Vincent Vaslin is part of the Ecotheque, a group of students who campaign in particular for the University of Montreal to eliminate its investments in fossil fuels by 2025.
Like him, around thirty young people have occupied the Roger-Gaudry pavilion since Monday. Vincent Vaslin had however pushed the audacity further, starting with two comrades a hunger strike which, according to him, became a necessary means of pressure.
Because to achieve its ends, the students had so far tried all official channels
without obtaining the expected results.
« It’s such a shame to have to go there to get your college 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 the hospital
in the middle of the day, the Ecotheque said in a press release, stating that his health [s’était] badly deteriorated since the day before
.
The student returned to the occupied lodge on Friday evening. He is doing well
according to Anne Desruisseaux, spokesperson for the Ecotheque.
A plan by June 1
Vincent Vaslin has started to eat once more following obtaining the promise that the rector Daniel Jutras will present by the 1is June 2022 a plan of total divestment
publicly 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 divested itself of all these actionsDecember 2025″,”text”:”before December 31, 2025″}}”>before December 31, 2025mentions a copy of the commitments made by the rector to the Ecotheque.
In an email exchange on Saturday morning, a spokeswoman for the University of Montreal confirmed to Radio-Canada the authenticity of the document, mentioning in passing that the divestment plan in question was in preparation for several months
.
Spokesperson Geneviève O’Meara also insisted that the health and safety of protesters were very concerned
the university authorities, and that it is his health team
who had convinced Mr. Vaslin to receive treatment.
We are reassured that he went to the hospital […] and that he is well
she added.
A global protest movement
Nevertheless, the occupation continues.
Because if the Ecotheque has set aside some of its immediate demands, such as the sale of shares related to fossil fuels held by the Pension Plan of the University of Montreal and the decarbonization of the campus by 2030, other demands subsist.
To lift its camp, the group demands in particular that the University also divest itself of its assets in the sector of the extraction of non-renewable natural resources and insists that the management demonstrate greater transparency in the management of its dotation funds.
The action of these students is part of a larger movement and stems from similar battles waged in recent years on other campuses in Canada, the United States and elsewhere in the world.
This struggle has prompted the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser Universityin British Columbia, to announce their intention to cut their 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
