Que. Liberals move annual meeting
The Liberal Party of Quebec Premier Jean Charest, faced with a student-protest movement that has often turned violent, said Sunday it was relocating its annual convention to a city outside Montreal.
The party had been scheduled to hold its party meeting at the Centre Mont-Royal in Montreal May 4 to 6.
Instead, it will hold the convention in Victoriaville, 170 kilometres to the east, the party said in a statement.
Since mid-February, the provincial government has faced a stiff challenge from students angry over plans to raise school fees as part of an effort to rein in the budget deficit.
After talks with the government broke down, students took to the streets, resulting in violent clashes with police and smashed storefronts in Montreal.
Charest on Friday offered a compromise - to stretch out the tuition hike over seven years - but the students wouldn't budge, and again took to the streets Saturday night.
On Sunday, CLASSE, the organization that represents half of the 180,000 students still on strike, rejected the government's new offer.
Meanwhile, the only glimmer of hope for a resolution heading into Week 12 of the dispute is the possibility of mediation.
Charest's offer was "insulting," student leaders said. "Our only choice is to continue to be on strike and in the streets," said Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, spokes-man of student organization CLASSE.
"There is a lot of panic in the Liberal government. We are beginning to seriously destabilize them. They soon won't have a choice but to back down."
Stories circulated on the week-end after a Facebook page calling for Nadeau-Dubois's resignation received more than 7,500 likes in a few days. Not so, Nadeau-Dubois said, noting a Face-book page devoted to Charest's resignation has more than 123,000 likes.
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Liberals+move+annual+meeting/6539802/story.html#ixzz1tabvmhUA