Vincent Vaslin is part of the Ecotheque, a group of students who are particularly committed to the University of Montreal to eliminate its investments in fossil fuels by 2025.
Like him, about thirty young people have occupied the Roger-Gaudry pavilion since Monday. Vincent Vaslin, however, pushed the audacity further and began with two comrades a hunger strike which, according to him, became an essential means of pressure.
Because to achieve its goals, the students have so far try all official channels
without obtaining the expected results.
« It’s so sad to have to go there to get your university to listen to you. »
Of the three strikers, only Vincent Vaslin continued his action on Friday morning. Corn under the guidance of a nurse
this last agreed to go to hospital
in the middle of the day, the Ekotek said in a press release that his health [s’était] since the previous day has deteriorated sharply
.
The student returned to the occupied lodge on Friday night. He’s fine
according to Anne Desruisseaux, spokesperson for the Ekotek.
Vincent Vaslin would have started eating again after receiving the promise that Rector Daniel Jutras would present through the 1st.is June 2022 a plan of total rejection
discloses traded shares of the fossil fuel industry held directly or indirectly by the University in its endowment fund.
Under this plan, the University must have got rid of all these actions before 31 December 2025
mentions a copy of the commitments the rector made to the Ekotek, which could not be certified by Radio-Canada.
A global protest movement
Nevertheless, the occupation continues.
Because if the Ekotek set aside some of its immediate demands, such as the sale of shares related to fossil fuels held by the Montreal University Retirement Plan and the decolonization of the campus by 2030, other demands exist.
In order to raise its camp, the group especially demands that the University also relinquish its assets in the sector of the exploitation of non-renewable natural resources and insists that the management greater transparency in the management of its donation funds tone.
The actions of these students are part of a larger movement and stem from similar battles waged on other campuses in Canada, the United States, and elsewhere in the world in recent years.
This struggle forced the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University in British Columbia in particular to announce their intention to sever ties with the fossil fuel industry.
In Quebec, theUQAM and Concordia University have already made a commitment to get out of oil by 2025.
With information from Gali Bonin
