Translating the printemps érable

Antoine Dubé, Lévis            July 24, 2012

Original French Text: http://www.ledevoir.com/societe/education/355189/pourquoi-j-ai-participe-a-la-manifestation

Because as a baby-boomer, I myself have benefitted from low tuition fees, and because I think it is fair that young people today should be able to get a university education at a price equivalent to what my generation had to pay; 

Because I think it is contradictory that we are asking students to take on debt as individuals so as not to increase the collective debt of future generations;

Because if education allows, in principle, better-paying jobs in the future and if such jobs will bring in more taxes for the government, then it seems illogical to me that the government should limit access to education and deprive itself of future revenue;

Because if we want to keep free access to health care, we are going to need our youth to pay more in taxes in the future thanks to better-paying jobs; thus, it is in our interest to contribute financially to their studies; 

Because there is money being wasted that can be saved in the university education system that could otherwise be saved;

Because we are passing the torch to young people and because our future lies with them; because even if young people are not always right, a society is always wrong to not listen to them; because the protest on Sunday was peaceful; 

Because this protest was not taking place during an election campaign;

Because I have always struggled and fought for freedom of expression and association, even if this lets people express opinions that are contrary to mine.  

Antoine Dubé-Lévis, July 23 2012

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Translated from the original French by Translating the printemps érable.

*Translating the printemps érable is a volunteer collective attempting to balance the English media’s extremely poor coverage of the student conflict in Québec by translating media that has been published in French into English. These are amateur translations; we have done our best to translate these pieces fairly and coherently, but the final texts may still leave something to be desired. If you find any important errors in any of these texts, we would be very grateful if you would share them with us at translatingtheprintempsderable@gmail.com. Please read and distribute these texts in the spirit in which they were intended; that of solidarity and the sharing of information.