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I've flagged post #60 for its offensive diversionary content. Real struggle by real people is happening in Québec, which is anathema to the armchair electoral partisan types.
Cops have arrested two fund raisers for the governing Liberal Party.
Don't sell the kids or Quebecers short, Unionist. They aren't as naive as you think.
Not much point, I'm afraid.
The "moderators" are obviously content to allow trolls to divert this important thread with slanderous attacks on the Quebec student uprising by way of covering for the NDP's complete lack of sympathy for their struggle.
Quebec student protests mark 'Maple spring' in Canada
Nice try. Yes according to the progressive anti-NDPers among us the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party shouldn't be criticized for their entitlements to kick-back and graft and running up the debt while, and at the same time, raising tuition fees!! According to them the students and Quebecers should not walk and chew gum at the same time.
Note: The debt, the corruption, and the Charest Liberals raising tuition fees are all part of the same issue. Quebecers and all progressive Canadians need to get behind the students and bring down this crime gang posing as the government of Quebec.
quote:
Having been at the protest from its beginning, I can say that it was a peaceful march. While there were individual acts of vandalism (the worst I saw was drawing on a bank's window with a black marker), if police action were to be taken, it should be to arrest the specific vandal. Instead, they implemented collective punishment for exercising our "fundamental freedoms."
The protest began in the Old Port of the city of Montréal, and made it's way down rue Notre-Dame, up St-Laurent, and down to the financial district. The mood was good, people were in high spirits, with music, drums, the occasional fire cracker, young and old alike.
As we entered the financial district, the presence of the riot police became more apparent. When the protest made it to McGill College Ave. - crossing a wide intersection - as the march continued in its consistently peaceful path, the riot police quickly assembled alone the street below us. The crowd quickly became nervous as the protest was declared "illegal." Before I could even take a photo of the police down the street in a long line, they began charging the crowd. Protesters dropped their signs and began up the street toward McGill University, while another section branched off along the intended direction, and others scattered.The march had been successfully split, and the small factions were then being isolated and surrounded. Suddenly, riot police were everywhere, marching up the street like storm troopers, police cars, vans, horses, motorcycles, and trucks were fying by. As one faction of the protest continued down another street, the riot police followed behind, while another massive onslaught of riot police went around to block off the protesters from the other side. When the police first charged, I had lost one of my friends simply by looking away for a moment. After having found each other up the street, we watched as the protest which descended down the street was surrounded by police from nearly every side. It was then that we saw flash grenades and tear gas being launched at the crowd of people. There was a notable smell that filled the air.
As we stood, shocked and disturbed by what had just happened, we made our way toward McGill to see where other protesters were headed when we saw a group of riot police "escort" three young protesters whom they had arrested behind a police barricade at the HSBC (protecting the banks, of course!).
Up the street, and across from McGill, one protester who had run to get on the bus was chased down by several riot police who then threw him face-first onto the pavement, and as a crowd quickly gathered around (of both protesters and pedestrian onlookers), the police formed a circle around the man and told everyone to "get back!" and then they began marching toward us, forcing the crowd of onlookers to scatter as well. The police then took the young man over to where the other protesters were being "collected" at the HSBC.
There was one young girl, with the notable red square patch on her jacket (the symbol of the Québec student movement) who had to be taken away on a stretcher into an ambulance. We don't know what happened to her.
As more and more police gathered, we decided it was time to leave, walking down the street through which the police had chased the protesters, remnants of signs, red patches, and other debris spilled across the streets; the remains of a peaceful protest ended with police violence....
http://www.mediacoop.ca/story/what-really-happened-montr%C3%A9al-may-day...
May 2: GSA General AssemblyMay 2 General Assembly: with Lunch and Q & A with Provincial Negotiators
WHEN: Wednesday, 2 May at 12:00 noon
WHERE: CSU Lounge, 7th Floor Hall Building
Please note the new location and bring student ID
Celebrating the General Assembly!
Direct democracy – then a pizza lunch
The semester is drawing to a close, yet the Quebec student strike is continuing (at this time) after broken-off negotiations, and this very important General Assembly is needed to determine what the GSA will do next.
*Representatives from the CLASSE negotiation committee, who have personally met with government representatives to try to resolve the strike, will visit to give an update and answer questions.*
Whether or not you have been affected by the strike, and whatever your views are, the General Assembly is open to all members and structured in a way that strives for civil debate and open discussion for everyone present. Participation is important: the General Assembly is the highest decision-making body of the GSA and one in which every member has an equal voice and an equal opportunity to bring forward and argue for propositions. This is a very common and longstanding practice in Quebec student associations and is in part responsible for the province’s exceptionally dynamic, engaged and well-informed student culture.
We’ll also have a celebration of the seventh General Assembly of the semester, by far the most the GSA has ever held! A pizza lunch will be served at the close of the meeting for those who attended.....
http://gsaconcordia.ca/may-2-gsa-general-assembly/
Hi Fidel, if you'd like to open a thread about the Liberal Party of Quebec and alleged corruption, I encourage you to open a thread about it. This is not the place for that discussion.
