Hundreds of Montreal students participate in march against austerity
The march was part of a week of action involving over 65,000 students officially striking
Nearly 500 students gathered in Dorchester Square on March 27 to protest austerity and education cuts.
The demonstration was part of a week of action organized by the Coalition de résistance pour l’unité étudiante syndicale (CRUES), which saw over 65,000 students at various CEGEPs and universities in Quebec go on strike.
Audrey Beaudoin, the mobilization coordinator for Concordia University’s Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA), says that the CRUES coalition initiated the ongoing campaign against austerity in response to budget cuts, student services cuts and “crumbling” university infrastructure.
Beaudoin said they have witnessed the effects of this austerity at Concordia.
“They’re running this educational institution like a business, and they’re making some very bad financial decisions, and we feel it on the ground here,” Beaudoin said.
They expressed frustration with Concordia’s reduced shuttle bus schedule, poor maintenance of campus buildings, and Concordia’s decision not to renew the contracts of 57 limited-term appointment professors, while also pushing back sabbaticals for full-time faculty.
“I couldn’t even get up the freaking escalator today because it was dead," Beaudoin added. "I see security everywhere, but I have to run around eight different floors to find a recycling bin."
Bernaud Héroux, who was granted a pseudonym for safety reasons, is a student at Cégep du Vieux Montréal, which participated in the week’s strike.
Héroux told The Link that they were protesting what they see as the Quebec and Canadian governments’ funding of corporate subsidies and the military at the expense of public services such as schools, hospitals and public transit.
“Student services are disappearing, librarians are disappearing, contracts are disappearing. We can't replace the positions. The school is falling apart,” Héroux said in French. “We have to stand up against this.”
Édouard Lessard-Duchesne, a student at Cégep de Saint-Laurent, said that his school’s infrastructure has been noticeably affected by Quebec’s austerity measures. The measures include a $570 million education budget cut for the 2025-26 school year and the postponement of renovations and maintenance for school buildings.
“Most of our buildings are just falling apart,” Lessard-Duchesne said. “We don’t have a nurse, [and] people are forced to go to the library to just go get Tylenol.”
He added that many of his classes have been relocated to buildings a 25-minute walk from the main campus due to multiple closures.
Cégep de Saint-Laurent also participated in the week’s strike, and over 100 students occupied the school’s main pavilion on March 23.
Lessard-Duchesne told The Link that the occupation lasted several hours until police arrived with a warrant and used force to remove students.
“The cops brutalized a couple of people, and some people were basically shoved out of the building,” Lessard-Duchesne said.
ASFA, which represents around 17,000 Concordia students, participated in the week of action. However, it did not go on strike because timing constraints prevented them from holding a strike vote meeting, according to Beaudoin.
The association plans to hold a vote for a student strike against austerity on April 8 at 6 p.m. in the Concordia Student Union (CSU) lounge on the seventh floor of Concordia’s Hall building.
For the CRUES week of action, ASFA organized a banner painting on March 23 in the Hall building mezzanine, a community dinner in the CSU Lounge on March 25, and participated in the CRUES demonstration.
Beaudoin believes that Concordia should address its budget shortfall by cutting its $9 million annual security spending—some of which is spent on third-party security contracts—and reducing the annual salaries of university administrators, such as Concordia president Graham Carr and interim provost Faye Diamantoudi.
Despite ongoing austerity and budget cuts, Concordia campus security’s budget was increased for the 2025-26 academic year. The salaries of various senior administrators, such as Carr, also increased for the 2024-25 academic year. Carr announced in his fall budget update that the senior leadership team will freeze their salaries for 2026-27 as a cost-saving measure.
Beaudoin said they have noticed a significant increase in student awareness and mobilization around austerity at Concordia.
Lessard-Duchesne mentioned he has seen the same trend at Cégep de Saint-Laurent.
“I think that what we built is beautiful,” Lessard-Duchesne said. “It’s been a really, really, really long time [since] the Cegep had this much mobilization.”
The protesters began marching at 1:30 p.m., passed by Université du Québec à Montréal and dispersed at McGill Metro station shortly after 3 p.m.
Despite the heavy presence of SPVM officers, no police intervention occurred.
