The Quebec newspaper La Presse is reporting that at least one student association has now specifically threatened to disrupt the Canadian Grand Prix, which is scheduled to take place on June 10. The story suggested that at a recent meeting of the student bodies approved a resolution to create “a weekend of disruption” aimed at trying to get the race cancelled because it represents “sexist, non-environmental and elitist” values. There are also reports that in recent demonstrations there have been chants referring to the Grand Prix.
Protests in Montreal, relating to planned university tuition fees, have become increasingly violent in recent weeks. Last night police arrested 400 protesters just hours after the Quebec government announced that it would not bargain with the students about tuition freeze, nor about cancelling Bill 78, an emergency law passed on May 18 by the National Assembly of Quebec. This prohibits freedom of assembly, protest, or picketing on or near university grounds, and anywhere in Quebec without prior police approval. The bill also places restrictions upon the right of education employees to strike.
The trouble has been brewing since February when Jean Charest ruling Liberal Party announced plans to increase university fees in Quebec by 75 percent over a period of five years. The students of Quebec went on strike and there were an increasing number of clashes with police, including the use of batons and tear gas by the authorities. The new law has increased opposition to the government as it is seen as an assault on the liberty of the people of Quebec and the use of CS gas and percussion bombs did not help matters.
joeblogsf1 
Let’s see all the Bahrain-esque comments come out in support of Québecois students… not! This is a situation that has been building in seriousness and escalating in confrontation for several months now… the emergency law is quite draconian and many fear that, although it is temporary (2-years) it will remain on the statute book thereby limiting citizen’s rights to free assembly. The GP is an obvious target… last week the students allegedly set off smoke bombs on the metro disrupting morning rush hour considerably (not sure if it was really the students, the separatists, general malefactors or the authorities…). The Québec provincial government has backed themselves into a tidy little hole over this one; though the students, already paying the least amount for university tuition in the whole of N. America, are getting little sympathy from the general population as the increase is only $250 per annum over the next few years. There is a real possibility that the GP could be disrupted quite severely, but, in all probability, the weekend will go off smoothly (though the track will remain bumpy!).
exactly, the local government seems as though it won’t be happy until it’s turned a protest over a minuscule fee increase into something like the aftermath of the martin luther king assassination…… a friend of mine’s been compiling links about the protests http://pinterest.com/anniecorriveau/quebec-student-protest-2012/
Get a life.
just have the race before 2pm and the art students won’t be a problem.
Lol, brilliant! And very true . .
What actually happens when students go on strike?
Petrol still gets pumped. Banks still function. Supermarkets are still stocked.
I don’t get it…
Visit Montreal and you will see for yourself
Been a bit busy in Chicago, also. This could be like France in ’68 any minute. Because who is in charge pissed away generational amounts of capital. Finally my mom is not telling me I’m spendthrift. But I’m personally of the opinion it is going to take three generations to make this up. And when you are starting out in life, have had no experience, that is very scary. I’m happily (mostly) in my fourth decade, and my immediate peers are generally blindfold to the situation, all highly educated. It’s just the age of my parents and their experiences which alerted me, or sensitized me. Simplification, but not far wrong. I reckon these students are fair to be upset. But on another angle, I thought students in general to be a lazy lot, and preferred a job. I think the reality though is I’m a junky for stimuli, and needed a noisy office, as much as I love a library.
That doesn’t mean we are all wrong, though. I just reckon it’s time to pat ourselves down and get going. I am most certainly not accusing anyone here of being lazy, but I have thought about time allocation a lot lately, how to be more productive, because I cannot aim for my aims without a fair sized staff. I have been made miserable advertising for jobs. Bit of energy, commissions load you up years ahead of your paygrade in my game (another reason I bunked higher ed) but stone me, have I not liked a single attitude I encountered. You don’t have to be a genius or a PhD in my job, just able to absorb fast. Which is usually easier when young. Well, the strain took it’s toll, so I’m off to rethink that.
As a Londoner living in Montreal currently…nothing. I was almost late for work one morning as I had to avoid all the riot police in Victoria Square, the helicopters make the office a bit noisy from time to time, and there’s a march outside my house in the evenings, but none are exactly a big deal…
If they shut down the metro it’ll be a pain for everyone, but its only a 3K walk to the circuit, so not much worse than Monza from the bus.
You won’t be able to get a burger though!
FWIW, I pay $25,000 a semester for tuition. What are these sooks complaining about? It’s almost a free ride!!!
What are you complaining about when you can afford that, though? You really couldn’t be poor to go to my school. Even the scholars, who got a discount were well off. Pretty sure half the parents second mortgaged their houses, though.
