Toronto's professional revolutionary wannabes want in on Montreal violence. At first glance, a news report on the possibility of an expansion of the Quebec student strike carries a heavy hint of foreboding. “The student strike that has gripped Quebec for more than three months could soon spill over the border to Ontario if a request made by a group of student activists and supporters of the movement is granted,” reads the report in The Gazette in Montreal. “More than 200 members of the Canadian Federation of Students have petitioned their federation to call an Ontario-wide strike vote this fall in order to show solidarity with students in Quebec.” On further investigating the threat diminishes significantly. The petition appears to be largely an effort by affiliates of the York University Federation of Students, in alliance with a handful of Canadian Union of Public Employee locals, to get in on the violence before it goes away. Their goal: free tuition for everyone.
They urge a strike ballot in the Fall (no use wasting the summer). National Post. Ten Points Everyone Should Know About the Quebec Student Movement. Ten Points Everyone Should Know About the Quebec Student Movement By: Andrew Gavin Marshall This article was originally published at: The student strikes in Quebec, which began in February and have lasted for three months, involving roughly 175,000 students in the mostly French-speaking Canadian province, have been subjected to a massive provincial and national media propaganda campaign to demonize and dismiss the students and their struggle. The following is a list of ten points that everyone should know about the student movement in Quebec to help place their struggle in its proper global context. 1) The issue is debt, not tuition 2) Striking students in Quebec are setting an example for youth across the continent 3) The student strike was organized through democratic means and with democratic aims 4) This is not an exclusively Quebecois phenomenon 6) Excessive state violence has been used against the students.
May Day 2012 Ignites the Streets of Toronto | no one is illegal - toronto. Over 3,000 people march on Toronto's first May Day march on a working day in decades Toronto -- Six years ago, inspired by 'A day without immigrants' marches across the United States, No One Is Illegal began organizing the May Day of Action for Status for All in Toronto. We were building for a May Day march on a working day but did not anticipate how momentous this year would be. On May Day 2012, we joined with thousands of others in over 150 cities across Turtle Island (colonial Canada and the United States) and millions around the world to mark International Workers Day and asserted the freedom to move, return, and stay for all. >> Join us for a Celebration! "We will link our struggles", insisted Gunjan Chopra, organizer with No One Is Illegal - Toronto at the start of the rally.
With the inspiring words of Cyntha Palmaria (May 1st Movement), Victoria Barnett (Stop the Cuts), Samira Sayed Rahman and Humna Mughal (Afghans for Peace), May Day 2012 Media Videos Images Blogs Mainstream Media. Montreal Pots And Pans Video Of Protest Against Bill 78 Goes Viral. A video of protesters banging pots and pans on Quebec streets is going viral on social networks. Posted on Friday afternoon, the beautiful black and white film shows protesters of all ages taking to the streets to protest the emergency law Bill 78. The Vimeo video quickly began showing up all over Twitter and Facebook. Bill 78 is being called a draconian attempt to quell massive student protests that have taken over Quebec streets for more than 100 days. The bill limits the ability to protest by requiring groups to get police approval for demonstrations and restricting where they can take place, among other provisions.
People took up the percussive protest Thursday night in several towns and cities including Sorel, Longueuil, Chambly, Repentigny, Trois-Rivieres and even in Abitibi -- several hundred kilometres away from the hot spot of Montreal. Usually the nightly street demonstrations, which have gone on for a month, have a couple of vigorous drummers to speed them along their route.
The Ontarion - Debunking myths about the Quebec student strikes. May 24, 2012 Denise Martins Opinion 14 May 22 marked the hundredth day of student strikes in Quebec. The following list of myths and facts will hopefully uncover the truth behind the recent student demonstrations. I recently spent three days in Montreal with a group of student journalists working around the clock to learn more about the truth behind the strikes. Quebec students have nothing to complain about because they have the lowest tuition fees in the country This is one of the most propagated myths of the strike. Bill 78 is a desperate attempt on behalf of the Charest government to bring peace back to Quebec. Bill 78 was passed in Quebec’s National Assembly (provincial parliament) on May 19 supposedly to end the “unrest” that student protests had caused. Bill 78 does the opposite of maintaining peace.
Students are not workers and therefore they cannot strike History has shown students winning through strikes all over the world. The police only attack when provoked. inShare2. 'Rêve général illimité' in Quebec. Across Quebec reaction has been swift to a proposal aiming to silence a historic student strike now in the 14th week. Student assemblies are voting en masse to reject a Quebec Liberal government offer that fails to seriously address key issues driving the strike, including the $1,778 hike in tuition fees, a stinging increase even worse than the original planned $1,625 hike. A settlement scripted to fail at Quebec City negotiations speaks to a profound disconnect between popular sentiment on the streets and the halls of political power today in Quebec, a division rooted in fundamental questions on austerity-driven economics. Politicians in Quebec are moving to place an increasing part of the economic burden of austerity on public institutions, rejecting calls from the student movement to heighten public returns from the banking sector.
Since its announcement in the 2010 Quebec budget, the media lackeys of the Liberal government have attempted to present this measure as inevitable. Massive Montreal rally marks 100 days of student protests. A river of red-clad protesters rippled through downtown Montreal to mark the 100th day of Quebec’s student strikes, while smaller events were held in other cities Tuesday. Tens of thousands of people clogged Montreal’s city core in a festive, multi-headed march designed to make a mockery of a new provincial law that demands protest routes be approved in advance. For the first time, police invoked Bill 78 and a Montreal anti-mask bylaw as they made multiple arrests during a rowdy protest late Tuesday.
Even a well known provincial politician, Independent MNA Pierre Curzi, joined the crowds that strayed off the announced path in a mass demonstration of defiance against the law. A prominent student organizer wandering in the throng went further, practically daring authorities to punish him. Organizers said the crowd size rivalled the massive protests held the two previous months, on the 22nd of March and April. There are other hints the student unrest could spread outside the province. Mr. Mr. Quebec’s university students are in for a shock. It’s a little hard for the rest of us to muster sympathy for Quebec’s downtrodden students, who pay the lowest tuition fees in all of North America. Even if the government has its way – no sure thing if the Parti Québécois gets back in power – they’ll still have the lowest tuition fees in North America.
The total increase would amount to the cost of a daily grande cappuccino. Students in Quebec are like no others, we’re told. We need to understand that tuition fees are not the real issue. The real issue is social justice. The real issue is the promise made during the Quiet Revolution that universities would eventually be free. The most militant protest group, the CLASSE (whose handsome spokesperson, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, has become a celebrity on French TV), has lots of other ideas about social justice. According to Pierre Martin, a political science professor at the University of Montreal, Quebec’s students dwell in a world of their own.
Canada, too, is awash in soc and psych majors. Margaret Wente Hates Herself | Mike Spry. I wasn’t going to say anything. I was just going to keep my mouth shut. I spent the entirety of April writing poetry, and feeling okay about myself, about my current station. I discovered charcuterie as a meal.
I’ve cut back on my smoking. Spring sprang. Life was good. While I supported the virtue of the students protest, I wasn’t entirely on board with them. I’ll preface my argument by noting that I hold two degrees from a Quebec university, a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing and an MA in the same disciplines. Wente’s argument, for the most part, was typical of a right wing boomer in a safe well paying job with a home in The Beach: Quebec tuition is cheap, you’re spoiled children who don’t understand the world, so go back to class and behave, while I live in the comfortable tower of Toronto and my generation.
“The truth is, the education they’re getting is overpriced at any cost. This is where I spit up my latte, expertly prepared by a barista with an MA in Journalism.