[van-announce] Tomorrow, May 22: Quebec Solidarity Rally

[Charlotte Kates]

PLEASE POST WIDELY


*Vancouver Students to Rally for the Right to Education and the Right to
Assemble*

* *

*Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories – May 21, *2012 – To commemorate 100
days of the student strike in Quebec and to build a movement in solidarity
with them in the face of tuition hikes, mass arrests, crippling fines, and
other forms of state-based repression, Vancouver area student organizers
are calling for a rally to begin at 4:00 pm on Tuesday, May 22 at the
Vancouver Art Gallery.


For over three months now, students in Quebec have been on the streets,
fighting for the right to education and now for the right to assemble and
the right to free speech.  What started off as an action against tuition
increases, has come to include environmental and labor concerns, and drawn
out thousands in solidarity.  This Tuesday there will be over hundreds of
thousands of people on the street in Quebec and in other cities throughout
Canada to commemorate the one hundredth day of the strike.


More recently, the Quebec legislature has enacted Bill 78, which massively
restricts the right to strike and to assemble.  Under this law,
organizations and individuals who participate in unsanctioned
demonstrations or urge others to do so will be subject to crippling
fines.  This
is the latest in a series of assaults by the Quebecois government on the
student movement.  These attacks have included mass arrests that have
exceeded those during the October crisis and the G20, as well as repeated
police brutality that has been condemned by international human rights
organizations including Amnesty International.


The inspiring organizing efforts of the Quebecois student movement ought to
spark conversations across Canada about the cost of post-secondary
education.  In British Columbia, the debate over the cost of education has
largely been diverted from tuition fees to discussing student loan reform,
even though BC has the highest tuition fees in the country.  The historical
moment provided by the strike should be taken by all of us as an
opportunity to refocus our activism towards permanently and substantially
reducing the cost of education.


It is time for Vancouver to stand up in Solidarity with the brave student
movement of Quebec and for the rights of students everywhere!  No to police
brutality!  No to undemocratic legislation!  Yes to the right to strike and
assemble!  Yes to free public post-secondary education!  Abolish tuition
fees! Power to the People!

*Rally for Public Post-Secondary Education*
*Vancouver Art Gallery*
*Tuesday May 22nd*
*4:00 pm*



For more information please visit our facebook page at:


http://www.facebook.com/events/240181392749096/241195362647699/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity




-- 
Charlotte L. Kates     charlotte.kates at gmail.com