Spector, if you have a problem with "moderators," my email address is catchfire@rabble.ca. I'd love to hear your suggestions that don't contain scare quotes.
They're not scare quotes; they are sarcasm quotes. Learn the difference.
I made my suggestions by the usual channel for flagging offensive posts. As far as I am concerned, that ought to be sufficient.
1. You're the one who is saying the students are a "good diversion for the Charest crooks and their well connected friends embroiled in corruption charges." It sounds like you're the one saying that Quebecers shouldn't walk and chew gum at the same time
2. Does "Quebecers and all progressive Canadians" include the NDP? Because they don't seem to be getting behind the students.
Perhaps you'd like to donate to rabble so that they can afford to pay us to be here more often. There are only so many volunteer hours we have in a week, and those paid hours get used up real fast.
Here is how conversation works: you or I start us off. Let's say you do. You say something. Then I respond. This can take a number of different forms: agreement, a request for clarification, my own elaboration of your point, a challenge, a rebuttal, a refutation--any number of things, really. Then--and here's the kicker--you do the same to what I said. That's how consensus forms, change happens and understandings occur. So far I think you've only got the first step. It doesn't happen--for example--with contemptuous sneers of self-importance and arrogance. That sort of approach ensures that such a person's vision of the world only exists inside their own petty, miserable head.
Now: should I have put that whole paragraph in quotes?
May Day in Montreal
GANDER, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR--(Marketwire - May 1, 2012) - Delegates to the CUPE Newfoundland and Labrador convention have given their support to the Quebec student movement that is fighting dramatic tuition fee increases.
CUPE NL President Wayne Lucas says, "These students are taking on an issue that is critical to their futures. Tuition fees create a barrier to students - especially those from lower and middle income backgrounds.
"Up until now, Quebec has been a beacon for the rest of the country by having the most affordable post-secondary education in the country. These students are fighting to protect that," says Lucas.
The convention unanimously supported a resolution submitted by CUPE Local 4554, the Memorial University of Newfoundland Students' Union.
The resolution stated in part:
"In an unprecedented show of solidarity and unity, hundreds of thousands of Quebec post-secondary students have voted to go on strike against the Quebec provincial government to oppose the tuition fee increases.
Government and university administrators have sought court injunctions to try to end the strike, and during the past several days, government crackdowns on the student strike have become extremely violent and repressive."
Someone should ask the criminal Liberal Government of Quebec whether they would prefer dealing with irate students or the law. Personally if I was a crook in the PQ Liberal Government, I would definitely prefer that the students take some of the heat off my criminal activities with a diversion in the streets. Quebecers in general seem to be siding with the crooks in government not students demanding their right to education.
It's funny because I mentioned the NDP's and CFS concerns that billions of dollars in core federal funding should be restored to PSE in a number of threads focusing on the subject of fees in Manitoba, an NDP province where graduates are able to claim a 60% tax rebate on tuition. And you were having none of it then. I think for one of us it's entirely a provincial issue, yes?
Great to have a motion of support, but that last paragraph is almost 100% inaccurate. It shows that we have a lot of work to do building communication, let alone solidarity. The injunctions have been sought against universities and CÉGEP administrations and against student unions by individual students - not by government or administrators. And the violence and repression did not start, nor did it even become particularly worse, in "the past several days". The tear gassing and illegalizing of demos and stun grenades and physical injuries and mass arrests have been ongoing for almost three months. And in fact, the student demos of the past few nights in Montréal have been calm and virtually without confrontations.
Which reminds me, tonight the ninth consecutive march of thousands of students is taking place as we speak:
And there's a bit of a chronology being updated here.
The new slogan is: Manif chaque soir, jusqu'à la victoire!
Translation (taking literary liberties): A demo each night, till we win our fight!
..txs for pointing this out unionist. i've run across more than a few news pieces with inacurate info since the students thread opened. and it's always a judgement call whether to post or not. i've tried searching for the original motion but couldn't find it. mind you my attention spam for it wasn't that long.
No problem, epaulo - just keep up the posting and the support - what you're doing here is great!
Ok, the demo has been marching through Westmount, and has just arrived at Jean Charest's home on Victoria!!
They've been marching in their thousands and shouting (in English of course): "Wake up Westmount!"
The cops are blocking off Charest's house.
..txs unionst! it energizes me to do so.
Thousands in front of Charest's home shouting: "Charest! Charest! Resign!" and "Charest! Go forth! We'll find you a job way up north!" (liberties again, based on Charest's mockery of the students two weeks ago while they were being savagely attacked outside as he spoke to his millionaire buddies in the Palais des Congrès).
Hopefully the neighbours will turf this low-life out - he attracts crowds of noisy opponents late at night. A new slogan is wafting into my head for the neighbours to take up:
"Charest! Charest! Not in our back yard!"
ETA: 22:46 pm: Thousands of demonstrators are now sitting down in the street, chanting "Olé, olé, olé".
