Students at LaSalle College in Montreal are still waiting to hear when – or if – the fall semester will resume. The school suspended classes as it awaits a Superior Court ruling expected Thursday. It will determine what happens with the college’s debt amid a multi-million-dollar dispute with the Quebec government. “No matter who is in the wrong, we should not be used as bargaining chips here,” says third-year student Camille Dorvilier-Shell. The college is facing a $30-million penalty for exceeding English-language enrolment caps. The school typically receives $31 million in grants each year, but college director Claude Marchand says the Quebec government is withholding those subsidies. “Because the government decided not to transfer the subsidies for the months of July, August, and their plan is not to send the money for September, we just don’t have the cash to start the semester and pay our teachers,” he says. The college has been granted temporary creditor protection. However, the future of some 3,000 students remains uncertain. “The creditors’ protection – it’s like not necessarily going to be for both the years that I have left in school. So it’s just like it’s anxiety-inducing,” second-year student Dominique Goulet says. “I don’t want to go to Marie-Victorin or UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal) – which are great schools – but don’t have the same sort of focus that I want to do,” another second-year student, Maynard Mckinnon, explains. Dorvilier-Shell agrees that transferring is a non-starter. “For my program, for example, in fashion design, there’s only one other school in Montreal that offers these courses, and that school is smaller than College LaSalle. So if every student here needed to transfer, there would not be any space for all of us,” she says. The third-year student has voiced her concerns along with others in a letter to the City of Montreal, Premier Christine Fréchette and their local MNA, Jennifer Maccarone, though she has yet to receive a response. “In the event that they need to relocate those students, it’s $90 million. But it’s $90 million plus the $47 million that [the Quebec government] will never see. Plus, we have a loan with CDPQ of $20 million, so it’s a $150 million financial catastrophe,” Marchand told CTV News. CTV News reached out to the office of Higher Education Minister Martine Biron but did not hear back before publication time. In a statement, Maccarone’s office declined to comment. Meanwhile, students say they’ll keep showing up outside until they’re let in.
