All Posts Tagged With: "Quebec student protests"
What students are talking about today (November 23rd edition)
More Quebec protests, oil debate & democracy at U of T
Nov. 22 protest in Montreal (Graham Hughes/CP)
1. It’s that time of the month again. Several thousand students marched in Montreal Thursday to demand free tuition, despite already winning frozen tuition from the Parti Quebecois government. The demonstration was supported by the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante, whose now-disbanded CLASSE wing was considered the most radical student group during the protests that shut down campuses earlier this year. Speaking of shutting down campuses, some students blocked certain entrances to the Université du Québec à Montréal on Thursday, reports the Montreal Gazette.
2. The University of Toronto Students’ Union’s annual general meeting drew a lot of angry voters who refused to approve the agenda at the beginning of Thursday’s meeting. While most AGMs are poorly attended, students waited in line for hours to get in to this one. Sam Greene, who heads of Trinity College, urged members to not approve the agenda unless the UTSU considers electoral reforms. Corey Scott, vice-president internal for UTSU, told The Varsity that the way students vote showed their “privilege.”
3. There is support among some of Canada’s premiers to ship Alberta oil to Eastern Canada. Two men whose provinces don’t have much oil themselves, Manitoba’s Greg Selinger and Nova Scotia’s Darrell Dexter, say they are interested, and Alberta’s Alison Redford and Quebec’s Pauline Marois agreed Thursday to examine the benefits and environmental effects of such a project.
Continue reading What students are talking about today (November 23rd edition)
Top United Nations official “disappointed” with Bill 78
Watchdog says it’s immoral to mention Canada
United Nations in Geneva by lilivanilli/Flickr
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights included criticism for Quebec’s Bill 78 in the annual report she gave to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday in Geneva, Switzerland.
Navi Pillay expressed “disappointment” in Quebec’s emergency law while outlining similar “concern” about restrictions in Russia and Eritrea.
Bill 78, the emergency law passed by Quebec’s government on May 18, was meant to quell months of student protests that prevented many students from attending classes and led to vandalism of businesses in Montreal.
Continue reading Top United Nations official “disappointed” with Bill 78
Quebec’s new ruling class
An in-depth look at the nightly protests in Montreal
Photo by Roger Lemoyne
For the last month, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Montreal in what might be described as a schizophrenic display of righteous, pacifist outrage and opportunistic violence. Beginning at about 8 p.m. every night since late April, they gather at Place Émilie-Gamelin, a squared-off chunk of grass and outsized public chessboards formerly best known as downtown Montreal’s go-to spot for public drunkenness and illicit drugs. From there, the crowd marches off in a direction chosen by whoever happens to be in front. Purposefully, no one knows where the protest march is going.
The Quebec standoff’s clear loser: taxpayers
Tourists avoid Montreal while policing bill grows
Photo by Fatima Arkin
It’s hard to say who will be the winner in the ongoing struggle between the Quebec government and student activists–but there are already clear losers.
Last Tuesday marked 100 days of protest, and the list of casualties continues to grow: small and medium sized businesses in downtown Montreal are suffering, taxpayers are in for a hefty bill–now estimated to be in the millions of dollars–to pay for police overtime, and the tourism industry is fretting that the images of violence making their way into a growing number of international media will harm the city’s reputation just as high season begins.
Continue reading The Quebec standoff’s clear loser: taxpayers
