THE last three months have witnessed what is being described as the largest student strike movement in the history of Canada. More than 170,000 students are on strike in the Francophone province of Quebec, half of them prepared to remain so indefinitely, until they win their demands.

The university students’ principal concern is increased tuition fees, but that is not all. The movement is calling attention to other issues related to the current crisis in the sector, affirming that only free education can resolve the situation of the vast majority of students. They are also questioning million-dollar government subsidies to big business, while health and education budgets are being cut.

While the protest movement initially focused on university entrance fee increases, the students have generated broad sympathy within Quebec and are now also protesting against neoliberal policies.

The authorities’ response has been one of repression, crowned by the passing of Bill 78, a special law limiting student protests by fining those convening mobilizations, making generalized arrests, prohibiting people on marches from covering their faces, and dictating that the police must be informed eight hours in advance of the holding and route of any demonstration involving 50 or more persons. Leaders of the student movement have stated that they will use the courts to contest this legislation.

For political analyst Alberto Rabilotta, the rapid demolition of social equality in Canada has been visible and palpable from the mid-90’s and accelerated notably since 2005, when the Conservative Stephen Harper became Prime Minister.

Within advanced capitalist economies, Canada had attained levels of equality more comparable to those of the Nordic countries than the United States. Rabilotta says that current inequalities are, among other factors, the result of commercial liberalization resulting from the Free Trade Agreement with the United States signed at the end of the 1980’s.

In the mid 1960’s, almost all Canadian university financing was provided by federal and provincial governments and university fees were very low or non-existent. However, with the rise of neoliberalism, social spending was reduced. In the last 15 years, tuition rates have increased to become the largest cost for the majority of university students.

Canadian researcher Andrew Gavin Marshall, resident in Montreal, noted that in April of 2007, the TD Bank (one of the "big five" which dominate the Canadian economy, announced a prosperity plan for the province of Quebec, which recommended an increase in university fees. Of course, this suited the banks, given that they could offer student loans and profit from the interest.

Canadian youth is a generation facing bankruptcy. The average debt of a university graduate in 2009 was $26,680, and the figure is increasing. It should be noted that the sum does not include mortgage commitments or credit card debts.

Thus, when they begin to work, they are not contributing to the country’s economic growth but must concentrate on paying interest on or clearing their debts.