They do this, paradoxically, because they care enough to make sacrifices in the hope of helping the group, and because this movement has offered something many students have discovered over the passing weeks - a sense of shared identity and shared grievance.
Montreal Gazette
“This isn’t a student strike, it’s a society waking up”
National Post
While there had been clashes at other points in the dispute, violence marked every night of the long weekend and the first part of the week. Wednesday’s demonstration looked as though it was going to break the pattern with an almost party-like atmosphere kicked off in many neighborhoods by the supportive pot banging that continued in some cases as the demonstration passed by.
In recent days, the percussion-heavy approach has been happening every night at 8 p.m. in Montreal and each night it’s gotten bigger and louder and lasted longer. Wednesday night, there were thousands doing it and they spilled out from their houses into the streets in different pockets of the city in crowds that included children, their parents, students and elderly people.
While the crowd waited to be led away one by one to be handcuffed and sent for processing at a police operational center — a procedure expected to take several hours — a man started reading poetry and the crowd hushed to listen. Someone else sang a folk song. At one point a woman called out the phone number of a lawyer which the mob took up as a chant.
Does this sound like a dangerous group of people, terrorists and thugs who should be rounded up and put away for everyone's safety? I think not.
Boston.com had this to say of the reason they were rounded up:
Montreal police spokesman Daniel Lacoursiere said an order to disperse was given because police had been pelted by projectiles and other criminal acts had been committed.
If certain individuals in that group are responsible for breaking the law it is the police's job to single out those specific individuals for arrest, not to sanction off entire areas and deem everyone inside to be breaking the law.
RT.com had this to add to the mix:
In order to give the police another non-lethal means of pressure on protesters, Quebec’s legislative assembly adopted a bill that introduces enormous fines of $24,000 to $122,000 against unions and student organizations which do not stop their members from protesting. Individuals found guilty of organizing a protest now face a fine of some $34,000.
That'll make it so much easier for these already struggling students to pay off their debts and further their education. Fine them for protesting, discouraging them to do so and endangering their education and future if they decide to join the demonstrations. That's despicable.
The Guardian expanded on the story by revealing:
That'll make it so much easier for these already struggling students to pay off their debts and further their education. Fine them for protesting, discouraging them to do so and endangering their education and future if they decide to join the demonstrations. That's despicable.
The Guardian expanded on the story by revealing:
But what began as a protest against university fee increases has expanded to a wider movement to oppose Bill 78, which was rushed through by legislators in Quebec in response to the demonstrations. The bill imposes severe restrictions on protests, making it illegal for protesters to gather without having given police eight hours' notice and securing a permit.
"Hello... 911... yes we will be holding an impromptu protest tonight at 8PM, can you please come by with batons, pepper spray and tasers and complete the night for us? It wouldn't be a party without you!"
UPDATE 5/26:
Canadian officials made a horrible mistake when they passed Bill 78 and subsequently "kettled" hundreds of people for arrest earlier this week. In an attempt to subdue popular protest, they have actually created a nation wide response. Last night towns all over the country joined with Montreal and the rest of Quebec in banging pots and pans in the street! The Huffington Post had this to say:
Kate McDonnell of the Montreal City Weblog explained Bill 78 very succinctly when she said:
UPDATE 5/29:
UPDATE 5/30:
Talks between student protesters and the government proposing tuition hikes is entering its third day and one leader of the people had this to say of the negotiations according to The Washington Post:
This week also marked the return of mass arrests as the police have been sitting low since last Wednesday.
I feel as if the tuition talks have little to do with the actual protests any more. No matter what happens between student representatives and the government the people still have cause to take to the streets until Bill 78 is repealed for good.
UPDATE 6/1:
The Star so aptly described the current situation in Quebec when they "printed" the following:
UPDATE 6/4:
Just in case the severity of the fight we are all facing against the oppression of a police state is not clear enough. Let these words from The Alaska Dispatch reverberate through your mind:
Once a battle has been brought so far, the initial causes for concern, such as tuition hikes, become secondary. Whatever happens between the government and student leaders these protest seemed destined to continue:
"Hello... 911... yes we will be holding an impromptu protest tonight at 8PM, can you please come by with batons, pepper spray and tasers and complete the night for us? It wouldn't be a party without you!"
"It makes a lot of people angry," she said. "We fear that tonight, because there will be more demonstrations going on, people will become a bit more violent, because as you saw yesterday, when you are peaceful, you get arrested."
Martine Desjardins
UPDATE 5/25:
Last night thousands took to the streets in support of student protests and in defiance of Bill 78, 500+ less people were arrested this time.
The student strike is the longest in Quebec history. Bill 78 suspended classes at 14 CEGEPs and 11 universities affected by the dispute. The law calls for classes to resume in August.
