Quebec students to vote on resuming class
Quebec's student strikes, which garnered international attention in the spring, now face a pivotal week as students start voting on whether to return to class.
Students in the more militant CLASSE association will vote over a nine-day period, starting Tuesday, on heading back to school when it reopens mid-month.
The votes are the latest chapter in an improbable six-month saga that saw Quebec's tuition battle catapulted from the pages of campus newspapers into major foreign media.
They arrive as students grapple with an overriding strategic dilemma: to suspend the fight, or keep it up and risk helping to re-elect the Charest Liberals?
An unpopular government, battered by ethics scandals, appears to have some public support for its tuition increases — of $1,778, or 82 per cent over seven years — and it has made the issue a centrepiece of its re-election campaign.
Students are now grappling with whether to take that issue off the table during the campaign. One protest leader says students know their decision can have a major impact on the Sept. 4 election.