Still, eff me, that’s some inflation. Is it worth it? Or have the schools oversold themselves? I read over the past say 15 years, of school after school spending hundreds of millions on new campuses and facilities. Is that truly needed? Do you need to live in luxury before you can earn a penny? No, I do not mean skimp on lab kit, etc., that’s wrong. But just look at who Harvard is run by, or was, absolute pretension. Incidentally, my pal lives like a monk because he has two brilliant kids at Stanford. So I have some insight, both sides, his kids are great, and deserve a proper education. But the money is simply astounding, and I think poor value. Man in his 50’s, highly talented, almost on his financial knees. That is simply not fair. My father made tremendous sacrifices, also, for paying my way, but not to this extent.
Tuition in what ? Alchemy ?
My pal is paying out 6 figures for his two. They are no way ungrateful, try to earn to pay him back – not accepted/ He’s the only person I can point to and say workaholic and truly mean it. Compared to that, my school has hardly inflated the fees in 20 years. They missed the top academic stats maybe two years (by one place) in living record. I’d call that good management, not the going rate. I’m a lucky bastard to have been taught where they call out bullshh by tradition. I’m sure there are other good cultures too, but what we had was ingrained irreverence for a foundation dating to 1179. You felt free, so you thought freely. I loved the place because I was so outclassed, but just about able to get by. I was also convinced I’d never get better anywhere else. Buggers expelled me for not applying to Ox or Cam. Stats do matter. (this was a defining political in fight, in my life, costing my housemaster his career also, he went on leave, and I lost my political backing, because I was slacking, but he lost far more. I owe that man, I never swore so much at anyone as him.)
My point is, education should never be commercial, it should be about the minds and the community. Not everyone can go to the Ritz for tea, but there ought to be the chance, and it should be bounded as little as possible by money. Just some money is necessary.
Agreed. We’re living in a society of debt. Want a house? Go into debt. Want a car? Go into debt. Want a higher education? Go into debt. Want to buy a new pair of shoes? Go into debt with your handy little credit card.
It’s terrible that learning now has a monetary cost to it, and not a small one either. Education shouldn’t be solely for the financially privileged, but for anyone that is capable of learning.
I am thankfully debt free. Someone needs to go break the fallacy that good credit ratings come from being in debt. I don’t have so much bother now, but the bleeding banks think I’m no good because I don’t owe them a penny! (and never leave them a float – you can live on averting that)
I owe my life to my old man being a very very smart banker. But he was genuinely modest, not greedy. He could have been stinking rich. I actually held that against him, once, so he cut me off and we didn’t speak for years. Fair play, good lesson. How I got back in touch – anonymous actuarial reports on pension funds. The devious bugger tracked me down by postage stamp patterns, and called my bluff. I have approx. 100K pages here in how the Halifax Soc. (Thrift) plundered their pensioners when they floated. Some of it condemning, from their then CEO.
I think the moment I realized I had to team up with my late partner, was when he said, “No, John, if I am going to owe the bank anything, I shall owe them so much they have to take me to lunch and call me by my first name”. Bit naughty, but realistic, and I think he was ahead of that curve. (and never borrowed a penny, in fact, left enough to his old poor-school to rebuild it)
Oh, and who put the word “bank” in bankrupt?
For a laugh, on my only genuine online profile, I put myself down as Banker. I’m so easily mistaken by the pros, it’s an ongoing in- joke.
Sexist? Well, the row of applauding totty before the winners’ podium is beyond naff. And only introduced in the last few years.
Why are household name brands keeping away again?
F1 is the least sexist of all major sports, women can compete on equal terms with the men, unlike in football, cricket, golf, tennis, rugby, baseball, hockey, basketball, athletics, snooker etc, etc, etc, etc.
‘You can lead a student to Uni, but you can’t make them think’
And who is Monisha Kaltenborn? What tosh.
That always just kinda of seemed creepy rather than whatever aesthetic they were going for.
My (then) GF took a job doing something highly similar. Oh, how I wish I could recall and traduce the pithy disdain she reported back. Let’s just say, we got more laughs per ogle, out of it.
Good point on the advertising though. But remember the Orange Arrows girls, e.g. at Spa? So it just got more organised. Though you could infer desperation.
Yeah, quite agree with that. It’s simply embarrassing. Doubly so when your then-girlfriend’s 9-year-old son, whom you’re trying to get into F1, asks you why the clapping people are all girls…
Anyway, am grimly amused by the idea of a Liberal Party revoking the right to protest and free assembly. The Henry Kissenger Nobel Prize award for irony, right there…
It’s definitely sexist. Why don’t they allow men? There should be grid-boys too. This is an outrage. Equal objectification for all, I say!
Problem is, being straight male, there’s so few men I suddenly think honestly, my, they are handsome. Some people just have a look. Tell me a young Greg Peck is ugly, e.g. Now we have a new problem, if you get picky as to the Grid Guys (that ought to be a camp band name!) Kimi will never comes across as hard again. I can see this going all wrong 🙂
…but the cars are hybrids! Clearly they’re environmentally friendly. Just need Danica to make the switch, and we’ll be two-thirds of the way there! 😉
First, when I was a student 250$ was a fortune and even with the time passed nowodays it counts in a student budget. And you know what happened when you start increasing costs…
But what I wanted to say more, is that we have to understand that our favorite sport, in a time of deep global crisis is not the most important thing for all people. I have been a fan and following F1 and motorsports for more than half a century without discontinuity. But I can understand that in some occasion and circumstances it could appear to most other people as a futile, elitist, out of time game.
