Military Excluded From Closed Shop Legislation

Soldiers. In Our Schools.

Drama City

Written by Publius

Thursday, 29 October 2009 19:20

Quebec union and student groups don't like military recruiters (whatever the semantics) in high schools. Hmmm. The Canadian military has no business recruiting in Quebec schools, argues a newly formed coalition made up of unions and student groups. If the army wants to recruit, it should open recruitment centres and "leave schools alone," said Réjean Parent, head of the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ). When it made its debut last month, the coalition called it worrisome to see the army in schools recruiting youths who aren't even 18 yet. "We're not against a military career," said Xavier Lefebvre Boucher, head of the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec, which represents 21 CEGEP student associations in the province. "What we simply say is get out of our schools." The article, oddly, doesn't explain exactly why this group opposes Canadian soldiers providing information to high school students. The most obvious answer is that the province's unions and students lean heavily toward separatism. A bout of service in Her Majesty's forces, meeting people from other parts of the country, might just spark federalist feelings among the Quebecois young. The province's traditional isolationism, which has blurred into a sort of pacifism since the Quiet Revolution, also plays a part. All that monarchial symbolism probably doesn't help.