Students picket over chronic underfunding and job cuts

This morning, over 100 CEGEP Saint-Laurent students occupied the main pavilion of the school after administrators reneged on an initial negotiation. The action came during the first day of a week-long strike to protest austerity. 

On the morning of March 23, students picketed outside the CEGEP in northwest Montreal. Dozens of students arrived as early as 5:30 in the morning to begin blocking access to the school’s entrance, preventing administrators, workers, other students, and even the director general of the school from entering. 

Students created a makeshift gate to block cars from accessing the parking lot using the temporary fences surrounding the school, which have become emblematic of the CEGEP’s decaying state. 

Relations with administrators had been strained in the negotiations leading up to strike week. The continuation of internships during the strike and access to common areas within the school, conditions normally permitted, were denied by the administration. 

The AECSL, the CEGEP’s student association, showed signs of goodwill, such as allowing access to the daycare centres housed on the campus and to the French language courses being given to the public in exchange for those conditions, but the administration refused.

Around noon, an initial agreement was accepted by the students, which would have brought them back inside the school and allowed the resumption of internships for the day, with the strike resuming tomorrow. The administration also promised to provide documents for the students to look over.  

Félix Perazzo-Pinkstone, a member of the External Committee of the AECSL, told The North Star about the escalation which lead to the decision to occupy the school, after an initial agreement was broken by the administration: 

“The administration not only refused our original demands, but it also went back on its initial proposed agreement and essentially offered us nothing at all. This sent a current through the student body, who felt disrespected and found it dishonest on the part of the administration, so they organically decided to go further and enter the school against the administration’s instructions.”

The AECSL has laid out a set of specific and general demands meant to address concrete issues at the CEGEP and the larger trend of underfunding and austerity imposed by the CAQ government. 

Their demands include the creation of permanent positions for support workers whose jobs are threatened, the reinstatement of internships during the strike, the designation of a fixed space for the school’s nurse, access to the library’s study rooms, and for the CEGEP to take a strong position against austerity. 

Charlotte Ferland, a first-year art student, told The North Star that the school’s dismal conditions motivated her to join the picket line, as well as the constant state of underfunding in the province’s education system:

“I’m here because there are animals in the CEGEP. There is mouse shit. At first, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to come [to the picket line]. Then we went to grab lunch, and there was a mouse shit right in front of me. I told myself that was enough.”

“In elementary school, high school, and now in CEGEP—throughout all my years of education—I’ve been stuck in annexes because the buildings weren’t maintained. In elementary school, it was because there was asbestos in the walls, so I spent about three years in trailers. In high school, my entire time was spent in certain wings of a polyvalente because the school had closed in 2017 due to mold. That school still hasn’t been demolished. Renovations haven’t even started up again.”

Students planned to continue the occupation overnight and resume the strike in the morning until their end of their mandate or an agreement with the administration. At the time of publication, the students and The North Star reporter who were present at the scene were forcibly removed by the police. The North Star will publish new information as it becomes available.