I said I would keep things updated, but I didn't think I'd have to add an update to my earlier post so quickly.
This afternoon, in a surprise announcement, Line Beauchamp, Québec's Minister of Education, tearfully resigned both her post as minister and her seat in the legislature. She commented, "As Minister of Education, I didn't succeed in getting [the student leaders] to compromise. I am making the only compromise that I can make: I'm giving up my position." She added, "I'm hoping to provoke something, to provoke a change."
Beauchamp, along with the Premier Jean Charest, has been a top target of student ire, but she has also recently been tarred by scandal due to having held a small fundraising lunch that was attended by Domenico Arcuri, a suspected mafia figure. Donato Tomassi, a (disgraced) former Liberal organizer commented in Le Devoir, "Frankly, it's not possible that she didn't know who was at her lunch. When you invite 20-25 people in, and it brings in more than $60,000, you know who's at the table."
Meanwhile, Premier Charest indicated, cryptically, that "things are going to change" with respect to the student strike.
We'll see what happens.
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