#baillargeon

At the same time, my thoughts go out to the students. I have to say, I miss them. Teaching is not only an essential part of my career but of my life. I don’t know what UQAM’s students are going to decide, but I will respect their choice. If they decide to continue the strike, it is out of the question that I will cross the picket line. If they choose to end the strike, I have already advised my department that I will do everything I can, even on a volunteer basis, to help them.

Because at this point, if there is a return to class, it’s going to be turbulent and, pedagogically speaking, extremely demanding.  

I fear we’ll be dealing with a lot of difficult, even absurd situations, thanks to the logistical headache the government has imposed on the directors of educational institutions. Examples? The professor who was giving the courses is now retired; another is on maternity leave, or sick leave, or sabbatical; the student who has to simultaneously finish CEGEP in Sorel and begin university in Rimouski; another who has courses to take that are not being offered, for one reason or another; a science lab that simply doesn’t have enough room for all the students who are taking express courses and need access; and the list goes on and on, without even mentioning all the other unpredictable situations that will inevitably arise.

Furthermore, strictly on the teaching front, it’s going to be an enormous challenge. Anyone who has studied can easily imagine the situation. Here’s a likely typical scenario.

You return to class after a six-month absence. The first four weeks had given you just enough time to become acquainted with the material. Since then, you haven’t really looked at it. Then you return to class and are expected, in the space or five or six weeks, to jump back in (what was that about the limit of a function? or Plato? or Newton’s laws?) and complete the program, while your teacher is expected to evaluate what you have learned. It’s going to be a living hell! I’ll say it again: a living hell! And I’m sure I’m not the only professor racking my brains to come up with, if not the best, at least some way to overcome this challenge.

We have about two weeks before the return to class, if there is a return... 

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Translated from the original French by Translating the printemps érable.

To see to it that the population dares to brave the deeply anti-democratic law by going to protest, to see to it that the population finally dares to express its dissatisfaction with a government adopting socially destructive liberal measure one after the other, for me, it’s already an undeniable victory.

Furthermore, it seems equally difficult to me to speak of a big defeat when we turn to that international visibility that the movement has been able to have. Numerous foreign newspapers have all of a sudden learned of Quebec’s existence and have realized that this isn’t a province as consensual as is happily believed. They have realized that politics is not dead in Quebec and the youth are standing up for themselves. The networks of solidarity have also been created with Chilean, Mexican, Brazilian, American, French and Belgian students and one week of international strike is planned in November. If the Quebec student movement has only been able to encourage other students to revolt and to start a strike against measures privatizing public services like university or for more democracy within the government, it’s also a victory.

It is however true that it is important to be armed against a liberal campaign on the themes of law and order and to do this, the student movement will continue to attempt to follow through with what it has already begun: go see the rural population, take over the festivals and community assemblies this summer, make appeals for social strike and above all inform the population about the liberal governments current and future politics. Continuing to talk about law 12, shale gas, the Plan Nord, corruption in the construction industry, the tarification and privatization of public services, this is what we are going to do.

The simple act of having aroused reflection in part of the population, having driven it to reconsider the way in which it is government and the way in which democracy is currently exercised is a gain. We obviously hope that this reflection will endure ant that the population will now accord more attention to its government and its abuses. We will work hard for this so that there is always justice, equity and collective wellbeing at the end of the day.

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Translated from the original French by Translating the printemps érable.