I perfectly understand what you mean that it counts in a student budget. There is less money left over to buy Xbox, iphone, designer jeans and to go clubbing.
Hmm, when I was in university, I didn’t have a tv, no cell phone (let alone a smart phone), my jeans rarely cost more than $40, but I did go out every week to a specific bar… however, it had no cover and I drank water all night, so i got a night’s entertainment for roughly $5-6 in tips.
Sure, there are the students that drop $10k+ on clothes each season, but something tells me they’re not the ones protesting.
Students going on strike? The removal of non-labour! 🙂
It should be noted, as my understanding, that a 75% increase in tuition over the next five years will bring the province of Quebec up to about the same fees as the rest of the country.
The French – and I guess by extension the poor man’s Frenchie, the Qubecois – really do hate their free ride being taken away from them don’t they?
This is a pretty racist comment.
That statement says a lot about you and nothing about the issue.
Now you are being discriminatory, you didn’t bash the New Orleans’ French and their patois. I feel sorry for the Québécois now, because I recall one of their lot pitching a sale to someone who spoke a creole* and cussing profoundly for a good half hour about the other side’s “devolved” language. There’s such a long list of French creole speaking nations, I am sure you could have found someone “lower”.
* creole is a nativised or pastiche tongue. It does not refer to any people, or peoples. Or as I can never forget, someone asking if I was speaking Gaelic to Joe! You might be interested in a far more useful description, because it encompasses a lot of our speech here: Koiné language.
I think my point is, that if you mean to insult, practise harder . .
…and that’s a good thing? More people should be saddled with debt before they start making money in their careers? Do you have financial interests in a bank?
Seems to me that the gov’t has lost control of the situation. Protestors have completly ignored the new emergency laws. If it’s not over by GP weekend then any visitors hoping to enjoy downtown Montreal will be out of luck. This has been going on for 100 days and it may just be a matter of time before something goes wrong. Police have been dealing with protestors for 3 months now. I expect they are all feeling the strain. It doesn’t sounds like the protestors, which now includes more than students are going to be going anywhere. The other big summer event is the Jazz Festival in Montreal. We though about going but if the protests are still gong on in July we won’t since the Jazz Fest is a downtown event.
Give them lots of freee beer and they’ll be too p%$&^^ed to carry on.
Compared to Bahrain, this is not even worth wasting kilobytes on. Not a knock on you Joe, you report them as they unfold and you continue to do it well.
Ignore the tykes tossing their toys out of their subsidized prams and go race.
“The new law has increased opposition to the government as it is seen as an assault on the liberty of the people of Quebec and the use of CS gas and percussion bombs did not help matters.”
Sorry, Joe, but that is just not true. There is a majority of support for the actions of the Quebec government and very little sympathy for the students.
Did I say that the population was in favour? If you are going to question my comments, at least read them first.
From where I am (in Montreal) the population is against the law. A recent poll showed 78% of Quebeckers opposed to it. The demonstrations have only gotten larger since it’s passing. The N.Y. Times ran a piece denouncing this legislation. You got it right Joe. Hoping to see you in Montreal.
Was it an actual poll or an internet poll of folks that share the political views you’ve expressed repeatedly in the comments?
A quick search reveals the answer:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1182453–massive-crowd-gathers-for-protest-in-downtown-montreal
“A new poll by Leger Marketing shows that Quebecers are equally divided when it comes to the emergency law, at 47 per cent on each side.
Still, 61 per cent were for the part of the new law that requires them to inform police of a demonstration’s itinerary.
Underscoring Quebecers’ skepticism over the end of the conflict, 73 per cent said that the law would not lead to social peace.”
Which calls into question all the other statements you’ve made about the protests.
Well, now I’m not sure if you read your own post.
Damn the western media! We need locals on the ground or I don’t believe there are any protests 😉
Formula one can be an agent of change and bringing people together! For instance I hear Bernie has a few quid he could pay the students increased fees in order to buy a peaceful weekend?
As long as the Quebec authorities don’t hire John Yates I think we’ll be fine though.
And yes don’t worry I know this comment was very silly…
As a montrealer and an avid F1 fan, I would like to give my point of view about the protest and its treat to the GP.
First, any comparison to Barain is ridiculous. You cannot compare protest for human rights in a middle eastern dictatorship with a students protest in a north american democratic country.
I know its easy and tempting to judge a society and a social movement without really understanding what is really going on.
