2012 Quebec student protests

Description

The 2012 Quebec student protests are a series of ongoing student demonstrations led by student unions like the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, and their supporters against a proposal by the Quebec Cabinet, headed by Liberal Premier Jean Charest, to raise university tuition from $2,168 to $3,793 between 2012 and 2018. Offers from the government have included extending the bursary program to a higher income cut-off and extending the tuition transition period from five years to seven. All offers were rejected by student unions, and the students' suggestions of finding alternative funding sources were rejected by the government. The student strike started on February 13, 2012 when social science students at Université Laval decided to go on a strike, followed shortly after by some faculties of the Université du Québec à Montréal. On March 22, 310,000 students were on strike, and 300,000 people, including supporters, attended a demonstration. On May 18 the Government passed Bill 78, an emergency law that attempts to manage how protesters conduct their demonstrations and ensure students who wanted to attend classes would not be barred from entering schools. In what has been called "The largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian History," between 400,000 and 500,000 people marched in downtown Montreal on May 22. (via Freebase)