Canada - Montreal tuition protesters defy law and clash with police

[Mazmaz]

In case you were wondering, yes, this has been going on for 3 months. It's gotten so bad that they passed legislation stating that protests of more than 50 people need to register 8 hours in advance and state their march path, but that hasn't stopped people.

When was the last time you saw students protest like this anywhere?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...e-teargas.html

Police fire tear gas and muzzle blasts as thousands take to streets

Protesters in Montreal clashed again with police Sunday night, leading to the arrest of at least 180, in defiance of new legislation meant to crack down on student-stoked demonstrations that have rocked the province for months.

Ten people were injured, including four police officers, and one person was taken to hospital with what emergency services called "non-life-threatening injuries."

Just before midnight on Sunday, about 5,000 people were gathered in the streets in the heart of the city's Latin Quarter, alternating between cacophonous cheering and chanting.

"Devrait pas nous fâcher," they yelled — "You shouldn't get us mad."

For the 27th night in a row in the city, marchers gathered near the University of Quebec in Montreal and then headed to the heart of downtown.

Police declared the demonstration illegal under the province's new student-crisis law, adopted Friday, as soon as it began around 9 p.m.

The law makes it illegal to hold a rally of more than 50 people without consulting at least eight hours ahead of time with police about its route and timing.

Montreal police said on Twitter that "illegal acts" were committed from the start. They alleged that some people threw things at police on bicycles, while others wore face masks, flouting a recently passed municipal bylaw that bans them during protests.

Constables ordered the demonstrators off the streets and onto sidewalks, but the commands were largely ignored.
Dozens arrested

Two journalists were swept up and arrested as ranks of riot police surrounded a group of protesters near the intersection of St. Laurent Boulevard and Ontario Street. One of the reporters was wearing a ski mask to protect against police chemical irritants, and was lightly injured in the fray.

Both were held for 20 minutes and told by a police officer that he "didn't give a f—k" they were journalists, before being let go, according to La Presse.

Provincial police were called in for the second night in a row, as were officers on horseback. In various parts of downtown, constables fired tear gas and muzzle blasts at crowds.

What began months ago as a student strike against the Liberal provincial government's plan to hike tuition fees by 70 per cent over the next five years has ballooned into a broader social movement supported by several of Quebec's major labour, environmental and political groups.

The movement picked up some celebrity backing in the last few days, with documentary filmmaker Michael Moore and Montreal band Arcade Fire lending their support.

The international hacker collective Anonymous took an interest as well, releasing two videos denouncing the legislation and the planned tuition increases. The group, which regularly hacks into government websites around the world, warned of future actions against the Quebec government.

"Resistance is futile," a computer-modulated voice stated in one video. "The hour of war has come."

The website for the Quebec Liberal party and the province's Education Ministry were down for portions of the weekend in an apparent cyber attack. Anonymous, however, did not claim responsibility.

Student organizers estimate that 150,000 college and university students are still on strike.

[bluefan]

Spoiled brats. Seriously. Spoiled. Fucking. Brats.

I also realize many of the rioters there aren't even students and are just society's trash by sticking it to the man.

When you have Anonymous backing, you should realize just how fucking stupid you were to draw their attention.

Can we seriously just let Quebec go? It would save the rest of the provinces a shit ton of money.

[Mazmaz]

No thanks.

[EternityEnd]

Relevant article a Canadian friend linked me:

http://mikespry.org/2012/05/08/quebe...e-should-want/

[Cadsuane]

Rex's take on the national:

http://youtu.be/ma_kJiMqZKc

And his somewhat less tepid opinion piece on the National Post:

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/...-but-a-parody/

Whatever justification the foolishly called student “strike” in Montreal may have had — and I’m inclined to believe it was precious little — it now has none, absolutely none.

Serious protests, involving grave issues, with real risks and real moral purpose, are going on all over the world. They match life-and-death risk with the value of what is at stake: the human rights of citizens suffering under dictatorial governments. We can only hope that the eyes of the demonstrators in Syria don’t get the news of the tantrum going on in democratic Quebec.

It began on so picayune a point — a tuition hike of $325 a year. That’s about the cost of one bottle of needless water a day, or half the price of the cheapest cup of coffee. Is this the kind of cause North American students take to the street for? “Oh, our university fees, already the lowest probably in the Western world, are going to go up a loonie a day. A loonie a day!: To the Barricades Everyone. And bring me a latte.”

