The long student protest in Quebec is an example of the backlash to the media and the universities for not telling the full truth to their citizens.
In the many times I have travelled to Quebec over the years, I have yet to meet any French Quebecer who knows that the fiscal equalization payments in Canada give the province of Quebec billions of dollars every year.
When I explain to them that the province of Alberta alone has given well over a billion dollars a year for many years to the government of Quebec to subsidize their social programs, I am regularly met with a look of disbelieve and resentment.
The vast majority of the 10 million Canadians residing in have-not provinces live in Quebec.
If the student protesters sincerely do not know that the province of Quebec has been a have-not province since 1959, and their province annually needs help from western provinces to maintain many of their generous social programs, then surely they would be more humble in demanding nothing less than a free education.
And if western provinces can give billions of dollars annually to Quebec, that has become truly a thankless gesture, then it is not unreasonable to ask a student to pay an mere 250 dollars extra yearly for seven years for a higher education.
Mark Clements
Prince George
