Talks suspended with Quebec students; no solution in sight to unrest

MONTREAL – An attempt to find a solution to the Quebec student crisis has fallen apart _ with potential ramifications unknown from the street to the ballot box.

After four days of negotiation, the provincial government and student groups announced Thursday that their talks had gone nowhere.

There had been speculation that if these latest negotiations failed the provincial government might call a snap election and ask Quebec voters to help settle a dispute that has made international news.

Premier Jean Charest said that day will indeed come _ but he downplayed the imminence of a vote. The government is into the fourth year of its mandate and must head to the polls by late 2013.

“Ultimately there will be an election within 18 months,” Charest told reporters. “It’ll happen in a democratic context that will allow us to state our case on these issues.”

It would be Charest’s fifth election as a provincial politician, if he runs again. He is already positioning the tuition hikes as a central issue of any future vote.

And he suggested that the voters of Quebec might not take their cue from the red-square-wearing protesters who have been in the streets every day for months.

“It’s up to the silent majority to espress itself,” Charest said, repeating: “There will be an election within 18 months.”

Early in the day, students had issued a mild threat to walk away from the negotiating table. But surprisingly, later Thursday, it was Education Minister Michelle Courchesne who announced talks had been suspended.

“The sides have shown some openness,” she told reporters. “But we have to conclude we’re at an impasse… It’s really an impasse.”

The students later confirmed to reporters that talks had broken off _ against their wishes, they said.

They said the government had offered nothing except for a $35 discount on tuition hikes, and was unwilling to rescind a controversial law that sets limits on protests.

They said the government appeared more concerned with political optics than with finding a solution. However, they said they’re willing to go back to the negotiating table whenever the government wants.

“We’re still here. We’re always ready to negotiate,” said one of the four main student leaders, Martine Desjardins.

“We’ll wait.”

Quebec’s student protests have lasted more than 100 days, caused social unrest, and made international news.

Another prominent protester, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, said the government never wanted a deal: “It was bad faith from the start.”

Opponents of the Charest government have repeatedly accused it of letting the protests fester for its own political benefit. Polls suggest the deeply unpopular government _ now in the fourth year of its mandate _ actually has considerable public support for its tuition hikes.

However, some of that advantage may have been blunted by the introduction of a controversial emergency law that has triggered larger protests, featuring older and more diverse crowds, that have spread outside Quebec into other Canadian cities and even abroad.

It’s unclear what happens next: As she left the building where talks were being held, Courchesne said she would speak with the media later Thursday.

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