*to Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Κυνόσαργες

Thursday 24 May 2012

Québec est vraiment une 'société distincte'!

The demonstrations in the street in Montréal have made American news.  Here's the crib-sheet:
- started as protest against tuition increases
- did not have the support of most in Québec since tuition is quite low, and some of the student antics were juvenile
- the Premier of the province brought in a law against concealing one's face on the street (not police, of course)
- N.American Francophones understand the 'security state' and the nature of 'security theater' a lot better than the Anglophones do
And just how is it a 'distinct society'?  It is the only part of Canada:
- that is not American
- votes on social policy, not 'wedge issues'
- has any urban charm
- keeps Canada from better health and lifestyle outcomes than the idiot nation to the south ('idiot nation', not every individual)

There are many more links about the news in Montreal.

Update: fucking pigs 'kettled' the demonstrators.  The purpose of kettling, and the nuisance charges lain on that won't stand up in court, but gain the demonstrators a night in jail, is to take away the right of peaceful assembly.  The correct response is to come out in numbers the police cannot deal with.  Montreal may (please!); Toronto rolled over.

4 comments:

  1. The same thing happened with the occupy movement here in LA. It started as a bunch of peaceful demonstrators, but then turned into a a small group of anarchists that in turn ruined it for everybody.

    I think a better way for the students to have protested the increase in tuition might have been a mass dropout. Schools cant get any money if the students don't show up right?

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  2. Thanks for dropping in.

    In this case it may turn out to be the other way around from Occupy: in Québec it started as one interest group, but expanding into the wider society. The key, sadly for Anglo society, is that most Québecois recognize themselves as part of a wider society, whereas we don't.

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  3. This is either parody, or the Harper base: Caps Lock, "get a life", "get a job", "grow up", "Liberals suck" (actually, they do: not a party I vote for except strategically against the Reform Par... the Conservatives). And a dead link on your name: classy.

    Was it the point of view that threw you off your meds: insistence on the 'rule of law'? Was it the title that was even harder for you to read than plain English?

    http://translate.google.com/#fr|en|Qu%C3%A9bec%20est%20vraiment%20une%20%27soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9%20distincte%27!

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  4. It almost seems like Canada is the testing ground for crowd control. I really did enjoy that one link you posted a while ago that showed one of the police officers working as an agent provocateur (yet, another French word).

    I will now press 'play' and watch the kettling begin.

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