Want To See What A Real Protest Looks Like? (Biggest Canadian Protest Ever!)

Hello ATS,

This happened to my city (Montréal, Québec, Canada) on March 22nd, and I'm very upset I couldn't make it there.

The website is written in french, just wait for the ad to end, then the video will automatically start:
Timelapse of huge 200,000+ protest

So the context is that the government decided to raise the tuition fees up 75% in just 5 years. The students decided they would be boycotting their classes, and now there are about 300,000 students NOT going to their classes at all, teachers even joined the movement. There are about 500 000 students, so that makes 3 students out of 5.

In this protest, now the biggest in Canada's history, about 200 000 to 300 000 people showed up to protest against the sudden raise in fees. What's so perfect about it? Not a single arrest, not a single sign of violence, no damage done anything. NOTHING, even Montréal's MSM (that are heavily against the protest, of course ) couldn't find anything to discredit the movement. There was a difference of about 90 minutes between the front and the back of the crowd.

This should be an example for the whole world, this should be how every single protest is done. Those saying the world isn't changing are wrong, the new generations are taking back their sovereignty, the kids are fighting what their parents never dared to.

Look around, everywhere there are protests. Times, they're a changing!

reply to post by Gab1159

It looks like one hell of a party protest! The fact that the teachers joined in lends much credence imho. Unfortunately the raising of the price of education to exorbitant levels seems to be a global thing.

There was recently a heart-wrenching (well I thought it was, ymmv) post here on ATS by a young man with a 5 zeros figure debt facing expulsion due to one or two bad grades who was most despondent about his situation. It's very sad that people would rather see your money than your intellectually educated progress in life. I don't know who is to blame but it never used to be like that. Perhaps it is a dumbing down attempt of TPTB against regular working people? Are we getting to uppity for them? I hope the protest helps but I fear it wont.

reply to post by LightSpeedDriver


In this case, it will imo.

Here's the situation. Most of the students aren't going to their classes anymore, and this is an official striek, meaning the teachers don't have the right to teach, according to the law.

The many different student associations in charge of this strike have been saying for weeks now (it's been going on for about 4-5 weeks now) that they won't back down, and that the strike will continue until the government backs down.

Now the government is threatening to cancel the whole session, but it's just that: a threat. The truth here is that the govt. only has intimidation as their tool to stop the strike, because they can't "cancel" a session. Economically and practically, you can't do that. How will you teach 1,000,000 students instead of 500,000? Students will have to take their session again, meaning that there will be twice the amount of students for a giving class, because the students that were supposed to graduate the session before did not. You can't do that, and the students know it.

There's another thing as well: a lot of hard science (such as medicine, physics, etc) have joined the protest, and these are the critical students that have a lot of symbolic power.

I do believe this time the government has no choice, it must back down. With Twitter and Facebook, students are just too well informed (it has now reached a political crisis here...so everyone's talking about it), they know the government CAN'T cancel the session and it's just a threat.

This is truly some interesting times!

reply to post by Gab1159

I certainly hope you are right for all the Canadian people. But, just for my info, has Canada ever invited foreign nations to their shores like the UK did back in the 50's with people from the Caribbean or Holland did at roughly the same time with people from Indonesia, Turkey and Morocco? Outsourcing, off-shoring and down-sizing are unfortunately very much the buzzwords of our day and in times of crises the government will do whatever it deems necessary using your money. Just a thought...

reply to post by LightSpeedDriver


You mean if we have a lot of immigrants?

If that is the question, yes, Canada is pretty open when it comes to immigration. Montréal is the second place of choice for immigrants when they come to Canada.

reply to post by Gab1159


I posted about this a couple days ago. When the students blocked a major commuter bridge, the day before the big protest, police also ramped up tactics and have used chemical sprays against the demonstrators.

Montreal has been very lucky having their tuition so low and frozen for so long. Now they are on the way to being up to the levels of the rest of the province. I wish we could have free education like England, France & other countries.

reply to post by Gab1159

Sorry, I did indeed mean immigrants. The UK invited colony members back in the day to fill "unwanted" jobs that supposedly the natives weren't interested in, as did Holland. Apologies for the confusion.

Originally posted by LightSpeedDriver
reply to post by Gab1159

 

Sorry, I did indeed mean immigrants. The UK invited colony members back in the day to fill "unwanted" jobs that supposedly the natives weren't interested in, as did Holland. Apologies for the confusion.

Yes, indeed, economically it is a problem, because it doesn't encourage local economy. As much as I like having a multi-cultural city, I do believe the locals should be the priority, not immigrants.

reply to post by knoledgeispower


IMO, the "free education" is something very hard to achieve without a substancial tax raise. The problem is that Quebec is only a province, not a country. Half of the taxes we pay on the income is going to federal government and the education isnt covered by them.

