Photo by Phil Carpenter, Montreal Gazette
Quebec students have planned a series of rolling protests while claims of Concordia and McGill university intimidation tactics against the students increase. Tensions on the campuses are escalating as the students are moving into their second month of activism against rising tuition and other costs to education. Students are reporting that the more the universities face the student activism the nastier the administrative and police tactics are getting. Three McGill students were banned from campus for protesting while others faced off with security guards. “This is completely a new level of political repression,” said Kevin Paul, a cultural studies and philosophy student at McGill. ”
Joel Pedneault, vice-president of external relations for the Student Society of McGill University, got a letter saying there were “reasonable grounds to believe that your continued presence on campus is detrimental to good order.” He is planning to contest the disciplinary action.
“This seems to be a real crackdown on students for the strike,” he said.
Teachers also reacted. David Douglas, of the Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association, said the university’s decision to issue the directive in response to a peaceful demonstration last week was “interpreted by students and many within the university community to be an ill-timed and regrettably hostile gesture.”
A small group of professors at McGill also wrote to the administration to deplore the disciplinary action against the students, saying the student code of conduct was being misused “to persecute students at will.”
Read more, Montreal Gazette
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