The metics roar in the city
In this article, I study the impact which international students at the Université de Montréal had on the union, institutional and inclusion practices of particularly involved Quebec students, such as those active in the students association (the Association générale des étudiants de l’Université de Montréal, AGEUM) or the student newspaper Quartier latin. I show that in the face of international students, the AGEUM initially saw itself destabilized, following which it adopted a paternalistic approach to subdue those who questioned its status as spokesperson for students and youth. I then explore the strategies of international students to put forward their points of view and to take ownership of AGEUM’s mode of discourse and to participate in student politics through their own association, Cosmopolis. The latter, set up with the means at hand and informed by the many nationalities that compose it, established itself in only a few years’ time as a mouthpiece of AGEUM and sounding board, in Montreal, for issues that consumed the 1960s and 1970s, such as racism, decolonization, immigration, cultural integration and the place of Quebec in the Francophonie.