After months of violent student protests over tuition increases, Quebec's Education Minister Line Beauchamp resigned from politics Monday.
At a news conference with Premier Jean Charest, Beauchamp said she's not leaving office because she was intimidated by the strikes and demonstrations.
"I am not giving up in the face of vandalism and civil disobedience," said Beauchamp, who will give up her Montreal-area seat. "I am resigning because I no longer believe I'm part of the solution."
"I haven't been able to solve this important conflict and I take responsibility."
Beauchamp, who was also the deputy premier, said she has tried to negotiate with student groups, but they are no longer bargaining in good faith. She reiterated that she believes in the government's plan to invest more money in universities and enhance the post-secondary education system.
Charest said he was sad to see Beauchamp go and praised her "patience" and hard work throughout her political career, both in government and in the opposition.
"Life in politics is extremely demanding and it is even more so today," Charest said.
Treasury Board President Michelle Courchesne will take on the role of education minister. She held it from 2007 to 2010.
What started out as relatively peaceful rallies against proposed tuition increases of $325 annually for five years quickly turned into regular clashes with police, vandalism and arrests across Quebec.
Student groups and the Liberal government had recently reached a tentative deal, involving a temporary freeze on tuition hikes and a committee to manage university funds, but the offer was rejected in a student vote last week.
A number of threats were made against Beauchamp as the government tried to reach a compromise with student leaders, CTV's Montreal Bureau Chief Genevieve Beauchemin reported Monday.
Beauchamp is the second deputy premier to leave the role in recent months, after Nathalie Normandeau. Her departure leaves Charest with a thin majority in Parliament, where Liberals hold 63 seats and the opposition and Independents have 59. There are three vacant seats.
Some student leaders were surprised to see Beauchamp go and said they weren't necessarily targeting her in their demonstrations.
The minister's resignation is "proof that our strike is putting a lot of pressure," said Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, spokesperson for CLASSE, one the more militant student coalitions in Quebec.
Eric Pineault, a sociologist at the Universite de Quebec a Montreal, said the protests are driven by "values rather than numbers."
"Both parties have radically different visions … and it's obstructing the dialogue," he said.
Students are rejecting the government's austerity-based approach, and they began working on their own proposals to revamp the education system long before the protests erupted, Pineault said.
"This is not something that came out of a Cracker Jack box. It's something that's been prepared for the past year and a half," he said of the student movement. "A lot of very serious proposals have been prepared and publicized."
But constant demonstrations seem to be wearing down both sides, Pineault said.
"I do see a sense of fatigue. I see in the streets and I see that police officers are completely exhausted."
Protesters were out on the streets again on Monday, shutting down College de Rosemont in Montreal and surrounding College Edouard Montpetit and the University of Sherbrooke campus in Longueuil, Que.
Protesters also blocked the offices of the Ministry of Education in Montreal earlier in the day.
Some of those demonstrations prompted skirmishes with police, who used pepper spray and tear gas to disperse the crowds.
