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Read by: Katie McGroarty

Stories by: Esther Viragh, Luciana Gravotta, Dominique Daoust and Carlo Spiridigliozzi

Produced by: Carlo Spiridigliozzi

Concordia undergrads are going on strike. A two-thirds majority has made it official. Students attended the CSU’s general assembly on Wednesday afternoon.

VP Chad Walcott announced the results in the Hall Building at the downtown campus. The reaction of the crowd was overwhelming.

“The results for our mandate. Votes in favour: 1152. Votes against: 557. Congratulations Concordia, you just made history.”

The assembly took place at four designated locations at the university: three at the downtown campus and one at Loyola. Lindsay Spence came to the assembly without knowing how she would vote.

“Once they started talking about how much the government is going to make and then how much of that is actually going to be invested into education, that's what really bothered me because it doesn’t make sense that their making money off of us and their reevaluating. Taking those funds and putting them where they feel where it should go.”

Others, like Anna Campbell, wore their red squares and expressed their enthusiasm for the outcome.

“We voted to go one strike for five day, so I’m really happy. I really support the strike. I believe in the cause because I believe that students shouldn’t have to pay increasing amount of tuition with a government that increasingly cuts corporate taxes. They’re just misspending money. They don’t need more money, necessarily from us. This just shows the amount of solidarity all students are having together for the cause, which is really awesome.”

But not everyone felt the same way. Victoria, an undergrad who did not want to give her last name, explained.

“I’m not surprised and I think it’s great that we can have this type of mobility and people can come together for a cause. I just don’t know if I feel comfortable or confident in it. Even though I think they have the best intentions for it to be like a safe, open, no value judgment zone, I feel there’s a really large intimidation factor and it makes me really uncomfortable.”

Though the CSU voted this Wednesday afternoon, several faculties had already done so earlier. By Tuesday, six student associations had adopted a strike mandate on tuition increases. This brought along with it the boycotting of classes. Necolas Payeur, another undergrad, was against the approach as well.

“I can understand that people don't want to pay more tuition. I don't want to pay more tuition either. But, there’s a difference between being against the tuition fee hikes and vote for a strike. I think there are more possibilities to do then just go on strike all week and undefined strike after. Don’t keep people from going to school and classes, which they pay for and want a good education. You got the job opportunity after and if you go on strike indefinitely you lose your job because you cannot go work because you still have school. I don’t think it’s good for all the people.”

A motion to change the date of the strike was passed as well. It will officially take place from March 15^th to the 22^nd. Another general assembly will then be held to decide whether to continue with the tactic or not.

Photo by: Esther Viragh 

Four people were injured at the tuition hike protest that took place yesterday in downtown Montreal. According to the Canadian Press, police fired tear gas and arrested several protestors. Some students were tackled before being arrested.

Police officers with shields put up a human wall to hold back the crowd after protestors toppled the metal barrier on Sherbrooke Street.

Police also forced students out of the Loto-Quebec building. The building is home to the organization that represents university rectors.

Tens of thousands of students have already been on strike in the past few weeks and Concordia students voted yesterday to join the ranks. Despite strikes and violent protest, Charest doesn’t seem to be changing his mind about tuition hikes. He says that universities will continue to be mostly financed by taxpayers and that the hikes are an equitable way to keep universities competitive. (Photo: Lauren Guay)

NHL:

Playoff races are getting tighter and tighter as we come down to the final stretch run of the regular season. It's entirely possible that the last few playoff spots could be decided in the final games of the season, which will certainly raise the intrigue league-wide, even for fans of teams that are already out of playoff contention. As it stands, only five points separate the 8th and 13th spots in the Eastern Conference, while in the West the five-point gap is between 7th and 12th place. There will no doubt be plenty of drama and fast-paced action as teams scrap for as many points as they can get their hands on in the fight for a chance at hockey's holy grail this spring.

NFL:

Monday was the deadline for NFL teams to apply their exclusive franchise tag (should they choose to) on one player they wish to lock up for the upcoming season. The concept essentially allows a team to "prevent" losing a player to free agency if a contract extension cannot be reached. The tag essentially buys teams more time to work out a legitimate deal, as is the case with the New Orleans Saints, who franchised their prolific quarterback, Drew Brees, for the upcoming season so that the two sides can work exclusively on getting a deal done. The problem with the franchise tag is that the salary commanded is a number derived from the player's most recent contract, which then gets increased by approximately 20% of its total value; therefore, Brees will be making close to 17 million this season alone, which is not unheard of for star quarterbacks, but it seriously limits a team's flexibility in terms of signing and retaining other free agents.

MLB:

Baseball spring training has begun in earnest, as pre-season games have commenced, giving teams a chance to test the young talent in their organizations while also keeping a close eye on bubble players who may or may not get cut, and keying on any flaws certain players need to improve upon. It also gives fans a preemptive glimpse of what they might see from their teams in the upcoming season. An example of this comes in the form of Brett Lawrie, the fiery, talented third-baseman of the Toronto Blue Jays who is already hearing about the high expectations being placed upon him for this season. He's answered the call, for now anyways; this weekend he hit two doubles in the Jays opening pre-season game against Pittsburgh. Consistency will be the key for Lawrie and the Jays as they attempt to come out on top in what is perhaps the toughest division in baseball.

NBA:

In the marquee match-up of the weekend, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers made a bold statement to the entire league by taking down the Miami Heat in a physical matchup that saw Miami star Dwayne Wade foul out of the game near its conclusion. Kobe extracted a small measure of revenge against Wade and the Heat after Wade broke Kobe's nose and concussed him in last weekend's All-Star game, but there was no real physical retaliation from Kobe or his teammates, so that finally the overblown story can be put to rest.

The other big news that came out of the NBA this weekend was the unreal performance by Nets point-guard Deron Williams, who put up a stunning 57 points in a game against the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday.

MLS:

The Montreal Impact will be making their long-awaited and much-anticipated Major League Soccer debut this Saturday in B.C against the Vancouver Whitecaps. Kickoff is at 6 PM.

-Andrew Maggio co-hosts Game Misconduct every Sunday from 12pm-2pm and runs a dedicated Habs blog that you can check out here