Democracy in Action – Look and Learn my sleeping obedient country.
The protests in Quebec are an example to the rest of Canada to what an active citizenry is like and how people can affect change in the political spectrum. At the time of this writing, 39 days of protest are on record. Thirty nine days of showing Canadians that people still do have a place Canadian politics. The real lesson though is that this political space is never given freely, it is earned by the mass momentum of people demanding and then taking their place in the debate. This is the very lifeblood of democracy; yet our elites and media however cannot seem to do much more than sneer and dismiss the people of Quebec. The next level of protest is coming as the Grand Prix is coming to Montreal, and the protesters might squeeze the cash flow of the event. Action must be taken as the business elites must have their way.
“The prospect of continued protests following this week’s breakdown of talks to end the Quebec student crisis has Premier Jean Charest and Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay worried about the financial impact as Montreal preps for its lucrative Grand Prix race.
Both politicians appealed Friday for “responsibility” on the part of demonstrators, saying protesters should leave Formula One fans alone and not harm stores, hotels and restaurants during the tourist-heavy event next weekend.
Charest accused student groups of “hurting Quebecers” as they take to the streets and expressed concern they would disrupt the Grand Prix, which brings millions of dollars to the province each year.”
Hurting Quebec business is what he should have said. An interesting angle as this story would be where the local chamber of commerce political opinion’s are in terms of support of the demonstrators.
“Tremblay [the mayor of Montreal] told journalists he was “very disappointed, very, very, very disappointed” in the collapse of negotiations between students and the province. With the Grand Prix about to rev up and Montreal’s summer-long series of festivals getting into high gear, the mayor called for a smooth running of a “very important season.”
“I appeal to the maturity and sense of responsibility” of protesters to demonstrate without “causing harm to merchants, hotels and restaurateurs,” Tremblay said.
“I’ll do everything I can to ensure these events are a success, but also to ensure the safety of Montrealers.”
The Mayor’s statement could mean so many things. The doublespeak that has been issuing from the various levels of government has been flowing furiously as of late. I’m guessing that “safety of Montrealers” means more stringent security measures against the demonstrators. I hope Mr.Trembley realized the pardoxical nature of political protest – the tighter you clamp down on people the more people see the injustice of the situation and join in, creating even bigger problems for the forces of law and order. It is happening even now…
“Matthew Larose, a 32-year-old construction foreman, said he’ll probably be going to the big demonstration planned for Saturday afternoon like he has seven of the nighttime marches. He’s against the tuition increases but also against Bill 78.
“If they can do it in Quebec, they can do it everywhere else. It sets a bad precedent for freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of everything. They’re going completely against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and it’s disgraceful,” he said.”
Bill 78 is a tipping point, hopefully the political class in Montreal will wake up and start helping, rather than harming their cause.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
4 comments
June 3, 2012 at 3:37 pm
VR Kaine
All hail democracy in action, but those students are nothing but a spoiled bunch of whiners in my opinion. More entitlement in action than democracy, I’d say.
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June 3, 2012 at 3:52 pm
bleatmop
Vern – I think the only people who are entitled whiners are those of us who have got subsidized, socialized university for all these years and now are expecting this generation to pay the near complete cost of their education. Typical privileged thinking in my opinion, socialism for me, none for you. Its quite similar than the welfare for the banks but fuck the people that happened in the US imo. If you got your education in Canada and now expect these people to not get the same deal you did, what would that make you?
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June 4, 2012 at 7:36 am
VR Kaine
“If you got your education in Canada and now expect these people not to get the same deal you did…”
Are you serious, Bleat? Show me the “same deal” here, or is it this vague “fair share liberal math” again that people are trying to get the public to buy into? We’re talking tuition going from $2,168 to $3,793 between 2012 and 2017 not including the offsets the government has proposed. This is actually less than I myself paid in Alberta over 15 years ago. “Same deal”? They appear to me to be getting a far better one.
Plus, tuition in Quebec has been frozen for 13 years. For me, it rose every year that I went. What, costs don’t rise during that time? Of course they do, but this is what happens when you give out hand-outs based purely on politics – eventually people just come to expect them.
Here’s the thing – tuition in both Canada and America was what it was and I paid what I paid. That’s it. I didn’t have access to it in the U.S. because I couldn’t afford it. Once I could, I went, and that was 8 years later. In either case I never “expected” anyone to pay anything – that’s the difference between how the entitled and miserable think and how I and the rest of us do who are happy to earn what they need to in order to pay their own way.
But hey, I’ll play. My overhead has risen substantially. Let’s protest that because now it’s harder to make a living, or that the poor economy brought on by “fat cats” has hurt my ability to hire more people. Nah, I’ll just make more money so I can actually pay my own way, hire more people, and take pride in actually doing so. Beats throwing chairs through windows or rocks at cops, don’t you think? Yes, I expect people who are given handouts not to bitch about the handouts not being enough. If you want to call that “privileged thinking” on my part go ahead, but with respect I think your way is far more hypocritical.
And for the record, I’m all for post-secondary education being accessible, but a $3,700 yearly tuition hardly denies people access to education. At the end of the day everyone knows this, that’s why the protestors (and people here, it seems) are trying desperately to weave this into the wider narrative of the 99%ers to try and get support. I think it’s stupid, though, because the rising tuition likely has more to do with outrageous academic salaries and everything that goes wrong when government goes to far than it does with how much my business made last year.
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June 4, 2012 at 3:07 pm
VR Kaine
Furthermore, “Quebec students pay only 10% of tuition and benefit from transfer payments from other provinces whose students pay up to three times more tuition.”
This comes from the Montreal Gazette (June 1, 2012 via Wikipedia source). Not sure how true it is, but the idea of Quebec sponging off transfer payments and other provinces’ students paying 2-3x more than Quebec students do for tuition doesn’t seem too far off the mark, which to me puts them in “entitled whiner” category.
If this had been just about free speech and right to assembly they would have had far more of my support. Saying I’m supposed to pay 90%+ of their tuition, however, they can go pound salt.
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