According to one news story, there have been 160 protests in the 11 weeks since Quebec students walked out of classes — 160 protests over a proposed increase of $325 a year. This protest/strike must appear to the world as some sort of mass reality-TV show — all hollow premise and pretend emotion; and like all reality shows, a mockery of the very real life it so cheaply imitates.

We’ve come a long way, and it’s been all downhill, since the civil-rights marches of the 1960s, the great movement of Solidarity in Poland, and the tragic but inspiring moments at Tiananmen Square.

What’s going on in Quebec is not a protest. It’s a parody of one: the future elite of Quebec having a self-indulgent fit.

Lately, and particularly in the past few nights, the protests have morphed from something inherently ridiculous and annoying, to something deeply provocative, possibly dangerous, and thoroughly unacceptable. The increasingly violent riots we have seen in downtown Montreal these last few months comprise the last straw.

We may also want to give a second glance at the tiresome game of trying to throw responsibility for all the violence and vandalism, the intimidation and threats, on “outsiders” hijacking the protests — on a few anarchists or the Black Bloc, beyond the control of the “regular students.”

“Oh, it’s just a few, the majority are all so peaceful. What a shame our protest has been sidetracked etc … etc … etc …” This tiresome, weary, sly chorus bit has been heard at every major protest of the last 15 years. We heard it in Seattle, in Quebec city, in Milan, in Toronto during the G8, and we’re hearing it now in Montreal. It’s always the same pious and hollow bleating.

In actuality, the violence is an intrinsic part of the demonstrations, a part of their essential dynamic. All this is no secret. Is anyone really surprised that these protests have been accompanied now by riotous behaviour?

Violence is brought in under the much advertised “diversity of tactics” banner so beloved by these demonstrations. Diversity of tactics is the weasely euphemism for smashing up Starbucks and bank windows, and torching police cars, and frightening ordinary citizens. And we’ve all noted how the “peaceful’ protestors can rarely bring themselves to “deplore” this diversity of tactics. That’s because of the tacit and useful alliance between the violent and the non-violent. They play off each other. There’s a menacing synergy at work.

In fact, nowadays, the sight of masked demonstrators looking to do damage on the streets is such a regular feature of mass protest that their absence would be seen as peculiar.

For the civil authorities in Montreal, whatever their view may have been early on in this action, whatever thought they may have had of holding off on the rise in tuition fees, they are now in a position of no choice. There can be no give and take with a mob, or with a bunch that chooses to act like a mob. The authorities cannot give in to this protest. It really is as simple as that.

Premier Charest and his Education Minister must defy and rebuke the street agitators, and seek to punish those who have stepped outside the law. And the students, if they have any sense left, will now call off this very foolish strike.

Let’s just hope that no one in Syria has been paying attention.

Rex isn't a very good liberal at times but it's not surprising that someone so thoroughly Canadian in political sensibility would compromise quite a lot in the end for civility in the civic sphere. Some of his points are dubious:

That the student plights of unemployment, poverty and debt are trivial in comparison to the problems that "real" protests address like despotic governments for example. Rex says that the protesters march vicariously under the same rhetorical auspices as the hallowed oppressed of the non-west and that this comparison makes them look spoiled. First of all, I expect mothers to tell their children that starving African children are the reason they should be grateful for their broccoli, but not that a political analyst should tell a group of adults to confront the erosion of their educational birthright with stoicism for a similar reason. This line of reasoning is almost biblical in its heavy handedness and emotionally manipulative to boot, suggesting the zero sum mentality so dear to right wing pundits. It is not even factually correct that tuition in Quebec is the lowest in the western world since it is still quite a lot more than free as it is in some parts of Europe. Furthermore it could be the case that tuition rates in Quebec should stay the same or go down, and that students in the rest of Canada are merely inured against their problems. To establish whether or not this is true and subsequently make the decision of how much or whether to subsidize post secondary tuition rests on rather unsexy things like whether the policy makes economic and social sense, and not whether we should feel ashamed that the Quebecois may not be suffering as judiciously as the Syrians, or to make a less ridiculous comparison, the Ontarians or Albertans (though not the Newfoundlanders, since the conservatives there took drastic steps to cut tuition rates).

