Over 20,000 McGill and Concordia university students to stage protest over tuition increment

Over 20,000 students at McGill and Concordia universities are going on strike for a week on Monday to protest the Quebec government increasing tuition for out-of-province and international students.

Lily Charette, who helps organize ASFA, said the students want to support the universities’ legal fights so that future students can have a clear and powerful voice.

Charette said, “We want to cause a big disturbance, get lots of attention from the media, talk to as many students as we can, and make sure people know about this. We want to show the government that students are willing to risk their semester and education to make sure this problem gets fixed now. ”

McGill and Concordia are fighting against the government‘s plan to raise tuition fees.

The Quebec government is making two English universities raise their fees by 30%. This means that out-of-province students will have to pay at least $12,000 per year, up from $9,000.

Foreign students must now pay $20,000 as the minimum fee, and the government will collect an additional $3,000 in fees.

The cost of going to school will go up at the beginning of the 2024-25 school year.

About 10,000 students protested in late January for three days because they were unhappy about the higher tuition fees. This time, they think more than 20,000 students will join them.

Charette said more students are getting better at organizing around these issues, and that’s exactly what we want. He hopes students will talk to their local leaders to share their opinions.

Some groups of students at McGill will also take part in the strike.

“We have noticed that more people at McGill are supporting it than before,” said Fred Azeredo, the vice-president of finance for the Religious Studies Undergraduate Society (RSUS).

In the last strike, Azeredo noticed that some students didn’t care much. This time, he hopes more students will want to take action.

“It’s not thinking about the future. ” “12 years ago, there were some very successful strikes, but people forget about them,” he said. “This completely stopped the increase in tuition and lowered the tuition fees. ” If we had enough power and could stop McGill and Concordia for a week or two, then they would have to listen to us.