The Quebec PM has been in power for almost 10 years. The first 5 was as a minority government, meaning he needed the opposition support to pass laws. He got a majority government 5 years ago thanks to a divided opposition. Now fully in control of the
government, he has been selling public assets and giving out public contracts at inflated price to the party’s friends and contributors. There has been so much corruption scandal in the last 2 years I could go on for many pages.
So as a mean to take some heat off from all the corruption scandal, he decided to hike the tuition fee by 75%. As planned the student went crazy and took the street. what a great diversion.
Some will say(especially the “rest of canada”) that we are paying the lowest tuition in North America. Its true. We are also the most taxes in North America. As a society we decided to pay more taxes to provide the member of our society and those in need a better life.
So its been over 100 days of protest now and the PM is still not even open to considering discussing the tuition hike. This is an election year and before the protest, he had no chance of been re-elected.. that not the case anymore.
To get back at the protest, I witness it almost everyday and I support it. The only violence is between the protesters and the police, no one else. The city is still extremely safe. The “smoke bomb” incident in the subway was a joke. It could have been dealt with in 10min but the authorities made a big show of it and closed the subway for 2 hours. I don’t think getting 2 hours late to work will cause post-traumatic stress disorder as written in the pro-gov local newspaper.
As for the race, I don’t think they will be able to cancel it. They may be able to cause some disruption but its very easy to control access to the island were the GP is help.
I hope everything goes well for the GP weekend.
Nice perspective. I totally agree.
well they wont get any popular support for everybody in their senses treat anarchist or “indignant” rallies as they really are, a waste of time and money. and this is just a mild assessment on the reasoning behind those marches.
I pay a lot of taxes here in Montreal, I don’t necessarily agree on how this money is spent , in fact I would pay even more for better healthcare, education, elder care etc etc.
And I would also welcome a more proactive attitude from universities in going out attracting private funding, I would welcome a lot of different ways of doing things but seeing metro service often interrupted by “democracy defenders” makes me sick, its starting to get on my nerves.
i lived under communism my first 18 years , I think I could evaluate what real chances the “rotten capitalist” system provides, share a few thoughts with them. I suspect an acute lack of interest though 🙂
“seeing metro service often interrupted by “democracy defenders” makes me sick, its starting to get on my nerves.”
It happened once.. take a deep breath, relax and get over it.
I have some sympathy with the Quebecois students – back in the mists of time, (albeit in the UK) I got my university education for free, and I think my taxes should be increased if necessary to provide the same for the current generation. But the idea that disrupting a Grand Prix helps make that point is beyond puerile. Last I checked, FOM didn’t have a policy on higher education…
For young Quebecois inculcated into believing it is their duty to fulfill the tenets of “The Quiet Revolution” of two generations past this is their “summer of 68”. They will take pride in their struggle to become Greece for the rest of their days.
I recommend this short analysis:
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/05/24/barbara-kay-quebecs-mindless-mobs-reflect-frenchenglish-divide/
Where the hell do all these crazy hippies come from?
I’m not so much concerned with the protest over the tuition hikes. I don’t think they (the tuition hikes) are really all that bad. What concerns me are the totalitarian anti-protest laws enacted. To me, the Quebec government is simply treating the ‘symptom’ (protest) and indicates how out of touch with reality/society many governments of today have become. If the student protesting (left unchecked) is really that disruptive and unpopular, then the general populace will soon turn against them and the movement will fizzle. That the situation has not fizzled to this point, indicates to me that there is far more involved below the surface, most likely a weak Quebec government on it’s last legs.
Enacting laws like this (which are eerily similar to the protest ‘laws’ in places like China) simply aggravates the situation and only serves to provoke. This is not the October Crisis of 1970 when the government enacted martial law to root out the FLQ terrorists in Quebec. These are a bunch of whiny students with not much else to do now that school’s (mostly) out. I’d like to think that a government that was less desperate and more intelligent could come up with a solution far more constructive and progressive than this…
I haven’t been a student for many years now and I don’t live in Quebec. These are just some thoughts of mine as an interested observer on the other coast…
They’ve been going for 100 days now. School wasn’t out when it started.
Maybe we shouldn’t complain until we’re paying $25,000 per year like in the US. How does $100,000 of student debt sound to you? Perhaps closer to $150,000, with living expenses accounted for. What a great way to start your career!
$150k in the hole, with a job that’s paying $50k per year… Then you’ve got roughly $10,000 in taxes ($40k left). Those jobs are in areas where your rent will be roughly $20,000 per year if you don’t want a roommate and want to live anywhere near where you work ($20k left). At least $10,000 of that will have to go to your student debt ($10k left). $5000+ for groceries alone ($5k left). What about a car? After buying it, you’d be stuck with at least $3000 in operating expenses assuming you didn’t have to fix anything that breaks. So, you’ve now got $2000 left to buy your car… choose something reliable! That’s going to make it tough to have much of a life now that your entire paycheque have vapourized.
