If you know this story, does it sound like they want rich enough people to pay the same as the poor?

I’m not really following the story but from the article you link to, I don’t see how one could interpret this as anyone saying anything about the rich or poor at all.

The only thing in your article that discusses money, is this:

``We would accept the fees being indexed to the inflation rate,’’ Lahaie said.

And I believe they are referring to tuition rates not being raised at a rate higher than the rate of inflation in the economy overall.

Isn’t that what this protest was about? Tuition rates and fees being raised? I don’t really know that much about this. Perhaps someone can educate me.

Anyway, I don’t see, in your link at least, anything in it where anyone has said anything about the rich or the poor.

Am I missing something?

I don’t know about the situation in Canada, but it is the contention of the Occupy protestors in the US that the wealthy use loop-holes in the tax laws to evade paying their fare share of taxes. The less you have (financially speaking), the higher percentage of your income that goes out in taxes. The disparity in the income between the wealthiest 1% of Americans & the 99% has become so great, that if the situation is not resolved soon – it is going to get very ugly. On the street level it is already getting ugly due to Law Enforcement using brutal tactics against any active protestors. The right to ‘free speech’ & the right to ‘peaceful assembly’ is steadily disappearing from the United States.

If I’m not mistaken, they are protesting Bill 78, @lillycoyote and @flo. It is an emergency measure enacted because of strikes, boycotts and protests over tuition increases. It has been going on for about three months now.

“Although Bill 78 is titled ‘An Act to enable students to receive instruction from the postsecondary institutions they attend,’ even many students the law is aiming to help have heaps of criticism for it.

“ ‘The law is just pushing us away from negotiations, which is what needs to be done,’ said Patricia Gélinas, a student in international studies at the Université de Montréal.

“The Quebec government passed the bill as emergency legislation on Friday in the wake of ongoing student protests against the government’s plan to hike university tuition fees. It suspends the academic term in progress and provides for when and how classes are to resume, as well as restricting protests.”

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Bill+getting+much+support/6667952/story.html#ixzz1vqCMMChH

Also: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Michael+Tandt+Fallout+from+Quebec+student+protests+could+mean+trouble/6660792/story.html

And more background: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/04/29/quebec-classe-student-group-rejects-government-tuition-offer.html

This article sums it all up pretty clearly: http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=AP&date=20120518&id=15129372

@bkcunningham Thanks! It looks like I have a fair amount of catching up to do on this one! I guess it is getting complicated in Montreal. The minimal sleuthing I did got me here and a while a couple of the links there, where I could find background on this, lead me to articles are in English, many of them lead to articles in French; my French is a little rusty, and one leads to an article in Chinese. I didn’t get much farther than that.

@bkcunningham Thanks for providing some background info. I read the article, but couldn’t figure out how it relates to inequities in the US Tax system that let multimillionaires pay a far lower tax rate than the upper middle class.

I read the articles and often go to the Province of Quebec. Quebec has always had financial problems and the people there are not among the richest Canadians.

Apparently the Provencal government has turned a little to the right and is increasing university tuition at a higher rate that seems unfair to the students. They are doing the same thing in Pennsylvania. Apparently the right feels that too many poor people are getting higher education so they’re raising tuition to keep out the riffraff. That is happening in my state of Pennsylvania. Support for state universities has been severely cut. So has funding of public education.

Isn’t it strange that when the right wants to save money they cut the taxes to the rich and reduce educational availability for the rest of us?

By the way read National Post’s Andrew Coyne, and Montreal Gazette’s Henri Aubin, Don Mcpherson’s analysis make sense. I haven’t read the latest ones though

But when it comes to the day to day facts it is not easy. The reporters say “the overwhelming number of students voted against” ....but then later on by accident we find out from the reporters ”weren’t even allowed in” by the students association to see the voting process. And they vote by show of hands? and it is only the 30 board of directors of the students associations who voted?
The whole thing is based on misinformation.

Someone was asking “why can’t food be free for everybody since it is a necessity? Meaning if the idea off making university education free for everybody makes sense to some, and it is not even a necessity, then…. (edit to remove)

Here is one of the latest opinions. I’ll try and find some more.

Part of Bill 78 says that the protesters give police 8 hours notice when their protest is taking place and the route so ambulances for one, can be notified. Supposedly this is “Draconian”. Is it?

@flo, I really don’t know enough about this, and given that, perhaps I shouldn’t comment, but at least, according to this Wikipedia entry, there certainly seem to be portions of
Bill 78 that seem “draconian.”

Included in the provisions of the bill are stiff, daily fines for individuals or leaders, up to the possibility of $125,000, a day, fines being levied against a student or labor organization who conducts a demonstration deemed an offense under Bill 78

According to the provisions of the bill, any infraction against its prohibitions require offenders to pay fines, which are paid for each day of infraction. Those fines amount to $1,000—$5,000 for individuals, $7,000—$35,000 for student or union leaders, and $25,000—$125,000 per day for student or labor organizations. Fines are doubled for second and subsequent offences. Universities or institutions which do not comply with the provisions of Bill 78 are subject to the daily fees paid by student or labor organizations.

for example.

@lillycoyote the students “leaders” were refusing denounce the smoke bombers (who happen to be students) in the subway who terrorized the population, or whoever throwing molotov cocktails into the ministers office. think that is why such high fines. And the labor unions throwing $$ at the student associations, might have added to it as well.
Some clips Here here here

But having to give the police the route and the date of the demo 8 hours in advance is the opposite of draconian.

But the whole goal is about selfishness anyway. The comfortable red square students want to share the taxpayers $ that should go to just to the needy students, isn’t that it? Only they claim it is about “all of us taking care of each other”.

I tried to find a clip where any student leader “called for calm” during the Victoriaville riots. You would think that is a clip to play during the news and and the clip to find on Youtube.