QUEBEC — The Quebec government has set strict conditions for any resumption of negotiations with student strike leaders: there will be no talk of a tuition freeze, and no question of scrapping a newly enacted emergency law.
Barring that, Education Minister Michelle Courchesne suggested Wednesday that there will be no return to the bargaining table in a dispute that has made international news.
“I’m not giving up. I’m very tenacious, very determined,” Courchesne said. “I want to talk to them, and it’s up to them to take some steps so that we might talk.”
She said she was ready to meet the students immediately — “as early as today” — under the right conditions.
The relationship between student leaders and the government, rocky throughout the conflict, reached its nadir last week when the Charest Liberals enacted emergency legislation that student groups described as a declaration of war.
The emergency bill was designed to severely undermine student groups’ ability to impose school shutdowns at faculties — about one-third of them — where students have voted to strike.
But the sides appeared to be talking Wednesday, with phone calls exchanged between the government and two of the three main student groups.
It’s unclear what the sides might possibly discuss. The government remains committed to tuition hikes, and the student groups remain staunchly opposed to them.
One student leader, Martine Desjardins, joked that if the government didn’t want to discuss a moratorium on increases, she would gladly bring a thesaurus to the meeting: “We could find other words (for it).”
Echoing the tone of his minister, Premier Jean Charest said his government was open to talking with students but not at any cost.
“Let’s ask ourselves this question: What concession have the student representatives made? We slowed down (application of the hikes), we improved the loan system, we improved the bursaries system...
“We’ve taken all those steps and we did it in a spirit of openness with respect to the future of our universities. And we’ll continue to leave the door open that would allow talks with the student group representatives.”
Even if student associations return to the negotiating table, it’s far from clear they can corral the support of the various protest factions.
Many protesters have been insisting that the current unrest is about more than tuition and is actually about broader economic justice.
Among them, one prominent protester is encouraging others planning to spoil upcoming Formula One parties. Linking the jet-setting car-race circuit to capitalism and neo-liberalism, activist Jaggi Singh says: “Rich douchebags are going to be disrupted by night demos.”
During a heated exchange in the legislature, Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois accused the premier of letting tensions slide out of hand.
“From the beginning of this crisis we’ve tried to reason with the government and asked it to negotiate in good faith,” Marois said. “Now the calls for negotiation are coming from everywhere — even from the most ardent supporters of the hard line. But let’s not see a repeat of that sorry spectacle from last Tuesday, when the student groups were convened only as a pretext for (introducing) Bill 78.”