It’ll also take roughly 20 years to pay that off (with the accrued interest). 20 years of work, just to pay off your student debt! Now you’re 42 years old, net value of zero. Better start saving for a downpayment on a house so you can plunge back into debt and paying interest!
Personally, I like that we have cheaper education in Canada. Personally, I would like to see us move toward free university and college educations, so people don’t have to make career decisions based on what they can afford to learn. I am definitely against the tuition hike, because I want education for my fellow citizens to become more accessible, not less.
I pay 62% headline. (not sure this year’s exact, but that is what I am warned of) If I was not careful, I could be paying marginal 90+%. France has a very silly reputation for bureaucracy, but almost everyone I know thinks it is presently fairer there. Unfortunately, my mom cannot properly follow a French movie, right now. Too long, since, even I am rusty as heck, and my dad was fluent. But there’s something of a movement going on towards those parts amongst who I know. Anecdotal, for sure, also bear in mind the French may have to pay more tax soon, if they are in trouble. But it has been real talk about my way. I was staring out the window at Canary Wharf in the gentle thin glow of dusk, and all I could think of was “if only I could afford a million buck tax department, I might be able to enjoy here”.
I think the real thing, is we should load up the tax at a certain age. Most people I know can afford it. Do the arithmetic how much my mate has to score to afford 100K in school fees! It’s just killing him. It’s so bad, we’d all better think of pooling resources. And yet both he and I have been targeted by nasties thinking we are a plum target in the last year.
Time it to when it won’t cripple. Give people a break, back load the cost. But like everyone is saying, starting in this world in tremendous debt is a criminal thing. Otherwise, when you have the most energy you could pay good tax and save for your hopeful future family. Pay back in when you hit career peak.
The protests are bound to last for a while. They’ve spread out from just being about tuition and anything the government does just seems to egg them on (the new law is a little overboard, IMO, but I understand why they did something). I was at the race two years ago and it would be pretty simple for people to disrupt transportation to the race should they choose (i.e. more smoke-bombs). The race is on an island and almost everyone takes the one (two?) subway line(s) to get to the race. Race personnel should be fine as they’ll have their own transport (and good security). The off-island festivities are bound to be compromised though.
Those that are attending, if things might get disrupted, plan to be really early and keep alternative transportation in mind (i.e. having to walk over bridges instead of taking a subway to the island if they’re closed). Just my suggestion.
BTW, (and I’m not taking sides, I’m just telling what I know), the government had proposed to spread-out the increased from 5 to 7 years a few weeks ago (which the student leaders agreed to but was rejected by the students). They really aren’t budging much more and it’s a shame. Personally I’d like to see more by way of student loans (although the system is pretty good already; it can use some tweaking), but that’s just me. I just accepted the tuition as a part of life along with taxes and got a job to pay of my student loans.
Does this mean it will be dangerous to go to Super Sexe? Isn’t that more sexist than F1? After all motorsports is one of the very few sports where there is no distinction between men and women competitors. Looks like it’s a case of there’s a big event coming to down. Let’s disrupt it to bring attention to our cause. It doesn’t really have anything to do with motor racing.
What the hell has this got to do with formula one racing, shove off to the goverment buildings, its their problem. f1 has problems of their own, thank you very much!!!!
there was 250 000+ people in the streets last tuesday and everything was fine, no violence or vandalism. There are daily protest marches held during the evening which are on a smaller scale and are more problematic, those are immediately declared illegal since the special law was adopted last week and at around midnight it usually turns ugly. Today I believe will be the 32th consecutive evening protest, so unless the mass arrests manage to discourage people very quickly I think there is a strong possibility of the GP weekend being disturbed.
About the smoke bombs in the Metro; so far this has been a single isolated incident, it was only 4 people and frankly they looked a few sandwiches short of a picnic as the security cams easily identified them. Obviously the Metro is an obvious target if the GP is to be disturbed, though.
Unless something changes, visitors can expect the nightlife downtown to look quite different as there will be heavy police presence and likely they will lockdown some entire blocks or streets to prevent the protests from disturbing the people partying. Last night was a rehearsal for this and the police surrounded a big chunk of people, which is how they managed to arrest 400 people.
I never thought it would get to a situation like this in Montreal when Joe hinted at it during the Bahrain events, but here we are..
F1 is sexist now? HA! Is that why Monisha Kaltenborn now owns a third of Sauber? If you’re going to use something as a backdrop for protesting at least know your subject
ever heard the phrase “the exception proves the rule”?
Now my enjoyment of F1 makes me a bourgeois, baby seal clubbing misogynist? Well, okay then. Suddenly, I have the tiniest urge to buy a big goddamned yellow Hummer…with a Rhino guard. By the way, is there a NASCAR support race up there on that weekend?
the law does not limit speech, asembley, or protest, what it demands is 8 hours notice of the protest and the route they plan to take through the city. reasonable if you ask me.
I just want to frame this a bit differently. I am the mother of a student at the University of Montreal.
