On Tuesday afternoon, about 30 students from the Saint John campus of the New Brunswick Community College demonstrated uptown, converging at the office of the post-secondary education minister, Ed Doherty. They are trying to send the message that they need to get back to school. Classes have been cancelled as a custodial strike enters its second month.

There’s nothing wrong with this. Enough is enough, and these students should be back in school. But there’s one thing that bothers me. I’ll give you a second to figure it out.

Okay, here’s the deal. Only THIRTY students demonstrated. What the hell? Where are all the other students? They’re falling behind in classes now and could lose the rest of the school year if the strike isn’t resolved, but this does not seem to a huge concern to most students. Okay, so maybe I am overreacting since the government is promising to end the strike by legislating them back to work. But still. It’s not like these other students should have been busy doing anything else, since they would normally be in school during the time of the demonstration.

I can’t say this surprises me. Back when we were holding huge rallies in Saint John to protest the PSE report, relatively few college students chose to participate, even though the report’s recommendations were to affect the college campus in this city as well. The school used the old “gagged by the government” excuse to explain their relative quietness during the whole ordeal.

Bull shit.

Take a close look at this photo I took at the Edmundston Rally. The signs say CCNB and UMCE everywhere. BOTH the college and university campuses in that city were part of the demonstrations, showing their support, and making their voices heard.

I guess the gag order was only applicable to the anglophone college campuses.