The examples provided are always for countries, not a province or a state itself.

After thinking a lot, i came to conclusion that free education would be achievable in 2 scenarios :

- Free education for all Canadians in every provinces and federal government would have to play a role in that.

- Quebec gets out of the Canada and we manage all the income taxes ourselves. That way, we would be able to provide free education without bleeding the tax payers to death.

Peace out.

Originally posted by knoledgeispower
reply to post by Gab1159

 

I posted about this a couple days ago. When the students blocked a major commuter bridge, the day before the big protest, police also ramped up tactics and have used chemical sprays against the demonstrators.

Montreal has been very lucky having their tuition so low and frozen for so long. Now they are on the way to being up to the levels of the rest of the province. I wish we could have free education like England, France & other countries.

I don't understand what you mean by "Montreal has been very lucky having their tuition so low and frozen for so long. Now they are on the way to being up to the levels of the rest of the province" .

The fees are the same for the entire province. Maybe you meant :

QUEBEC has been very lucky having their tuition so low and frozen for so long. Now they are on the way to being up to the levels of the rest of the COUNTRY.

Am I wrong?

Peace out.

reply to post by Gab1159

I'm an immigrant too (check my avatar region) but after having lived here in Holland for so long, I'm just like a native and I do expect (and deserve) the same rights, freedoms and opportunities as the natives. Not that I get them but that's another matter. After 50 years and a generation more, my children if I had them would automatically be Dutch citizens also. This is the "danger" if you will of immigration. You can't just use people when you need them and then discard them when you don't. It's not fair. The only thing I may not do here is vote in a national election, for the rest, I might as well be Dutch.

On another note, if ever I can afford a world trip, Canada would be the only North American place I would be prepared to visit due to the US's border policies and all the TSA crap. I don't like anyone groping me unless it is consensual. According to Wiki you have one of "the most livable city in the world" but uh...my French is really bad. Je voudrais une Biere sans Ice Hockey sil vous plait? (I don't like its violent image but that could just be a stereotype I get from the movies)

reply to post by LightSpeedDriver


Hehe, indeed, your french isn't really good

But i bet my english isn't really good either.

You can manage to come in Montreal while not speaking a word of french. About more than 50% speaks english there. So don't let the language barrier prevent you from living a wonderful time

Peace out.

Our cops would just unleash weaponized drones.

Seriously though, good for you guys getting it together like that. I hope you're all able to reach your goals.
Solidarite avec Montreal.

They must have borrowed some citizens from other countries to fill out that quota.

reply to post by knoledgeispower


England doesn't have free university tuition. It costs £9000 a year.

Originally posted by MisterFister103
They must have borrowed some citizens from other countries to fill out that quota.

I don't get it, what do you mean? That there isn't 200k students in Quebec?

Peace out.

Originally posted by bigwig22

Originally posted by MisterFister103
They must have borrowed some citizens from other countries to fill out that quota.

I don't get it, what do you mean? That there isn't 200k students in Quebec?

Peace out.

It's a joke about my perceived lack of population in Canada......

Didn't know they had that many people.

Alright so it's not that funny, it's all I had.

reply to post by Gab1159


Yes. Very peaceful, very large, very nice..

Nothing will be done about the fees though, huh?

Originally posted by Rockpuck
reply to post by Gab1159

 

Yes. Very peaceful, very large, very nice..

Nothing will be done about the fees though, huh?

If the strike continues, the government will have no choice. This is a very particular situation in which the people has more power than the government.

As I said, they can't cancel a session, it's unmanageable, both logistically and economically. That's why the students are very confident.

And as a matter of fact, the same happened in 2005. The government wanted to raise the fees, the students protested, and the government did back down and cancelled the project because they had no choice. Different time, same matter.

Originally posted by bigwig22
reply to post by knoledgeispower

 

IMO, the "free education" is something very hard to achieve without a substancial tax raise. The problem is that Quebec is only a province, not a country. Half of the taxes we pay on the income is going to federal government and the education isnt covered by them.

The examples provided are always for countries, not a province or a state itself.

After thinking a lot, i came to conclusion that free education would be achievable in 2 scenarios :

- Free education for all Canadians in every provinces and federal government would have to play a role in that.

- Quebec gets out of the Canada and we manage all the income taxes ourselves. That way, we would be able to provide free education without bleeding the tax payers to death.

Peace out.

edit on 26-3-2012 by bigwig22 because: typo

Yes, I would have to agree with you. At this very moment, free education can't be reached. Maybe in the future, if Québec becomes the leading province, which is very unlikely...

But I believe there is a lot of crap in the educational system to cut before taking money from the students' pockets. The Québec government needs to put the money where it should be, not in their elite friends pockets. The whole conspiracy/corruption that is going on in our province is slowly getting exposed, I like it.