

    Felt like talking about it. The government cut 103 M$ in its financial help program. Now more than half of the province's students (roughly 250 000) are striking against the measure. The education minister's offer in response to the strike is to gradually "cut back on the cuts", up to a maximum of 42 M$ in five years (effectively, 60 M$ below what the students want).

    Some students associations have moderated their position, and said they would settle for 80 M$... but they want it right away, not in five years.

    So what's your stance on student strikes? I voted for myself - just like an overwhelming 88% of my fellow philosophy students.
    In Soviet Russia, Fake borises YOU.
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  • #2
    I support them as long as worker unions don't get involved.
    “As a lifelong member of the Columbia Business School community, I adhere to the principles of truth, integrity, and respect. I will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.”
    "Capitalism ho!"

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    • #3
      You can't always get what you want. I live in California and know we have to live within our means. I would like to know more about the fiscal situation (is fiscal austerity needed?) in Quebec. If fiscal austerity is required like here in california, yes I support the government in its cuts.
      For there is [another] kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions -- indifference, inaction, and decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. - Bobby Kennedy (Mindless Menance of Violence)

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      • #4
        The government is working on a really tight budget this year (growth was slower than expected), but the former finance minister said the money could be found, and had planned to do so.

        Unfortunately, he was getting too popular, so he got thrown out by the prime minister and was replaced by a more docile peon who won't spare the money.
        In Soviet Russia, Fake borises YOU.

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        • #5
          Since it's crunch time for my PhD thesis, I haven't followed it closely. But I didn't have to teach last tuesday, so that was a quite welcomed break! I will teach next tuesday, however. Don't know if there will be anybody, though. I'm somewhat sympathetic to their cause: I owe tons of cash. But I heard that some student representatives are also aiming for a free education. In other words, they don't want to pay for anything, just like the public universities in France. I've been to France, and thrust me, you don't want to go there.
          Let us be lazy in everything, except in loving and drinking, except in being lazy – Lessing

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          • #6
            Well in California we are learning we have to pay for what we get. I think you should live with the austerity.
            For there is [another] kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions -- indifference, inaction, and decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. - Bobby Kennedy (Mindless Menance of Violence)

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            • #7
              Originally posted by nostromo
              Since it's crunch time for my PhD thesis, I haven't followed it closely. But I didn't have to teach last tuesday, so that was a quite welcomed break! I will teach next tuesday, however. Don't know if there will be anybody, though. I'm somewhat sympathetic to their cause: I owe tons of cash. But I heard that some student representatives are also aiming for a free education. In other words, they don't want to pay for anything, just like the public universities in France. I've been to France, and thrust me, you don't want to go there.
              I'm going to Bordeaux next year. The wine and the women should compensate for the crappy university, right?
              In Soviet Russia, Fake borises YOU.

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              • #8
                I'm going to Bordeaux next year. The wine and the women should compensate for the crappy university, right?
                I'm sure you'll have a ball at Bordeaux. The wine is cheap and the women are fun. Lets just hope that it's better than Aix, academically speaking.
                Let us be lazy in everything, except in loving and drinking, except in being lazy – Lessing

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                • #9
                  The State refuses to pay for students to study, and in response, the students stop studying.

                  Sounds like a win-win from the States' perspective. How is the strike their problem?

                  Have y'all ever thought that to protest a funding cut it might make more sense to increase consumption of academic resources? Make those people work!

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                  • #10
                    It'd be amusing if professors decided to enforce attendence policies and fail people who missed to much because they decided to slack off during this "student strike."
                    I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
                    For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio

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                    • #11
                      Well, what are the students going to do while they're striking? Live with their parents? Work? If they chose option two, they stop being wards of the State and become productive members of society, many of them for the first time.

                      Again, a student strike is a win-win for everybody except the students.

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                      • #12
                        They take their message to the streets!
                        “As a lifelong member of the Columbia Business School community, I adhere to the principles of truth, integrity, and respect. I will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.”
                        "Capitalism ho!"

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                        • #13
                          The students have already gotten 42M$ out of their effort, so I'd say it has some effect.

                          Remember, John, that the government has to defend the job they're doing to the electorate.
                          12-17-10 Mohamed Bouazizi NEVER FORGET
                          Stadtluft Macht Frei
                          Killing it is the new killing it
                          Ultima Ratio Regum

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                          • #14
                            If I were part of the electorate, I would be angry that the government gave in to pressure tactics.
                            I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891

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                            • #15
                              They should get ZERO and actually pay for services. Like what I do. Actually paying for it.
                              For there is [another] kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions -- indifference, inaction, and decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. - Bobby Kennedy (Mindless Menance of Violence)

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