Translating the printemps érable
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FEUQ Press Release August 11, 2012
Original French Text: http://www.newswire.ca/fr/story/1019661/congres-de-la-feuq-les-politiques-jeunesse-des-partis-politiques-a-l-avant-scene
Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ), presently in congress in Montreal, has taken advantage of the electoral campaign now underway to invite politicians to present their party platforms and take questions from students. Representatives of each party were invited to meet members of the federation and to put forward their ideas, particularly those having to do with youth politics. ”We have heard very little talk about what matters to youth since the start of this election,” said Martine Desjardins, president of FEUQ. ”After the spring that we had, it is very disturbing to see the political parties pretend that nothing has happened, and ignore the legitimate concerns of Quebec citizens — it is a bigger concern than the tuition increase.”
Pierre Duchesnes, Parti Québécois candidate for Borduas, Françoise David, co-spokesperson for Quebec Solidaire and candidate for Gouin, and Simon-Pierre Bélanger, Option Nationale candidate for the riding of Viau, appeared before the FEUQ congress to deliver statements, followed by a question period. Each party’s platform was compared to FEUQ’s recommendations, particularly in the domains of education, the environment, and ethics in politics. ”Members of FEUQ are now better equipped to evaluate what each party is proposing in response to student demands,” says the president of FEUQ. ”Now, the federation and its members will share the information we have received to inform students about the interest each party takes in student affairs. It seems to us that young people will be more inclined to get out to the voting booths on September 4 if they know that parties are interested in what concerns them.”
Paul Journet August 2, 2012
Original French Text: http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/elections-quebec-2012/201208/02/01-4561703-treve-electorale-la-classe-rejette-lappel-de-bureau-blouin.php
(Laval) CLASSE has rejected the appeal for a truce, put forward by Léo Bureau-Blouin, the PQ candidate for Laval-des-Rapides. FEUQ and FECQ remain “neutral.” The three student associations say they are nevertheless interested by the PQ’s idea of a summit about higher education, though they have some reservations.
Léo Bureau-Blouin says he doesn’t want to wade into student politics, but nevertheless, he does have one wish: that students “imagine an electoral truce.”
CLASSE believes Bureau-Blouin should have kept quiet. CLASSE co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois was brusque: “There’s always a sense of malaise when people from outside the movement weigh in on the student debate to give advice.”
La Presse Canadienne July 3, 2012
Original French Text: http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/353739/droits-de-scolarite-delanoe-discute-avec-leaders-etudiants-quebecois
Jean Charest minimized the impact of this meeting.
Caption: The mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, received the honor of Officer of the National Order of Quebec from Jean Charest today. Photo : La Presse canadienne (photo) Jacques Boissinot
Today, the premier Jean Charest minimized the impact of a meeting between the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, and student leaders on the subject of the increase in tuition fees.
Before coming to Quebec to participate in the International forum on the French language, Mr. Delanoë had solicited this meeting with student representatives.
A few hours before receiving the honor of Officer of the National Order of Quebec from Mr. Charest, Mr. Delanoë met the leaders of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ), the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec (FECQ) and the Table de concertation étudiante du Québec (TACEQ).
MONTREAL, 13 June 2012 /CNW Telbec
Original French Text: http://www.newswire.ca/fr/story/992415/elections-sur-fond-de-crise-jean-charest-fait-de-la-petite-politique-sur-le-dos-des-etudiants
With the Quebec Liberal Party’s electoral strategy revealed publicly today, the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ) is astounded to learn that the Liberals have been using the deterioration of the social climate to benefit their political party all along: “All this time, when we were trying to negotiate an end to the crisis in good faith, the Premier was basing his next electoral campaign on the failure of these discussions. What I would like to say to Mr. Charest is that this is outrageous and totally unworthy of a head of state!” decried an angry Martine Desjardins, president of the FEUQ.
For the Fédération, while the government’s attitude regarding tuition hikes and its management of the crisis had already proven a disgrace, this incompetence could only be attributed to exceptional ideological narrow-mindedness. However, in light of recent Liberal documents that have surfaced, it would appear that the Premier’s strategy was to maintain tensions and encourage the spread of chaos all along. “While we, the students, were working hard to find compromises and win-win solutions at no cost to taxpayers, Jean Charest was preparing his next masquerade to aggravate the social climate and capitalize on the chaos. He never wanted to resolve the crisis, but only to divide and conquer, at any cost,” added the president of the FEUQ.
According to the FEUQ, the contradiction between the government’s politicking on the backs of Quebec’s youth and society, and its rhetoric about violence and intimidation, borders on political schizophrenia. “Though the government has endlessly repeated that it didn’t want to hold elections in the midst of the student crisis, that this would be irresponsible, grotesque even, it was in the process of developing a rigorous plan to do just that. How can we have any confidence in this government? On top of corruption and collusion, there’s now brazen lying and burdening an entire population with a crisis for personal political gain,” concluded Ms. Desjardins.
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.
Michèle Ouimet 9 June 2012
Original French Text: http://www.lapresse.ca/debats/chroniques/michele-ouimet/201206/08/01-4533303-le-derapage-verbal.php
Jacques Villeneuve, former Formula 1 Champion, thinks the students are loafers who scare tourists and make Quebec look bad in the eyes of others.
They were also poorly raised by parents who never learned to say no.
“They spend all their time complaining”, he explained Thursday at a press conference where the clichés came faster than an F1 race car. “It’s becoming a bit ridiculous […] It’s time to go back to school!”
Boy-kings, spoiled children, incompetent parents. Contempt and paternalism.
May 29, 2012
Original French Text: http://noussommeslesfilles.com/2012/05/29/martine-desjardins/
Martine Desjardins is thirty years old. She is present of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ)
She has held the position since 2011. She is also a doctoral student in education at UQAM.
For five years, she was a sessional lecturer at Université de Sherbrooke in educational adjustment. She also worked for several years with the organization 1, 2, 3, GO! Saint-Michel, where she helped young parents and young offenders.
