Among
Protesters in Montreal, Visions of BC Unrest
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Bill Tieleman in protest march on Mount Royal Avenue in Montreal,
Saturday June 2, 2012 |
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| Bakers come out of boulangerie kitchen to join in the protest! |
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Xavier Ovando wears toilet plungers as ear muffs to dampen
the noise of pots and pans noise! |
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Residents living above a restaurant show support.
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Even nuns come out to support the protest.
All photos by Bill Tieleman |
Columnist Bill Tieleman dives into Quebec's pot banging "casserole" student and community revolt and files this
dispatch.
Tuesday June 5, 2012
By Bill Tieleman
"This
isn't a student strike, it's a society waking up."
- Banner
at Montreal protest June 2, 2012
MONTREAL - As
the "casserole" protest with banging pots and pans took over
Montreal's historic Mount Royal Avenue, first it was Dollarama store clerks who
came out to applaud the marchers.
Then
it was bartenders and servers standing in their doorways to cheer on 7,500
protestors braving the Saturday afternoon rain.
They
oppose not just a 75 per cent tuition fee hike for students but also the Quebec
Liberal government's draconian Bill 78, legislation that makes demonstrations
of more than 50 people illegal unless police approve in advance.
Next
came chefs from boulangeries and patisseries in white uniforms, bringing their
own kitchenware to add more noise to the rally.
Residents
joined in, unfurling red blankets out apartment windows to match the trademark
red square -- carre rouge -- on protestors' clothing, the official sign of
support for students.
But
I heard the biggest applause when several nuns in blue habits came out of their
church to support the march.
Protest
grown beyond tuition, any maybe borders
Whatever
happens in the biggest and longest student protest in North America in decades,
it is clear that Quebec is facing significant change that could bring about the
defeat of the Charest government and more.
And
the protest is no longer simply about tuition fee hikes that would increase per
student costs by $1,625 a year -- an annual jump of $325 over five years,
according to government figures.
That
would hike Canada's lowest tuition from $2,168 to $3,793, plus mandatory
institutional fees.
But
student groups argue it's even more
-- going from $2,890 including those mandatory institutional fees, to $4,700.
Either
way, as one McGill University professor pointed out
in the Montreal Gazette, Charest paid less tuition when he was a university
student in Sherbrooke in the 1970s than today's students are charged in today's
dollars -- before any fee increase.
The
government's plan to increase student debt load to reduce its own deficit is
what triggered the red squares seen on clothing everywhere in Montreal. It
comes from the French carre rouge -- red square -- and the phrase
"carrement dans la rouge" - translating to "squarely in the
red" in reference to the rising cost of an education.
Through
the student activism Quebecers have found a renewed collective sense of power,
a way to display their anger at a government many see as tired, disconnected
and scarred by allegations of
corruption that forced and ongoing public inquiry.
Part of speech (en francaise) by Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois of CLASSE at rally at Parc Jeanne Manse before march. - Bill Tieleman video
Rite
of passage
If
anything, student protests are a tradition in Quebec, which have marked
previous periods of great social change. The 2012 student strike that has now
gone on for 16 weeks marks the ninth such
action since the 1960s in the province.
And
Quebec's past student leaders have carried on to take major roles in the
province, including former premier Bernard Landry, ex-Bloc Quebecois leader
Gilles Duceppe, former cabinet minister Louise Harel and ex-Montreal mayor Jean
Dore.
For
over 40 consecutive nights there has been a "casserole" protest march
through Montreal streets, with students being joined by young families with
children in strollers, seniors, workers and others.
The
concept of banging pots and pans in protest -- previously seen in countries
like Chile under the Augusto Pinochet military dictatorship, when public
demonstrations were too dangerous to hold -- came after Bill 78 was quickly
rammed through the Quebec National Assembly.
Each
night at 8 p.m. residents in Montreal neighbourhoods -- and in Quebec City and
other towns -- go to street corners with pots, pans, wooden spoons and other
kitchen utensils and bang them loudly for several minutes.
For
some, that's the extent of the protest. For others, the 8 o'clock noise is a
signal to march, with crowds converging and diverging downtown amidst a heavy
police presence that has already cost Montreal an additional more than $7
million by just mid-May.
A
catalyst called Bill 78
Bill
78 has been condemned by the Quebec Bar
Association and the Canadian Civil
Liberties Association among other groups and even drew 700 Montreal
lawyers in black robes to stage a silent march from a courthouse to join other
protestors in the streets because it outlaws public demonstrations by more than
50 people unless a route has been submitted to police and authorized at least
eight hours in advance.
