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OfflineManitou
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Québec Student's Strike is STILL going on....
    #624212 - 05/24/12 09:10 AM (11 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

WHEN Vladimir V. Putin first came to power in Russia, Quebecers could not help but laugh. Poutine, as he is called in French, is also the name of a Québécois fast-food dish made of French fries, gravy and cheese. But these days the laughter is over, as Quebec gets a taste of Mr. Putin’s medicine.

For a change, Americans should take note of what is happening across the quiet northern border. Canada used to seem a progressive and just neighbor, but the picture today looks less rosy. One of its provinces has gone rogue, trampling basic democratic rights in an effort to end student protests against the Quebec provincial government’s plan to raise tuition fees by 75 percent.

On May 18, Quebec’s legislative assembly, under the authority of the provincial premier, Jean Charest, passed a draconian law in a move to break the 15-week-long student strike. Bill 78, adopted last week, is an attack on Quebecers’ freedom of speech, association and assembly. Mr. Charest has refused to use the traditional means of mediation in a representative democracy, leading to even more polarization. His administration, one of the most right-wing governments Quebec has had in 40 years, now wants to shut down opposition.

The bill threatens to impose steep fines of 25,000 to 125,000 Canadian dollars against student associations and unions — which derive their financing from tuition fees — in a direct move to break the movement. For example, student associations will be found guilty if they do not stop their members from protesting within university and college grounds.

During a street demonstration, the organization that plans the protest will be penalized if individual protesters stray from the police-approved route or exceed the time limit imposed by authorities. Student associations and unions are also liable for any damage caused by a third party during a demonstration.

These absurd regulations mean that student organizations and unions will be held responsible for behavior they cannot possibly control. They do not bear civil responsibility for their members as parents do for their children.

Freedom of speech is also under attack because of an ambiguous — and Orwellian — article in Bill 78 that says, “Anyone who helps or induces a person to commit an offense under this Act is guilty of the same offense.” Is a student leader, or an ordinary citizen, who sends a Twitter message about civil disobedience therefore guilty? Quebec’s education minister says it depends on the context. The legislation is purposefully vague and leaves the door open to arbitrary decisions.

Since the beginning of the student strike, leaders have told protesters to avoid violence. Protesters even condemned the small minority of troublemakers who had infiltrated the demonstrations. During the past four months of protests, there has never been the kind of rioting the city has seen when the local National Hockey League team, the Canadiens, wins or loses during the Stanley Cup playoffs. The biggest demonstration, which organizers estimate drew 250,000 people on May 22, was remarkably peaceful. Mr. Charest’s objective is not so much to restore security and order as to weaken student and union organizations. This law also creates a climate of fear and insecurity, as ordinary citizens can also face heavy fines.

Bill 78 has been fiercely denounced by three of four opposition parties in Quebec’s Legislature, the Quebec Bar Association, labor unions and Amnesty International. James L. Turk, the executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, called Bill 78 “a terrible act of mass repression” and “a weapon to suppress dissent.”

The law will remain in force only until July 1, 2013. The short duration says it all. It amounts to a temporary suspension of certain liberties and allows the government to avoid serious negotiations with student leaders. And it grants the authorities carte blanche for the abuse of power; just hours after it passed, police officers in Montreal began to increase the use of force against protesters.

Some critics have tried to portray the strike as a minority group’s wanting a free lunch. This is offensive to most Quebec students. Not only are they already in debt, despite paying low tuition fees, but 63 percent of them work in order to pay their university fees. The province has a very high rate of youth employment: about 57 percent of Quebecers between the ages of 15 and 24 work, compared with about 49 percent between the ages of 16 and 24 in the United States.

Both Quebec and Canada as a whole are pro-market. They also share a sense of solidarity embodied by their public health care systems and strong unions. Such institutions are a way to maintain cohesion in a vast, sparsely populated land. Now those values are under threat.

Americans traveling to Quebec this summer should know they are entering a province that rides roughshod over its citizens’ fundamental freedoms.

Laurence Bherer and Pascale Dufour are associate professors of political science at the University of Montreal.





http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/24/opinion/our-not-so-friendly-northern-neighbor.html?_r=3


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Pour un instant, j'ai respiré très fort
Ça m'a permis de visiter mon corps
Des inconnus vivent en roi chez moi
Moi qui avait accepté leurs lois
J'ai perdu mon temps à gagner du temps
J'ai besoin de me trouver une histoire à me conter
Pour instant j'ai oublié mon nom
Harmonium - Pour un instant
--------------------------------------------

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OfflineSmOakland
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Posts: 2,662
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Re: Québec Student's Strike is STILL going on.... [Re: Manitou]
    #625006 - 05/29/12 08:03 AM (11 years, 9 months ago)

Quote:

Gaskelort said:

These absurd regulations mean that student organizations and unions will be held responsible for behavior they cannot possibly control.




