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Three ministers are now talking to the media (I'm watching RDI). Fournier just condemned Khadir for the statement he made, and even said that it shows the need for this law. What kind of nazis are these?
the law will come into effect shortly. The media asked, does that mean that the nightly march today will be illegal unless they give eight hours' notice to the cops? They were visibly sweating, but they said yes. We shall see how far these cowards will go.
Special Quebec Education Law Passes 68-48 (and vid)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/05/18/quebec-student-p...
"Student leaders call legislation 'declaration of war'.."
FECQ and FEUQ are about to speak to the media.
Lawyers working with the students will file a court action Tuesday to have the law annulled.
In reply to questions, both say they will counsel their members to respect the law, as they did with injunctions. But they emphasized they will work in unity with CLASSE, even if some positions may differ.
Now Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois is speaking - he says CLASSE will fight this law in the courts and in the streets, by expanding the mobilization manifold.
He says the law is functioning already, by preventing me from saying what I and my members think!
Jesus Christ it makes you sick.
Regardng the lawsuit, the www.loi78.com website still collects claimants names (you MUST be a Quebec citizen to be part of the lawsuit). If you want to help, there is also a Paypal button at the bottom of the page, so you can put some coin to help Juripop, the legal non-profit helping coordinating the lawsuit for FECQ.
Montréal police bosses are meeting now to try to figure out how the hell to apply this law, which just received royal assent moments ago.
Meanwhile, apparently police stations across the city are receiving all kinds of calls advising them of itineraries of demonstrations!!!
ROFLMAO!!!
What if they gave a demonstration and no one came?
Have we just identified a hole in the law? Naw, they'd probably just charge people with mischief, obstruction, terrorism, whatever. When the 1% are in charge, anything goes.
From the Chilean Winter to the Maple Spring - by Andrew Gavin Marshall
http://www.mediacoop.ca/story/chilean-winter-maple-spring/10945
"...So from the Chilean Winter to the Maple Spring: Solidarity, Solidarite, Solidaridad!"
Thanks to the correction from boouchecl and Unionist above. My apologies for hastily posting incorrect information!
SORRY! Just got back! Biggest demo tonight in Montréal for quite a while - estimated at 10,000. It was entirely peaceful. Then at 21:54, cops declared it "illegal" - as usual, nothing new there. They claim there was one Molotov cocktail thrown. And there has been one (that's right, 1) arrest. And the "illegal" march carries on!!
Yes!
You can watch it live here.
And lots of masks, despite the municipal anti-mask bylaw adopted today. People say they don't give a damn about the law, they will carry on.
Demo in Québec tonight as well, haven't seen news.
Ce n'est qu'un début - continuous le combat!
ETA: CJAD report:
LOL - the cops have given up trying to enforce their own "illegal" declaration. This demo is now "illegal" in about 25 different ways. Here's a random tweet from a couple minutes ago:
Translation: "The Montréal police have just said that the demo can continue if it remains peaceful .. thank you, oinks!"
Marched for a little while in tonight's demo too. Huge crowd. 10 000 sounds entirely plausible to me—perhaps more at its peak. I decided to bail when teargas was used—nasty stuff. Things apparently got calmer after that, though.
The clear favorite of all the slogans: "La loi spé-ciale; on s'en câ-lisse!"
The fight continues.
Demo in Sherbrooke is apparently dispersing now after repeated charges by the riot squad, although it was reportedly peaceful. Does anyone have any more reliable info about what happened?
Good slogan, B. - is that what they call civil disobedience?
And can Amir Khadir be charged under Bill 78 for repeating what Gabriel N-D said (I quoted it earlier)?
GND's situation is an order to appear in court for a charge of contempt of court related to an injunction. Since the injunctions are now without force due to Bill 78, there can be no charge similar to the situation of GND.
Potential violations of Bill 78 (the now famous section 29) would be another story.
CUTV said a little while ago in their livestream that they've received information that an anonymous collective of student spokepersons have called for civil disobedience in relation to Bill 78.
Somebody on CUTV also said that two small molotov cocktails were thrown after the police charged the crowd.
ETA: this is a while ago, probably at René-Lévesque/St-Laurent, around the time I decided to bail.
No shit. It just underscores the massive overreach on the scope of this new legislation.
I may not agree with the students' complaint about paying just $3,800 a year for tuition, but I strongly support their right to protest and oppose the proposed tuition hike. I guess that's what happens when one has a "free speech fetish" (I don't just believe in speech that I agree with)...
ETA: Rabble has been a good source of info regarding this student action (there's virtually no mention of events in Montreal here).
Police use tear gas, smoke bombs on protestors after Molotov cocktails reportedly tossed
Our youth! So proud.
I don't believe so. Charging a (popular) sitting MNA would make him a martyr.
Even though a lot of Quebecers find him a bit over the top sometimes, a trial featuring Amir's "speak the truth to power" style would give him a lot of airtime.
Remember Mchel Chartrand?
Ha! Read on Facebook:
The police (SPVM) is now saying (on Twitter) that they can't apply Bill 78 tonight because they need to figure out how to apply it first...
Deleted
Xavier Dolan and cast wear red square at Cannes
I think that the Quebec wing of the Liebranos would rather go with this other wonky internet survey that says an overwhelming majority of Quebecers(far more than voted for the Liebranos) support the Liebranos plan to raise fees.
Fasc-o-rama!
A new version of Ariane Moffatt's song 17 mai, opposing the special law: http://soundcloud.com/mofmof/jeudi-17-mai-2012
I'm not surprised The Star quotes this dubious survey conducted BEFORE the tabling of Bill 78. The coverage granted to that CROP poll in La Presse and the screaming headline is nothing short of journalistic malpractice and will go straight to the Press Council. Right-wing federalists are running scared.
What about the right-wing sovereignists? Louise Harel's party voted for Tremblay's anti-demonstration bylaw. And under other circumstances, the PQ would do likewise, as they have done to workers in the past.
Actually, Vision Montréal voted against the by-law in the end, as did Projet Montréal. But neither of the opposition parties can be said to truly have demonstrated any sort of political courage lately with respect to protecting fundamental freedoms. For instance, before announcing its opposition to the city by-law, Projet had put out a really bad press release, essentially castigating protesters for the "violence" in the streets of Montreal, thus troubling Richard Bergeron's quietude (he made express mention of the fact that he lived downtown...), and not saying a word about police repression.
Ouch - thanks for the correction, Bärlüer. As I said before, things are moving too fast for me. All I remembered is that Harel really, in essence, supported this crap - but then decided at the last minute that she could vote against because the feds and provincial governments were doing a good enough job in repression:
I guess my real point is that notwithstanding any appearances, I don't see Bill 78 as an attack by federalists on sovereignists. It is a question of the democratic rights of the people against the elite - the 99% vs. the 1% if you like - a class question.
I'm very happy that the PQ is on board, for the moment, but I'm certain it's as much a crass political calculation as Charest and Legault were engaged in.
This editorial is signed by five Le Devoir staff, including the Director and the Editor-in-Chief:
Bill 78 - Abuse of Power
Exceptional measures shouldn't be considered as departures from the normal routine of society, but instead as the normal routine held in abeyance while the population remains pacified. The nonsense we keep hearing about freedom, democracy and rights is revealed as such whenever temporary suspensions of exceptional rule are lifted to reveal the state's final word when people refuse to obey authority.