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The overhaul of the loan and bursary system [1] sparked off the current student discontent. After its "reform", the government turned a deaf ear to students’ demands for the reform to be rescinded.
On 24 February of this year, the student associations belonging to the CASSÉÉ [2] were the first to go out on unlimited strike. The first weeks of the strike did not produce any reaction by the new Minister of Education (Jean-Marc Fournier).
Only when the strike movement grew in scope and more and more student associations joined in the strike did the minister begin to seek to meet the students. In the mean time, the student associations in the FECQ and FEUQ [3] also launched a strike call.
- McGill students read strike declaration
After the government made an offer that all three student federations saw as a slap in the face, by 16 March the strike wave had grown to 250 000 students on strike. 16 March also saw almost 100 000 demonstrators in the streets of Montreal, and a smaller demonstration in Quebec City [4] . The Liberal Government’s arrogance has pushed more and more students to take part in the eighth student strike in Quebec history.
By the middle of March, it became the largest student strike since 1974. Even educational institutions whose reputation was far from militant, such as l’école des Hautes études commerciales (HEC) [5], l’École nationale d’administration publique (ÉNAP), Polytechnique and McGill [6] , joined in the strike wave.
