Moi, je suis un 'carré blanc'

In the devolving war of Quebec students against the Provincial Government, there seems to be a singular lack of solutions to the impasse from both the students and the Government. Charest is intractable; the students are linking their fight with so many other conditions, it makes it impossible to agree on any position; the Universities are desperate for more money in a system that has been chronically underfunded for years.

They tried negotiating. Last weekend, 23 hours of non-stop discussion produced a limpid agreement soundly rejected by all the student and CEGEP associations. Which raises the question of just what mandate the student 'leaders' really had to negotiate anything. The union leaders and negotiators who were around the table are looking a little befuddled by the outright rejection, given they know this was as good as the Government was going to give at this time.

In the on-going battle to identify who is with what side, the students started everything off by sporting a red felt square on their chests, an identity badge that showed the world they were against any tuition increases, and for a 'strike'. Then a green square came out of the woodwork for those students who were against increases in tuition, but were also against a strike. Then Richard Martineau - a notable Quebec journalist - came out with a yellow square on the popular talk show Tout le monde en parle. The yellow square would mean, proceed with the increases in tuition, but just slower. Seems the students didn't like that idea either, as that element was part of the Government's offer.

So what now? An enterprising group of parents has come up with a possible way out of the now-polarized debate: declare a moritorium on any increases in tuition for a year, send the students back to class and get everyone around the table in a calmer, more relaxed atmosphere to negotiate a real agreement that would be acceptable to a majority of students and the Government.

As a proponent of the motto 'calmer heads prevail', I think it's a grand idea. In this climat of completely polarized positions, we need to get out of the pressure cooker atmosphere and take the time it takes to find a solution.

Because after all, nobody agreed to anything good with a gun pointed at their head.