In 2012, Quebec students went on a months-long strike to reverse a planned 75 per cent tuition increase. At its height, hundreds of thousands of students refused to attend class, making it one of the largest movements in Canada’s history. It ended with the fall of the provincial government and the cancellation of the tuition hike. Quebec students had fought and won.

Today, post-secondary education is being cut to the bone. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has announced that student funding to help pay for tuition will be changed from being mostly grants to mostly loans—plunging students deeper into debt. Similar cuts have been announced, or are being threatened, in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and B.C.

Given all of this, it’s no surprise that Quebec 2012 is being discussed in English Canada like never before. People want to know how this movement was built, and why was it able to win.

Julien Arseneau explains the lessons of the Quebec 2012 Student Strike movement - how it was able to beat the tuition hikes, how the movement could've gone further, and what's needed today.

This presentation was recorded live in Toronto on March 27, 2026.

Interested in reading more? Check out our new book Lessons from the 2012 Quebec Student Strike, available here!

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