Canadian officials made a horrible mistake when they passed Bill 78 and subsequently "kettled" hundreds of people for arrest earlier this week. In an attempt to subdue popular protest, they have actually created a nation wide response. Last night towns all over the country joined with Montreal and the rest of Quebec in banging pots and pans in the street! The Huffington Post had this to say:
Montreal's nightly marches have grown in size since the bill was passed, including a demonstration on Tuesday in which more than 100,000 are estimated to have taken part.
"The demonstrations now are no longer about the tuition raises," said Jacques Hamel, a sociologist at the Universite de Montreal.
"The people in the streets with their casserole dishes aren't overwhelmingly people who would have confronted the government on other questions."
"The demonstrations now are no longer about the tuition raises," said Jacques Hamel, a sociologist at the Universite de Montreal.
"The people in the streets with their casserole dishes aren't overwhelmingly people who would have confronted the government on other questions."
Kate McDonnell of the Montreal City Weblog explained Bill 78 very succinctly when she said:
The most recent ratcheting of tension was last week's passage of a new law, Bill 78, the loi spéciale which limits freedom of assembly, protest, or picketing on or near university grounds, or anywhere in Quebec without prior police approval. A more vaguely worded part of the bill would criminalize the act of encouraging people to demonstrate.
UPDATE 5/27:
An English speaking activist from Quebec has started a blog to translate past articles as well as create new ones concerning what is going on in the French speaking province for all English speaking citizens of the world to read. In an open letter to Western Media outfits one administrator of Translating the printemps érable had this to say:
UPDATE 5/27:
An English speaking activist from Quebec has started a blog to translate past articles as well as create new ones concerning what is going on in the French speaking province for all English speaking citizens of the world to read. In an open letter to Western Media outfits one administrator of Translating the printemps érable had this to say:
Some of you have even started mentioning that when people are rounded up and arrested each night, they aren’t all criminals or rioters. Some of you have admitted that perhaps limiting our freedom of speech and assembly is going a little bit too far. Some of you are no longer publishing lies about the popular support that you seemed to think our government had. Not all of you, mind you, but some of you are waking up.
That said, here is what I have not seen you publish yet: stories about joy; about togetherness; about collaboration; about solidarity. You write about our anger, and yes, we are angry. We are angry at our government, at our police and at you. But none of you are succeeding in conveying what it feels like when you walk down the streets of Montreal right now, which is, for me at least, an overwhelming sense of joy and togetherness.
In what becomes a very encouraging read, the author brings to light many of the positive aspects of the ongoing protests and how they are going to influence regular people in his neighborhood for a long time. Well worth your time if you are interesting in a human perspective of the grandiose happenings taking over Quebec nightly.
In what becomes a very encouraging read, the author brings to light many of the positive aspects of the ongoing protests and how they are going to influence regular people in his neighborhood for a long time. Well worth your time if you are interesting in a human perspective of the grandiose happenings taking over Quebec nightly.
UPDATE 5/29:
While the initial response by the Canadian government to create Bill 78 was in order to STOP protesting, they have brought a more diverse corss section of people, some of whom may NEVER have protested in their entire lives, if not for this watershed moment. National Post reports that last night even lawyers were out in force in the streets.
Lawyers dressed in their courtroom gowns paraded in silence from the city’s main courthouse through the streets of Old Montreal to join the nightly march.
“It is one of the first times I’ve seen lawyers protest in public like this…and I’ve been practising for almost 30 years,” Bruno Grenier said outside the building surrounded by about 250 people, some carrying copies of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The lawyer said his colleagues wanted to show the public that they oppose a law they “find unjust and which is probably unconstitutional.”
“It is one of the first times I’ve seen lawyers protest in public like this…and I’ve been practising for almost 30 years,” Bruno Grenier said outside the building surrounded by about 250 people, some carrying copies of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The lawyer said his colleagues wanted to show the public that they oppose a law they “find unjust and which is probably unconstitutional.”
All of this, of course leads the Government to its most deeply embedded fear, loss of money! Noone in power cares about what the students want, or lawyers, or every day residents. There main concern is this:
The government, on the other hand, has a more immediate worry: that a prolonged dispute will cause chaos for tourists heading to take in Montreal’s big summer festivals.
Tourists, the most important people to any government local or federal, they bring in money, have no local rights, and go home after a few days. Sounds like the perfect person to care about. Why do something for your future generations, your current students, to help them succeed in life, what have they ever done for you? Just wait, this world is changing with or without the old boys and their cronies club, they fear us more than we fear them. The police can only intimidate for so long before the masses realize who is really in control.
