The mood seemed so festive. All the protesters looked like they were having a great time. It wasn’t just the main march, there were impromptu marches and people banging on pots and pans all over the city. While I caught some reports of police repression in Quebec City, what was happening in Montreal was the very definition of a peaceful protest. I went into the kitchen to make a snack. When I came back, the mood had changed…
Category: Politics
400 000 in the streets? Quebec’s students are winning…
I started to realize the immensity of the day four or five blocks away when the sidewalks on both sides of the street were packed with one way traffic. Arriving at Place des Festivals at 2PM on the dot, I found a sea of humanity as far as the eye could see. The entire Place, from St. Catherine to Président Kennedy, was packed too densely to allow much navigation. I made my way to a raised photographer’s platform…
Bill 78 Denounced as ‘police state stuff’ by McGill professor
In the opening line of his analysis of bill 78, professor Jacob T Levy ( McGill University, political theory professor), makes a puzzling statement about this extreme measure. “Special law is every bit the contradiction in terms that ‘student strike’ is. Emergency decrees and bills of attainder aren’t laws, and I won’t be referring to Bill 78 as a law except in scare quotes.”
New poll is bad news for Charest in his battle with students
Ethan Cox is a former news editor with Forget The Box and he is currently heavily involved in politics and trying to change the world. […]
Bill 78: Quebec Clamps Down on Democracy
A few weeks ago I wrote about the student strike in Quebec and its importance. Now it seems after months of ignoring student demands to rescind planned tuition hikes, the Charest Government has gone from keeping its ears closed to students to putting a zipper on the mouths of everyone…
Bill 78: We are all red squares now
It doesn’t matter what you think about the protest against tuition fee hikes, this isn’t about accessible education anymore. Now, everyone in Quebec’s right to protest, organize and express themselves freely is at risk. As of last night, people’s right to just go out and have a good time is at risk, too. Friday, after a last-minute 48 hour session of the Assemble Nationale, the Charest government passed Bill 78…
I’ve seen the future, brother…but so has Jean Charest
Jason C. McLean on the newfound passion in people like Jean Charest and Gerald Tremblay and how it shows that the Quebec student strike is about so much more than a few hundred dollars in tuition increase, it’s about the future…
Austerity in Europe
I’ve said for years that if a country tries to put austerity into practice for an extended period of time, an eventual revolution will be the outcome. In Greece and France this past week that is essentially what happened. I have no doubt there is more to follow. France elected Francois Hollande of the Socialist Party last week…
MCA & Me
Anyone who knew either of his names knows by now about the passing of 47 year old Beastie Boy Adam “MCA” Yauch. He passed away last Friday after a three year battle with cancer.
Looking back, I find it hard to uncover a bigger musical or political influence in my life then that which the Beastie Boys left. Adam Yauch of course had a big part in that.
The truth about proposed anti-mask laws unmasked!
With all the protesting going on these days, Montreal has become a veritable political theatre for all manner of agitprop and self-expression. Of course, no anti-whatever rally would be complete, these days, without the requisite Guy Fawkes masks, bandanas worn as masks, balaclavas (aka ski masks), etc. What do all of these things have in common? Wearing them may soon be a criminal offense punishable by jail time (up to 5 years!)…