Organizations
found guilty of violating Bill 78 provisions face enormous fines of up to
$35,000.
Quebec's
student groups are challenging sections of Bill 78 in court as unconstitutional
in a legal battle that will ensure continued criticism of the government.
After
a massive 300,000 person rally on May 23, police used a controversial "kettle"
maneuver to isolate and arrest about 500 people -- many of them
bystanders and journalists not participating in a night march.
But
since then, both protesters and police have largely ignored Bill 78. Most of
the nightly marches and Saturday's daytime rally were done illegally but police
obliged by escorting the "manifestations" and blocking traffic.
In
some ways, it is very much a literal class war. Students have boycotted classes
and gained the support of Quebec's powerful labour unions, as well as many
professors and teachers.
The
most militant of the student groups fighting the government even has the
acronym CLASSE -- Coalition large de l'association pour une solidarité
syndicale étudiante (The Coalition Large Association for Student Labour
Solidarity, in English) -- and over 100,000 members.
On
the other side Quebec's main business organization, the Conseil du patronat du
Quebec, said a survey of its members found 95 per cent
support for Charest's tuition hikes and 68 per cent backed Bill 78's
restrictions on public demonstrations.
And
hotels are already reporting negative
consequences as tourists avoid Montreal due to the perception --
completely wrong in my experience last week -- that the city is not safe to
visit.
No
stopping any time soon
But
it's understandable that businesses dependent on tourist dollars oppose the
continued protests and just want them to stop, which won't happen.
Their
concern is rising as Montreal prepares for its two biggest tourist attractions
of the summer -- the Formula 1 Grand Prix auto race next weekend, the city's
world renowned jazz festival that runs from June 28 to July 7 and the Just For
Laughs comedy festival July 10 to 29.
The
battle between student groups and a Liberal government that has been beset by
controversy and negative public opinion polls has generated extreme tension on
both sides.
And
even media coverage is being questioned for accuracy. A group of bilingual Quebec
anglophones got so frustrated that national media was providing such different
coverage of the protests than in their province that they set up a translation
service online to provide English Canada with access to Le Devoir, La Presse
and other francophone media.
Titled
"Translating the printemps érable" -- a clever word play on the
"Arab spring" movement in French that substitutes érable (maple) for
Arab -- the website provides a very
different perspective than Anglophone media reporting.
In
either language, Charest initially appeared to be gaining public support by
taking on the students but passage of Bill 78 and the widespread negative
reaction it caused has put his government on edge.
After
high-profile talks in Quebec City between the government and three student
group broke down last Wednesday, Charest went to the media to claim CLASSE had
threatened to disrupt the Grand Prix, worth an estimated $90 million to
Quebec's economy.
"We
are appealing to people who were thinking of disturbing the Grand Prix to
abstain out of respect for Quebecers," Charest said
Friday.
CLASSE
spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois responded that Charest was fear-mongering
and that while students would not give up their protests, their only Formula 1
action would be to inform visitors of their fight.
'We're
in deep...'
"We
are going to hand out information... so that tourists who visit Quebec will
know what’s going on here and so they understand why they see images of
protests on television every day," Nadeau-Dubois told reporters
before Saturday's march.
And
the fiery student leader has accusations of his own against the government.
"Quebec's
public safety minister told me that he could have me arrested. They looked into
every nook and cranny of my past and treated me like I was behind all of the
violence in the street, it went pretty far," Nadeau-Dubois told
Agence France Presse.
The
21-year-old student leader says his parents -- one a former union leader -- are
proud of him but Nadeau-Dubois admitted they are all concerned about possible
financial and legal consequences from his mission.
"As
we say at our place, we're in deep shit," he said.
But
regardless of personal consequences for its leaders, the protests in Quebec may
well have significant impact in British Columbia, other provinces and even
beyond, since student activists in the United Kingdom
and other countries are watching.
Quebec
tuition and student debt is the lowest in Canada, thanks largely to student
militancy and public support that has discouraged successive governments from
raising fees.
And
more may come from the protests than just a tuition freeze or even a change in
government, says Nadeau-Dubois.
"I've
always believed that the great political advances in Quebec occurred because
people mobilized in the streets," he told AFP.
If
Quebec protests succeed in freezing tuition fees, B.C. students may ask why
they pay up to double that province's rates for the same education.
The
clanging of pots and pans may spread to Vancouver and other Canadian cities if
students believe making a noisy "casserole" will save them thousands
of dollars in debt -- and if enough of the public agrees.
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