UPDATE 5/30:
Talks between student protesters and the government proposing tuition hikes is entering its third day and one leader of the people had this to say of the negotiations according to The Washington Post:
Asked if a deal was imminent, Martine Desjardins, the head of one of the university student groups, said “it depends how many hours you consider to be imminent.”
This week also marked the return of mass arrests as the police have been sitting low since last Wednesday.
On Monday, riot police were deployed as about 200 protesters stood in front of the building where the talks were held. Quebec City Police Lt. Stephane Dufresne said 84 were arrested. It was the first incident of mass arrests since last Wednesday when nearly 700 protesters were arrest. More than 2,500 people have been arrested since a student strike at more than a dozen Quebec colleges and universities began in February.
I feel as if the tuition talks have little to do with the actual protests any more. No matter what happens between student representatives and the government the people still have cause to take to the streets until Bill 78 is repealed for good.
UPDATE 6/1:
The Star so aptly described the current situation in Quebec when they "printed" the following:
Quebec Premier Jean Charest is accusing student groups of “hurting Quebecers” as they take to the streets to protest the recent breakdown in talks with the government.
With Montreal’s Grand Prix weekend less than a week away, Charest expressed concern that student groups would disrupt the international event, which brings millions of dollars to the province each year.
He said students, who have spent almost four months striking against a proposed tuition hike, should leave Grand Prix fans alone given the financial importance of the race.
The latest round of talks collapsed Thursday afternoon when Charest’s education minister, Michelle Courchesne, declared the two sides had reached an “impasse.”
Around 10,000 students took to the streets of Montreal that night to decry the government’s decision to give up on negotiations. A much smaller crowd did the same in Quebec City.
UPDATE 6/4:
Just in case the severity of the fight we are all facing against the oppression of a police state is not clear enough. Let these words from The Alaska Dispatch reverberate through your mind:
Since the start of the movement, more than 2,500 demonstrators have been arrested — and dozens were hurt. One person lost an eye because of a rubber bullet, said Renaud Poirier-St-Pierre, spokesman for student group CLASSE. There were also head injuries and broken arms and legs.
Once a battle has been brought so far, the initial causes for concern, such as tuition hikes, become secondary. Whatever happens between the government and student leaders these protest seemed destined to continue:
Meanwhile, it is not clear that protests would end even if the government and the student representatives came to an agreement. The pots-and-pans movement has now expanded beyond the control of student organizations, into spontaneous gatherings.
UPDATE 6/9:
While not the most violent night and definitely not a night of mass arrests, last nights skirmishes between protesters and race car fans I believe is a perfect demonstration of the polarities of a nations people. The Sun News described the nights events as such:
UPDATE 6/9:
While not the most violent night and definitely not a night of mass arrests, last nights skirmishes between protesters and race car fans I believe is a perfect demonstration of the polarities of a nations people. The Sun News described the nights events as such:
Downtown Montreal was once again the scene of arrests as demonstrators crashed the Formula One Grand Prix party.
Montreal cops confirmed 12 arrests overall Friday night, some of which were made near restaurants and terraces crowded with F1 fans.
*
Let us not forget our neighbors to the south as well, Mexican students have taken to the street recently with their reasons being described as such:
“We don’t think that the media [in Mexico] are providing fair coverage of events,” student leader Maria Jose Lopez said.
“Our main goal is to seek greater democracy within Mexican media,” said fellow activist, Rodrigo Serrano.
“It was a watershed moment, when we woke up on May 12 [the day following the candidate’s visit to the Iberoamericana] and saw how the media had manipulated [information about] what had really happened,” Partago told Televisa journalist Carlos Loret, who had the students appear on his morning talk show after they staged a protest in front of the TV station’s headquarters.
Anti-PRI posters and chants against Peña Nieto were abundant at Wednesday’s march -- perhaps an indication that some of the protesters have a broader agenda than the organizers.
They also plan to demand that all TV channels in Mexico show the next debate between the country’s presidential candidates as the first debate was shunned by TV Azeca and Televisa and replaced by a soccer match and the talent show Pequeños Gigantes.
They also plan to demand that all TV channels in Mexico show the next debate between the country’s presidential candidates as the first debate was shunned by TV Azeca and Televisa and replaced by a soccer match and the talent show Pequeños Gigantes.
In what can only be described as a global uprising, on the other side of the planet in Nigeria students protest for their right as well, their story can be found at Fox News, but the highlights go like this:
A senior police officer threw stones back at the students in between firing tear gas canisters.
At least one student became overcome by the gas and had to be carried away. Officers briefly detained one of the students.
After firing the tear gas, police attempted to broker a truce by buying angry students and the unemployed men drinking water in plastic bags and offered money to help bring a disc jockey to turn the protest into an impromptu block party.
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