Student Demands and the Future of Our Youth

In Quebec, student associations are calling for a strike and collective mobilization from November 9 to 13. Their demands include reforming the student financial assistance program (AFE) to reflect the actual cost of living, as well as reinvesting public funds in higher education, student services, and learning conditions to strengthen access to quality education.

These demands echo those raised by young people in various parts of the world. Although the contexts and forms of mobilization differ, they reflect shared concerns about the conditions necessary to learn, live with dignity, and participate fully in society, against a backdrop of economic insecurity, structural inequalities, and social and ecological crises. For students experiencing intersecting forms of economic insecurity and discrimination, these barriers compound one another, further undermining their ability to pursue their education and envision a future for themselves.

Through our philanthropic work, we are seeing educational institutions increasingly turn to private funding to meet a range of needs, some of which relate directly to the fundamental conditions required for learning and accessing education. This reality calls on us to question the growing role philanthropy may play in financing needs that are, first and foremost, a public responsibility.

Philanthropy can help strengthen collective capacities and support complementary initiatives, but it cannot sustainably compensate for inadequate public funding or replace the responsibilities of the state. Access to quality education and the material conditions necessary to pursue one's studies must remain central public priorities.

Student mobilization reminds us that democracy extends beyond elections. It also rests on freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of association, and the ability to collectively challenge the policies and decisions that shape our society.

Debates surrounding methods of mobilization must not overshadow the underlying demands. Public institutions have a responsibility to ensure accessible and meaningful spaces for dialogue, recognize the legitimacy of student participation, and provide concrete, structural responses to the issues raised. Disagreement and peaceful protest are integral to democratic life and cannot, in themselves, justify excluding those who mobilize from public dialogue.

As a Foundation committed to social and environmental justice, we stand in solidarity with students mobilizing for more accessible education, dignified learning conditions, and public funding that meets actual needs. Without speaking on behalf of students, we seek to help ensure that their demands are fully recognized, taken seriously, and heard as matters of broader societal concern that require concrete responses commensurate with our collective responsibility.

Students are not merely the citizens of tomorrow. They are already active participants in democratic life and must be able to contribute to decisions that affect their living and learning conditions.

A more just society is not built by asking young people to wait their turn, but by recognizing their rights, their voices, and their capacity for collective action today.

Student Demands and the Future of Our Youth

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