“The NDP position traditionally has been to do the right thing and not worry that much about what the political fallout is, and in this case, they’re now close to power, government-in-waiting sort of thing, maybe they’ve become more cautious,” Duncan Cameron, a 50-year observer of federal politics and founder and contributor to Rabble.ca, told The Hill Times. “There will be a lot of their supporters who will be disappointed they’re not out there.”
Federal political parties are largely ducking their heads on the now more than 100-day old protests which saw hundreds of thousands of students taking to the streets to protest the Quebec government’s tuition hike. The federal NDP hold 58 of the province’s 75 ridings.
Individually, a number of Quebec NDPs told The Hill Times that they support the Quebec students, but the party has not publicly vocalized its national support.
Mr. Cameron said NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair—who represents the Montreal riding of Outremont, Que., and is a former Cabinet minister under Premier Jean Charest’s government—has probably chosen to keep his distance from the student protest because he’s currently dealing with Western Canada over the oilsands. He said Mr. Mulcair likely doesn’t want to “antagonize” the Quebec government. But Mr. Cameron said Bill 78—a bill tabled and passed in two days that aims to give police greater control over protests and imposes a number of measures, including tough fines for anyone trying to block access to a school and limitations around where and how people can protest, including for how long—has “changed the game.”
Rookie NDP MP Pierre Luc-Dusseault (Sherbrooke, Que.), who was elected while in his second year of studies at the University of Sherbrooke, has made perhaps the strongest public statement of the federal caucus, telling Sherbrooke, Que., paper La Tribune: “I would be on strike today if I had not been elected.”
NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice (Rosemont-La-Petit-Patrie, Que.) and NDP MP Ève Péclet (La Pointe de l’Île, Que.) marched alongside tens of thousands of others in a huge Montreal protest on May 22. When asked why he decided to participate, Mr. Boulerice told The Hill Times, “I’m there in solidarity with all people asking for a better society and more justice.”
NDP MP Robert Aubin (Trois-Rivières, Que.), chair of the NDP Quebec caucus and the party’s spokesperson on the events unfolding in Quebec, said the NDP visited around the 106th day of protests. “We will not do it anymore, because it would send the message…[that] the NDP always ends up interfering in a file under provincial jurisdiction,” he said.
“We’ve had a lot of students who come to ask us whether the NDP will make a public appearance,” he said. “What I told everyone is … we will work on our side in Ottawa to do our utmost to ensure that each provincial government, in this case the government of Quebec, would have the greatest tools to promote greater accessibility to post-secondary education.”
NDP MP Hélène Laverdière (Laurier-Sainte-Marie, Que.) whose riding is home to the Université du Québec à Montréal, said “of course we are looking at that situation, it’s a big movement.”
Within the NDP’s 101 member caucus, there are a number of young MPs and recent students, including Mr. Dusseault, as well as recent McGill University graduates Matthew Dubé (Chambly-Borduas, Que.) and Mylène Freeman (Argenteuil-Papineau-Mirabel, Que.). NDP MPs Charmaine Borg (Terrebonne-Blainville, Que.) and Laurin Liu (Rivière-des-Mile-Îles, Que.) were students at McGill.
The events in Quebec officially began on Feb. 13 when the first student groups voted to walk out of class, more than a year after Finance Minister Raymond Bachand announced the province’s intention to raise tuition fees starting September 2012 by $325 a year over five years. On March 22, 100,000 people took part in a peaceful protest, but by April 16 the offices of some Quebec Cabinet ministers were vandalized. From here things escalated when more than 400 people were arrested, following altercations, some violent, with police. On April 23, 11 weeks into the student strike, talks began between student groups and the province; the next day, nightly street protests began in Montreal. On April 25, talks broke down. On May 31, after four days of renewed negotiations, Education Minister Michelle Courchesne announced talks had been suspended. Line Beauchamp resigned as education minister on May 14, and Mr. Charest’s former chief of staff Luc Bastien resigned his position days later.
The Conservatives, who have only five seats in Quebec, have condemned violent protests but have said they won’t interfere in provincial jurisdiction. The Liberal Party, whose seven ridings in the province are all located in and around Montreal, has also stayed pretty mum, though Liberal MP and post-secondary education critic Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) did tweet concerns over Bill 78.
The Bloc Québécois, which has four MPs in the House of Commons following the May 2011 election, has been speaking out about the events unfolding in Quebec. Bloc MP Maria Mourani (Ahuntsic, Que.) said she thinks the NDP should be doing the same. She said that “education is not a commodity,” and supports the students.
But Robin Sears, a former NDP strategist, said he thinks the NDP is “wise” not to intervene in the debate waging in Quebec.
Mr. Sears said Mr. Mulcair’s provincial experience likely reaffirms the federal “mutual hands-off understanding” towards provincial issues.
“To me its proof of seriousness and discipline and maturity that, despite the headline that would easily be available for them to intervene in the debate, the fact that they haven’t, to me, is probably wise,” said Mr. Sears.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Laura Ryckewaert
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