Quebec’s 2011-2012 budget will see hikes in consumer fees across the board and includes some bad news for students. Tuition is one of several fees slated to rise in the oncoming years 

Raymond Bachand is the province’s finance minister.He tabled the sixty-nine million dollar budget Thursday. Bachand says the user fees will cover the two and a half per cent increase in public spending.

Read by A.J. Cordeiro 

Produced by Melissa Mulligan and Dominique Daoust 

Stories by A.J. Cordeiro Jessica MacDonald and Erica Fisher

A VIA rail train that killed three teenagers this fall had its principle headlight dimmed. On October 31, 2010, five Montreal teenagers were walking along the tracks beneath the Turcot interchange when three of them were struck and killed. The teenagers were walking away from the oncoming train and neither saw nor heard it.

It is normal procedure for trains to dim their lights when approaching highways with oncoming traffic, but this information regarding the teenagers’ death has only recently surfaced. The driver did not see the teens on the tracks until seconds before impact and so neither the whistle or bell were sounded to alert them.

Concordia Student Union is taking the Canadian Federation of Students to court. A motion will be filed Thursday asking the CFS to recognize the CSU as no longer a member.

Students overwhelmingly voted to leave in a referendum last year. However, the CFS refused to recognize the vote due to unpaid fees. 

Previous CSU president Keyana Kashfi signed an acknowledgement agreement in 2009. She was agreeing to pay over a million dollars in fees. Thursday’s motion will also ask for that to be declared null and void because she signed without consulting the council.

The CSU is also asking for punitive damages of one-hundred-thousand dollars due to a violation of its right to disassociate. 

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