The tactic is referred to as "casseroles" in case you were curious about that hashtag on Twitter and activists in Toronto are asking that all allies to the Maple Spring bring their pots and pans to Dundas Square tonight at 8:00 pm to show tandem solidarity with Montreal's pots and pans protests.

I went to McGill in the late '80s and early '90s when tuition fees were less than $1,200 a year, so with summer jobs and some parental help I graduated from my first degree debt-free. For my MA, which I took in Ontario, I worked part-time and graduated after one year with a debt of $10,000.

By way of comparison: my partner went to university in Ontario after grants were eliminated, and when the first round of tuition fee hikes were implemented. He completed a BA and then an MA, and graduated with a debt load (and compound interest) requiring monthly payments of $650 for 10 years.

Asked by an Anglophone journalist what the Québec student struggle means for the ROC, this is what I had to say.

It was bound to happen.

After almost three months, Margaret Wente finally got wind of this kerfuffle in Quebec about students refusing to buy into the whole "but it's just the cost of a cappuccino a day!" rationale for why a 75 per cent increase in tuition fees over five (or 82 per cent over seven) years is, like, the way of the future. Or something.

In the context of student protests over Quebec tuition fees, my friend Luan Ngo has just written a very informative blog post on Quebec's fiscal situation.

While I encourage readers to read his full post, I do want to use the present space to make mention of three important points he makes:

- On a per capita basis, Quebec spends more on government programs than most other Canadian provinces.

- Residents of Quebec pay more personal incomes taxes than any other province.

- Quebec's debt-to-GDP ratio is significantly higher than that any other Canadian province.

I'm just back as a medic from the large student strike and anti-police brutality demonstration in Montreal where the cops were shooting exploding tear gas canisters and flash-bang grenades into crowds of people -- really irresponsible, criminal and injurious.

We know that protesters in the West Bank and Gaza have been killed and seriously injured after being hit by tear gas canisters and so-called crowd control projectiles -- so this alarm is not just about the chemical effects, but also the kinetic trauma cause by the shooting projectile or explosion.

Currently more than 127,000 striking Quebec university and college students have shut down their campuses to protest Quebec government plans to raise tuition fees by $1,625 (a 75 per cent hike) over the next five years. They are motivated by some important past victories won through the determination and organization of the Quebec student movement.

On February 1, students across the country took to the streets for a Day of Action, organized by the Canadian Federation of Students.

In Toronto, thousands of students from multiple campuses converged at the University of Toronto, marched through downtown and rallied at Queen's Park.