Independent of Rex's attempted character assassination is his assertion that the question of policy is irrelevant now since the government would create a moral hazard if it caved to the demands of the protesters. Indeed the protestors themselves would (or probably should) argue that the absence of a protest like this one creates a moral hazard for governments, but in lieu of establishing which moral hazard actually exists I would simply point out that the Quebecois students are Canadian citizens whose welfare and rights did not cease to be the responsibility of the government that they in part elected just because they find themselves (largely) uncriminally at odds with it. Canada is a country whose government is constitutionally defined to be thus responsible; the question of determining and enacting good policy is never a non-question for a government whose raison d'etre is precisely that determination and enaction. So, while the police in Montreal may take steps to protect private property, public safety, and civil order, it is despotic for the provincial government to then weaponize policy as Rex suggests so as to discourage future protests. It is not the province of any Canadian government to deliver vengeful policy to get itself through a political crisis, and make enemies of citizens.

[Ragns]

I lived in Montreal for 4 years and this kind of shit doesn't surprise me anymore.

Globe&Mail article that pretty much sum it up: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2437462/

[Melena]

So all those riots are over an increase of basically a dollar and some change a day? And this is why even canada looks at quebec as the herpes of north america.

[Ragns]

So all those riots are over an increase of basically a dollar and some change a day? And this is why even canada looks at quebec as the herpes of north america.

Actually it's now down to 50 cents per day.

[Ragnus]

The fuck? They throw around stats like "Up 70%" but it turns out to be another 300 or so dollar a year? Fuck them.

[Kuya]

I'm not very comfortable with the idea of people who pay more for their tuition telling those who pay less, that they should accept to pay more, because it kind of waxes over the point of argument: How much should higher education cost?

[Ragns]

Table breaker but fuck the rules I'm admin.

[archibaldcrane]

So it's a 10%ish increase, per year, for 7 years?

That's pretty extreme, no wonder the students are pissed. Granted, they've had cheaper tuition than the other provinces, but the question needs to be raised as to why tuition needs to go up by 4X the rate of inflation for 7 straight years? Where is that money going? Is it just that the government is cutting back their subsidies, or is there more to it?

[Kuya]

It looks like the rest of Canada should be striking too, but is it really the fault of the quebec students that the rest of canada likes to whine about their tuition but does nothing about it? The negativity towards the students in quebec strikes me as a sign of jealousy and impotence.

[Ratatapa]

I dont care who wins anymore I just want this to stop, that's all we ever hear on the news atm

[Kaisha]

The fuck? They throw around stats like "Up 70%" but it turns out to be another 300 or so dollar a year? Fuck them.

This was pretty much what I said when I first heard about the news.

Even with their hike I'm still paying a fuckload more for tuition in Ontario than them. Even one of my buds from Quebec does his schooling over here and thinks what the students over there are doing is retarded.

[DrGonzo]

I live over in laval (10-15 mins from montreal) and its kind of funny to hear people protesting about this, but I also support them.

I go up there with my US student loans totaling 40k and laugh them to the bank because Im way more in the shit than they are, but they have more balls than anyone in the US to protest to be honest... Go get em.

[archibaldcrane]

The fuck? They throw around stats like "Up 70%" but it turns out to be another 300 or so dollar a year*? Fuck them.

This was pretty much what I said when I first heard about the news.

Even with their hike I'm still paying a fuckload more for tuition in Ontario than them. Even one of my buds from Quebec does his schooling over here and thinks what the students over there are doing is retarded.

*per year for the next 7 years

Talking about this like "it's just a dollar a day" is a little short-sighted.

[myreality]

I wish American students had the audacity and ambition to do this, complacency can be a killer. After all its the continues incremental increases that creates the problem we in america are now facing. Their tuition may be low but they are fighting to keep it that way, if they let the colleges continue to get away with this every year then imagine what the tuition will be like in 10 years. Gotta nip it in the butt before the problem arises, love foresight.

[Kuya]

Tuition in my school is relatively low compared to the US, but it used to be lower. It happens every time you let them get away with raising tuition. They raise it once, they will raise it again, and then again, etc. and it won't necessarily have anything to do with the school's resources.

[Ragns]

These numbers come from the protesters' website:


For the non-frenchies: I'm glad to see that none of the students from the university I went to voted for this "strike". Coincidentally the bigger the social science department these universities have the more of these students are against the tuition increase. Sure is nice to see 25% of student mob using violence and intimidation to stop 75% of them from going to school.