All right! They came, they sat, they shouted, they kindly offered Charest a job (he'll need one!), and they left. The demonstrators are now back downtown around Ste-Catherine and de la Montagne. No violence, no arrests, no "mischief". Mission accomplished!
Fidel, you've already been asked to take the issue of Quebec's Liberal party corruption to another thread, yet you persist in derailing the discussion. Polite time is over. You've generated numerous complaints, so I'm saying you need to take it elsewhere or there will be consequences.
Sorry I will bad mouth the very corrupt Liberal Government no more.
Breaking News:
CLASSE - a coalition of 43 student associations representing about one-half of the 180,000 students now on strike - has called a press conference for 10 am (10 minutes from now) to announce their counterproposal to the government's offer of last week. The government offer was unanimously rejected during a weekend CLASSE congress.
It is rumoured that CLASSE will propose: 1. Return to 2007 fee levels immediately. 2. A capital tax on financial institutions, with proceeds to go toward eliminating tuition fees completely over a five-year period.
The press conference is over. Here (roughly) is the CLASSE counterproposal, in two parts. Of course, no fee increases is the underlying assumption.
Phase 1 (immediate):
1. Research budgets benefiting private enterprises comprise a higher percentage of university budgets in Québec than the Canadian average. Reducing this gap by just 50% will save $142 million, which is to be redirected to education. CLASSE notes that if the government chooses to move directly to the Canadian average, this would save $284 million, and would allow fees to immediately revert to 2007 levels, just before the then-existing freeze was first breached.
2. Eliminate commercial advertising by universities (which goes to marketing themselves vs. other institutions) - saving $18 million, redirect to education.
3. Immediate salary freeze and end of bonuses for university rectors and upper management, as well as a hiring freeze.
4. Halt on construction of "satellite" campuses - there are almost 300 of these, and their purpose again is competition for existing student populations.
Phase 2 - for long-term stable and sustainable funding of university education:
1. Capital tax of 0.7% on financial institutions, instituted in 0.14% steps over 5 years.
2. Elimination of all university tuition fees in 2016.
Sorry if I got that somewhat wrong - just going by what I heard during the press conference.
On behalf of workers, academic staff and students across Canada, we jointly call on Québec Premier Jean Charest and Minister of Education Line Beauchamp to promptly resolve the student strike by reversing the decision to increase tuition fees in Québec.
For over two months, students in Québec have been striking to oppose the government's 75% tuition fee increase over five years. The hike effectively shatters the principles of accessible education on which the system currently rests on in Québec and moves towards a model of user-pay funding.
In light of the recent breakdown of negotiations, we are increasingly concerned that your government is ignoring the growing voices of an entire generation committed to the very principled and just value of accessible education.
Students in Québec have taken it on themselves to defend the next generation's right to education. They have put their semester on the line to fight for a vision of the world where no one is excluded. They have made a convincing case, they have garnered public support, and they have presented government with several alternative solutions to the tuition fee hike.
Despite this, the government has continued to grasp onto arguments to justify the hike even though they have been widely refuted. Increasing tuition fees does not provide for shortfalls in funding to the education system. It merely transfers the responsibility from the government to individual students. Increasing tuition fees forces students to take on debt, thus replicating the very social inequalities that the education system is meant to alleviate. Increasing tuition fees signals a shift in priorities where the government is progressively removing its responsibility to provide accessible education.
We are dismayed that the government of Québec has continued to demonstrate contempt towards young people and bad faith in the negotiation process that it has claimed to be committed to.
We believe that every Canadian should have the right to get an education regardless of how much money they or their family makes. We believe it is in the best interest of our society to allow everyone to be skilled, educated and to reach their full potential. And we believe it is the government's responsibility to support education as a social good.
We support the exemplary work done by students in the province during this strike and will stand in solidarity with them as long as needed to stop the tuition fee hike.
To download the complete statement please click here.
it would have been nice if the two statements had been co-ordinated, but this is a very good statement by the classe here, prefacing and rough costing is certainly more effective than just a list of demands. i really really hope this continues strong, even if the government doesn't break, the pq eventually will, eventually forcing marois to make promises along the lines demanded by the striking students.
Well in addition to the CFS at least a few other Canadians agree with me on the issue of a lack of federal funding for PSE:
Quebec Tuition: Between a Rock and Hard Place?
Quebec's Liberal Government as crooked as they are, still only have fiscal policy and the ability to tweak a few taxes here and there.
PQ already spends more on social programs than other provinces regardless of the corruption and gross mismanagement of PQ's massively lucrative hydroelectric power exports.
The Feds in Ottawa have been undermining social transfers to the provinces since the corrupt Mulroney, Chretien-Martin governments and continuing under the Harpers.
The above demo of about 1000 students ended just a while ago, then merged with the main nightly march which is now ongoing. Signs read: "82% indecent!", "Student body against the hike!", "We have nothing to hide!", "For a transparent government", etc. It was supposed to be entirely nude, but organizers compromised a bit when the cops mumbled something about section 174 of the Criminal Code (I believe).