Anarchopanda – One of the heros the protest
I have to admit, this really made me smile today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-QWZQou4jE... Read More
Student Protest
Gaetan Maudit reflects on the tuition increases
In case you have been under a rock the last week or two, and you are at all following the student protests here in Québec, this video is a must see. It’s funny and poignantly thoughtful and well worth the 15 minutes (there are also English subtitles for the blokes): [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXx7-eUP84I]... Read More
Cher SPVM/Dear SPVM,
(English text follows the French) Chers membres du SPVM, En 2008, il vous en souvient peut-être, à l’invitation de votre estimée Fraternité déçue de l’offre salariale de la Ville de Montréal, vous protestiez en portant un jean et une casquette de base-ball rouge… Nous, nous en avons gardé un souvenir très précis. Même si vous exigiez alors une plus grande part de nos impôts, nous n’avons pas répondu : en vous aspergeant violemment de poivre en vous pourchassant comme des chauffards avec nos voitures, au risque de vous renverser; en vous attaquant alors que vous étiez attablés à la terrasse d’un bar. Même si une infime minorité d’entre nous avait agi ainsi (il y a toujours quelques pommes pourries…), la dernière chose qu’il nous viendrait à l’esprit serait de défendre un comportement si honteux et d’en rejeter le blâme sur vous! Alors, soit vous n’éprouvez aucune honte, ou vous croyez […]... Read More
Nightly ‘Casseroles’ (pots and pans) Protest
Yet another awesome thing about Québec culture. This is right outside my apartment door: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCVfeKM7vRM] Every night, my neighbours are protesting the Charest government’s tuition increases. To make matters worse, Charest has been totally inept and incapable of coming up with a compromise. So these protests have been happening nightly, and they last for about 10-15 minutes. Here’s a snippet from list night: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9Mv1cTFh4s] This is a wonderful way to protest, and it makes me love where I live even more! There are a bunch of these on YouTube as well, they’re easy to find if you search the French term ‘manifestation casseroles’ Charest, yoouuuuuhooooo!... Read More
Jon Lajoie – Song for the Students
Montreal born and raised comedian/musician Jon Lajoie wrote and shared a song in support of the student protesters. He has also tweeted permission to upload and share it. Although he hasn’t specified the license, I’m going to assume Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. If you are Jon, or if you know Jon and he doesn’t like this, please let me know. You can down load the mp3 version by right-clicking on the link below and selecting ‘Save link as…’ (or something like that, it depends on your browser): Download: Jon Lajoie – Song for the Students You can also listen to the song on SoundCloud here, or watch the YouTube video below. Thanks so much for this Jon! [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL1TBfyZNoA]... Read More
Montreal under siege (video)
An uprising against law 78, a law that requires protesters submit their protest plans 8 hours in advance to the authorities. A law that is considered by many to be draconian (French only) and over reaching (including the Quebec Bar Association and the Canadian Association of University Teachers). [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMXzsbaMY9g] A couple of things were painfully obvious here: the police were not in control of this situation a small group of troublemakers were responsible for most of the violence the crowd (wrongly in my view) allowed these troublemakers to take control of the situation although this was clearly a very difficult and dangerous situation for them, the police behaved very unprofessionally. They were overly aggressive and were taunting and mocking the protesters, further instigating violence. This is sowing disrespect for authority and the law. The people hired to protect us are becoming the enemy, which is toxic to the fabric […]... Read More