There are 400,000 post-secondary students in QC. 70% or 280,000 have NEVER been involved in the protest because their CEGEPS (our junior colleges) are among the 30 (of 48) who did not vote to boycott classes or 7 (of 18) universities whose did not sign on. Of the remaining 11 universities, many are only PARTIALLY affected, meaning several faculties (like law at University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM) who saw their classes interrupted by masked protesters last week) voted AGAINST boycotting and have completed the semester. Of those who are boycotting, many of the student associations have not divulged their number of For and Against and total number of eligible voters, results. For those that did, I did the calculations and they range from less than 1% of population voting (Concordia) to highs of 33%. Hardly a province wide consensus. The facts matter in this story.
My daughter voted several times against the student boycott. While her faculty did ultimately decide to join the boycott, classes were not cancelled and when she tried to enter her university building (or was with other students not supporting the action) they were harassed, intimidated and threatened by other students. This was a province-wide issue. Students in schools who were NOT involved in any way in supporting the boycott, were prevented from going to school.
Bill 78 was enacted by the governing Liberal government to protect the rights of those students who wished to continue going to school. Students who had legitimately voted to stay in school FIRST went to the courts to get injunctions to get through the protesters who were barring entrances to education institutions and physically threatening violence on those who would attempt to cross their picket lines.
The injunctions set up confrontations between police and protesters but the end result was that the school administrators themselves became fearful of violence and cancelled classes.
Bill 78 does a few of things. First, it postpones the semester. Classes for the winter/spring semester will resume in August and run through end of September while fall semesters will begin in October.
Second, it ensures that when classes resume, protesters must stay well back of the school entrances and not deny access to anyone who wishes to enter.
Third, it makes the leaders of protests (and by extension, leaders of any demonstration be it environmental, raging grannies, etc.) required by law to provide the police with 8 hours notice AND the route the protest will take. It is not illegal to protest.You just have to give notice. This is hardly draconian. In fact many major cities and/or countries around the world require advance notice of protests, among them Geneva, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles and Spain – jurisdictions I might add, that require far more than eight hours’ notice — up to 40 days, in the case of Los Angeles. Plus Bill 78 expires in summer 2013.
There is much more I can add, such as the fact that government offered many concessions to the students over the past few months (increased loans and bursaries, tuition increases stretched over 7 instead of 5 years, repayment based on income earned post graduation and much more). The student leaders had in fact signed an agreement in principle with the government on May 4 and the very next day, walked away. The one point the government will not budge on is increase tuition. The cost of increase (if stretched over 7 years) is 254$ per year. Let me frame it this way. In 1969 Quebec students paid 17% of the cost of their education. With a tuition increase and the government program to add to loans and bursaries, in 2012, students will pay…..17% of the cost of their education.
Are there other issues with Bill 78? Yes. Is it worth destroying a city for? Hardly. Issues with Bill 78 need to be settled by the courts, not on the streets.
Yes, things are awful in Montreal. The nightly protests, vandalism and arrests are out of control. But the issue is no longer access to education or tuition increases as the student movement has been infiltrated by the Occupy movement and supported by unions from across the country. And remember, 70% of Quebec students finished or are almost finished school this semester.
In terms of the F1 race in two weeks.
The government has asked the student leaders back to the table. Talks are supposed to begin next week. With any luck the student issue will be well into negotiation when F1 arrives here. I however have doubts. All I can suggest to those coming is to pay attention to twitter #manifencours #ggi and see where the nightly movement is heading or tweet @spvm Montreal police PR who have been doing an excellent job of letting the public know where the protest is moving.
Joe, this mother nails it right on the head. best brief synopsis I have read on the subject, and that includes all our media in the country. Whomever you are, you did a fantastic job.
I’m wondering if we live in the same city. Just about everyone I know supports the strike. I see red squares everywhere. Over 200,000 in the streets last Tuesday. How can you say it’s a minority when thousands have been turning out every night to protest of over 100 days (and counting). On Tuesday people in the offices and stores were cheering as we walked past. Cars were blowing their horns and drivers waving at us in support. At the protests I’ve attended there’s people of all ages and walks of life. Grandparents and babys in strollers. btw I’m 62, not an 18 year student. Viva la revolution!
Tv cameras always film the deepest water when there is a flood…
Very true Joe.. Around 2000 people of all ages took the to the street Wednesday night, Quebec provincial police surrounded and kettled protesters, arresting 518 people. It made front page news. The next day, 3000 people took the streets but only 4 were arrested.. It barely made the back pages of newspaper.
Which keenly illustrates the point that people in the early days of internet discussion learned decades ago when faced with agitators: DON’T FEED THE TROLLS. It’s a lesson, however, that people in authority consistently fail to pay attention to…
A reasonable and rational analysis puts the number at around 100,000…still large, but hardly over 200,000
http://blog.fagstein.com/2012/05/23/protest-crowd-estimation/
Dear Canadian students,
I am making the trip from Australia purely for the GP. Please don’t mess about with my holiday.