If the existence of these groups inevitably leads to vandalism/rioting/ disturbance of the peace then the organizations should not exist.  Pretty stupid article overall.

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OfflineManitou
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Re: Québec Student's Strike is STILL going on.... [Re: SmOakland]
    #625032 - 05/29/12 11:18 AM (11 years, 9 months ago)

It is actually not the students who do the violence, it is a group of people who join the protestations in the streets, we call them "casseurs", they are the ones who do all the shit, they are not even for our cause, they don't even care. Yes some students do shit, but so do cops, there are several videos and examples of police brutality, abuse of power, or just abuse of the law. The prime minister made a "hammer-law" to stop us from protesting. Basically, if we are to be (later in the day) in a group of more than 25 persons, we must call the cops to tell them where it will be, how many people will be there, where it will go, why ...etc. And the pigs can still say no you can't go there. They make protestations illegal before it even begins because nobody wants to conform to this bullshit law. Also I can get fined 500$ to 5000$ for going to a protestation, or inciting somebody to go to one. It gives pig a even bigger amount of power, also makes the minister of education ahead of the law, as she can adapt the law and constitution to her will just to "adapt it to the new law". This is complete bullshit, the gov. has a majority, and there was no way it would be rejected as only 1 major party voted it down. It still passed.

I have to be honest, I haven't read the whole article, it seemed ok at first view, just that finding articles about this in english is rare, well at least for me. But as I said, the violence is done by non-students who just want to destroy thangs and bring anarchy. Lots of people tried to stop them, but where there's 10 000 people in the street, it is easy to do thangs like destroying windows, and then hide back into the crowd, they have great tactics also, they hide in black clothes, do their thangs then remove the clothes (they have other ones under). The gov. ignored our strike for 10 weeks before doing anything, then they laughed at us, stopped any attempt of pour-parlez with the students associations... Now, after 15 weeks, they started the negotiations again, I am pretty sure it won't do anything as government isn't willing at all to negotiate. They are stuck also, as the elections must be done BEFORE october.


--------------------
Pour un instant, j'ai respiré très fort
Ça m'a permis de visiter mon corps
Des inconnus vivent en roi chez moi
Moi qui avait accepté leurs lois
J'ai perdu mon temps à gagner du temps
J'ai besoin de me trouver une histoire à me conter
Pour instant j'ai oublié mon nom
Harmonium - Pour un instant
--------------------------------------------

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OfflineSmOakland
Now with Grow!
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Registered: 05/31/09
Posts: 2,662
Loc: Oaktown to NOLA
Last seen: 3 years, 7 months
Re: Québec Student's Strike is STILL going on.... [Re: Manitou]
    #625195 - 05/30/12 09:49 AM (11 years, 9 months ago)

The Occupy Movement has made demonstrations so mainstream and meaningless that I think there are more constructive ways that you could protest this law (like enrolling in a university elsewhere).  As you said many of the people at these things are just there for fun, and rob the people trying to make an actual point of any credibility.  If your protests get completely out of control, as you have described, it is necessary to give police more power.

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OfflineManitou
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Registered: 05/03/11
Posts: 7,121
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Re: Québec Student's Strike is STILL going on.... [Re: SmOakland]
    #625259 - 05/30/12 04:55 PM (11 years, 9 months ago)

About 1% of the protests turns to shit, theres been protests every nights, and most, and when I say most, its like really 99% happens without violence, with peaceful thangs like playing music, or walking. The law does give more power to the cops, but it is not only that, it is clearely an attack to the right of protests, also it doesn't give more power only to cops, but also allows politicians, who created this conflict, to pass ahead of the law and change it without any debates with the other politicians.


--------------------
Pour un instant, j'ai respiré très fort
Ça m'a permis de visiter mon corps
Des inconnus vivent en roi chez moi
Moi qui avait accepté leurs lois
J'ai perdu mon temps à gagner du temps
J'ai besoin de me trouver une histoire à me conter
Pour instant j'ai oublié mon nom
Harmonium - Pour un instant
--------------------------------------------

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