Right to protest takes precedence

Concordia University in Montreal is to allow final-year students to defer examinations to join thousands of protesters at a forthcoming trade conference in Quebec City.

For months, many students have been planning both a protest and an alternative summit for April, when 34 western leaders will hammer out the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement in Quebec.

Public education is expected to be in an especially vulnerable position in these talks, viewed as a trade barrier by multinational private education providers.

The number of protesters is expected to equal that in Seattle when the World Trade Organisation conference was rocked by thousands of demonstrators. Unlike Seattle, the Quebec City meeting takes place during the university exam period. So Concordia's senate passed a motion that asks department heads to be flexible in allowing students who want to exercise their democratic rights and has scheduled a second exam period.

The university says the protests and meetings are legitimate extra-curricular activities. "Being involved in political movements and in social movements is a major, important element in personal growth that goes on while one is a student at a university," Jack Lightstone, Concordia's provost, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Some listeners who called in and a local newspaper leader writer had a different view of the issue, saying true protest involves sacrifice and that Concordia was giving in to fashionable causes.