Canada in Brief: Oct. 26, 2011

Students gather against high tuition

Members of Quebec’s National Assembly went back to work on Friday, and were welcomed with chants of, “Students, united, will never be defeated.” Over a hundred demonstrators gathered outside the Centre des congrès de Quebec on Oct. 21 to protest rising tuition rates. Armed with signs bearing slogans like, “Educated people will never be defeated,” and, “It’s a right,” the protestors donned red felt squares — a traditional symbol of the student movement in Quebec — and marched for four hours.

For many of the students in the crowd, fighting tuition hikes is about ensuring access to education for future students, not for themselves. Most of the protesters will never be directly affected by the proposed increase in yearly tuition.

–Hillary Sinclair, the Link (Concordia University)

New Canadian money faces identification problems

Early versions of Canada’s new plastic money had some unintended messages.
New documents show a focus group mistook a strand of DNA on the $100 bill for a sex toy.

Most people also thought the see-through window on the new polymer notes were shaped like the contours of a woman’s body.

–Compiled by Amanda Steiner