Thanks in advance,
Dave
Dear Autralian Dave,
We shall stop ours movement for social change at once. God forbid we spoil your weekend.
JB
PS: Dont worry mate, the race will happen. Just make sure you leave early, it might take a bit longer than plan to reach the race track.
All the universities around the world seem to be accepting misandry as the status quo. And these planned protests based on their reasoning appear to have definite misandric tones. Joe, please help fight misandry. Remember that some of the biggest misandrists out there are men.
According to Stats Canada, average undergraduate tuition fees in Quebec is only 2011 this year Canadian dollars (current prices.) It is going to go up to 2519 next year Candian Dollars (current prices). Out of the 10 provinces of Canada, Quebec is at the lowest rate and will still be the 2nd lowest once this silliness ends in 5 years.
I am from extra door Ontario, where I would have to spend $6316 Candian dollars this year and 6640 next year. Fortuneatly, I have long since past the age of attending University for the first time around, but remember spending $5000 per year easily on just tuition. My point is that it is silly thinking that two years University fees in Ontario can cover a student in Quebec for all five years of university (Assuming the Quebec student is in a Honours programe) and still leave the school not debt -ridden like here in Ontario, but with cash on hand.
AND THEY ARE COMPLAINING?
But that is not all. Ontario is a so called “Have” province, in that something called an equalization program means that a protion of my Federal Tax Dollars goes to “Have Not Provinces” where the Provincal Government can used these FederalTax Dollars in any way the Provincal Government sees fit, like POST SECONDARY EDUCATION (University Funding) And Quebec is a “Have Not” province.
Actually, with the collapse of the manufacturing sector and the downturns in the banking sector, Ontario has been “have not” for the last couple of years. Alberta and the Newfies are picking up the slack…
Since Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is on an island. Instead of disrupting the events on the track itself, the protesters will likely attempt to disrupt circulation on the subway and bridges connecting île Notre-Dame to the city; probably in the manner of hanging a banner on the iconic (and very noticeable) Jacques-Cartier bridge, which is a traditionally used method in Montreal for this type of exposure.
Note, the special law, Bill 78, is set to expire July 1st, 2013.
Formula 1 fans are lucky to have you covering the sport, Joe.
Thank you for passionately mowing the weeds, permitting us the enjoyment of understanding F1 with an unobstructed view.
This needs to be stamped down on hard.
F1 cannot allow itself to be a political football, for any reason.
To see a bunch of pathetic clueless Left Wing Students try to use a F1 race to promote their brand of New Speak Political Correctness is disgusting.
Students are by definition children barely out of school, they get peer pressured and influenced by Left Wing lecturers into believing that they have some great Political insight and that their naive sheep-like political posturing and halfwitted idealism is somehow essential to force on others regardless of any democratic process.
Violence is the answer, all F1 fans should unite and give these young fools a fierce rebuke, keep away from our sport. If the 15M idiots turn up to do anything like this in Spain I will be there to fight them.
One could equally say that the right-wing corporate bankers will do everything they can to get people into a long life of debt. Might as well get them started when they’re young…
It’s tragic that due to a few isolated incidents a government would respond by introducing Draconian measures that violate fundamental freedoms of association, assembly, and expression. Rather than continue with dialogue they are forcing through there mandate by inroducing and passing “Bill 78”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_78
The students are gaining support World Wide as these measures are undemocratic.
The Students are well supported by the general populas. This will not be swept away by Premier Jean Charest refusal to negotiate, as over 100,000 people marched in Montreal on 22 May, marking the 100th day of recent student protests.
My recent visits to Montreal and the Grand Prix were always in admiration at the support by Montrealers. The city was exciting and vibrant. The youth visible and supportive. The recent problems can be solved with an open dialogue and negotiations, as required in a Democracy.
I’ve been an F1 fanatic since 1964. I attended my first GP at Mosport in 1967). I also live in Montreal. And I’m part of the student protests. I’ve been to many of the demonstrations. The violence portrayed by the media is a bit bias. Obviously pictures don’t lie (can we still claim this in the post Photoshop era?). But it’s mainly caused by a minority of anarchists. The same ones who are a major part of out hockey riots (which by the way were far more destructive than what’s happening now – there was massive damage to the downtown core, now it’s mostly trash fires and broken windows. I have not encountered any violence in the ones I attended (a bit lucky).
The protest is no longer about tuition hikes. It’s about OWS. And now that the government has imposed these draconian and repressive laws to try suppress the movement, more and more people are joining in to protest the government’s action. There were over 200,000 in the streets last week to commemorate 100 days of dissent. This was in the afternoon in the middle of the week. People in offices and stores along the protest route were cheering us as we walked past. Cars that were stuck in traffic because of us were blowing their horns in support. the latest tactic is to march through the streets banging on kitchen utensils. These usually turn out to be joyous street parties.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Percussive+protests+mark+illegal+Thursday+night+march+Montreal+with+pots+clanging/6675078/story.html
I supported the boycott of Bahrain. This is not quite the same, even at it’s most violent. There is police brutality, but it’s more likely the police being over zealous and man-handling protesters or beating and pepper spraying innocent bystanders. They ‘re not shooting to kill and they’re not charging into crowds.
As far as disrupting the GP, it’ll be easy enough to do if people want to do it. A few smoke bombs in the metro (subway) shut it down for a few hours a week or so ago (no physical damage, but they had to close the system to air out the smoke). Without the metro there’s virtually no access to the site (of the GP). I love the GP (which along with the Jazz Festival is always the highlight of my summer) and see no reason why it shouldn’t go ahead. And while I don’t feel there’s any real danger in attending I can see a lot of people inconvenienced if the protest does try to interrupt the event.
I honestly don’t know what the situation will be. Hopefully the situation becomes resolved and we return to normal. But personally as much as I love the GP, social justice is more important.
It would be a social injustice if the Grand Prix was affected. Let them complain, but leave F1 alone.
Exactly! 🙂
“a weekend of disruption” aimed at trying to get the race cancelled because it represents “sexist, non-environmental and elitist” values
funny that, I always thought it was a motor race
It will no doubt be heartening to read about students offering to share their beans on toast, pot noodles and vodka with their new media friends. “Such nice people, it really puts it into perspective – I can’t concentrate on Qualifying now when there are bigger issues at stake…”
Shall we all have a debate about what it does for the image of F1? Oh no, it’s Canada. We like Canada.
Clear the schedules, BBC, and make room for lots of Quebecois students on your discussion programmes ranting about injustice, F1 and greed. Fine by us, as it’s in Canada and we like Canada. Hooray.
And these are supposed to be the brightest of their generation.
Looks like were going to be reaming out Canada in all fields over the next 20 years.
Notwithstanding they ‘re probably only 0.5% of 5% of the youth.
I’d love to hear their arguements though.
Just to add my two cents… I went through engineering in Ontario, and ended up with $20k in debt. I have another friend that was at $35k (I was lucky to have parental assistance!). When it adds up over four years, it’s roughly $80k that you shell out.
That said, now we’re stuck with paying that off. Engineering jobs don’t pay the most when you are a new grad, and if there’s a slight shift in the economy, the newbies are the first to be laid off. Several of my friends, even those who have been employed consistently, can’t even afford a house anywhere near where they work.
So while they have it much cheaper than I did, I think it’s great because when they get out of school, they aren’t neck-deep in the red. They can start building a life, rather than scrambling to recover from the financial shell-shock of university.
Better education for all is definitely a good use of my tax dollars, in my opinion.
Thanks for this perspective.
Bloody right, why shouldn’t the protest? They are only the most heavily subsidized province in the country?
Give me a break and get a clue, you little fruits. “Sexist, non-environmental and elitist”, really? Try picking a year when the sport didn’t promote a female driver to HRT, increase the # of races engines and gearboxes need to last, and the fact that the Montreal race is the cheapest race on the calendar. Oh, and if you want to talk about elitist, why don’t you stop pretending you don’t speak the language of the country you’re lucky to be a part of. As a general statement and there are few exceptions, the people in Quebec (specifically those that support this type of behaviour), are the most self-centred and arrogant pricks in our contry.
Jon you are a bigot as indicated by your statements. “… don’t speak the language of the country…”? The last time I looked at the constitution, French was one of the two official languages of Canada. You just showed your ignorance.
“Not all conservatives are stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.”
– John Stuart Mill
Bigot, really? What I meant was the fact that when you go anywhere else in Canada, there are 2 official languages supported and the people in Quebec (specifically Montreal) pretend not to speak English. Whether it be by the people that live there, or the simple fact that the signs on the road are bilingual. This is everywhere EXCEPT Quebec.
While my view is perhaps unpopular, it’s not bigoted. Rather one that I can support by first-hand experience ironically enough by driving from Ontario every year to enjoy the Grand Prix. While I realize it’s not pleasant to read, it is true like it or not.
Based on the simple notion of this article (i.e. the planned disruption and why), it clearly supports my opinion and comments and I stand by them.
I’m not political in any way whatsoever, but if I were I would be liberal.
Hi Joe,
I would like to share 2 videos about the peaceful side of the protest movement in Montreal. I think its important to understand that its not only student anymore and that there is NOTHING to fear.
Cheers
JB
Yes. Yes. This has been my experience with the protest. Joyous street parties. And over 200,000 marching peacefully on May 22. Visiters are more endangered by police over zealousness than the protesters. Maybe instead of talk of disturbing the GP we can incorporate the GP as part of our party to bring down this government.
Canada has just ok’d a law, that allows MASKED protesters, to be shot.
the situation should be “smoothend out” by june.
cheers!