Someone’s launched a tumblr called Entendu dans une manif.
Updates from May, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Been out on the casserole, so to speak. Things seen:
A little girl came up to me with a spoon, and we took turns playing a rhythm on my comically tiny “casserole” (really a metal measuring cup).
On St-Denis, some people pulled up in a tow truck and began tossing bottles of water to anyone in the crowd who wanted one, and then let off their tow-truck klaxon to great applause.
Lots of people on balconies, clanging away above the marching crowd.
I left the initial Villeray march, which was moving off eastward, and walked back toward St-Denis. I could hear terrific drumming and expected to encounter another march – but it wasn’t a march. Near Jean-Talon, a crowd of about 30 on the sidewalk were drumming vigorously, led by a couple of young guys thumping a rhythm on several big empty recycling bins. Across the wide street, on a second-floor balcony, another smaller group had hung a selection of kitchen equipment on a rope and were playing it like a rhythm section, call-and-response style to the group across the street.
This was great. People who came by were mostly carrying some kind of pot, and got drawn into the rhythm and hung around. Cars honked as they passed. Two older women drew up chairs on the Subway terrasse and hung out to enjoy the scene.
So now I’m thinking about several things:
It’s kind of a rule that when you say something repeatedly and accompany it with physical action, it gets ingrained into your brain and your body and your nerves. (Most religions make use of this.) People are doing something active here. They’re not just saying they’re mad as hell and not going to take it any more – they’re enacting this, vigorously, night after night, in company with other people doing the same thing. This is powerful, primordial stuff. We’re a sedentary people now, by and large – but people are walking kilometers happily making loud noises and enjoying the hell out of it.
If the student groups reach a deal, does that mean this will all stop?
What will become of all that human energy that’s suddenly surging through the streets of this city every evening?
And let’s not be naive – let’s not kid ourselves. Political leaders may be taken aback by this movement, but they are not wasting time dithering. They’re making plans how to turn it to their own ends – all of them.
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MB
Kate, agreed. At 8:00 I walked from Mont-Royal and St-Laurent down to the Village (with a cold beer awaiting me as reward) and the scene you described is similar to what could be found on every other corner, through every quarter in the Plateau and Centre-Sud. There was even a make-shift circle blocking traffic at Robin and Beaudry, mostly children. The racket wafting through the air at the edges of Parc LaFontaine actually brought me to tears. I’m going to hoof my biggest pan to the sidewalk tomorrow at 8. Every sound should shed shame to Charest’s core for what he’s done in Quebec. *Let’s be sick of it for real.*
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Brad
I live at the northern edge of Ahuntsic, about as far north as you can get in Montréal, and on one of the first casserole nights I happened to be on the phone around 8pm with a friend who lives near Place-des-Arts. I could hear the casseroles in the background on his end of the phone as we talked, but after I hung up the phone I could still hear them. I walked outside and sure enough, neighbours on our street and all the streets nearby were out on their porches clanging away. We’ve had a couple of tiny marches along boulevard Gouin in the past few dayas, 10-15 people, mostly families including very young children. It’s happening everywhere.
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Ephraim
Can we get some of the radio stations to play the same music from 8:00 to 8:15 so that people have something to bang to… and make a joyful noise. Songs like “Who let the dogs out.” etc. Make it festive, too.
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Spock
I am going to drive around firing fireworks and sonic grenades… That will be part of the tax payer revolt marches…
Oh yeah, I forgot, most of us are civilised…
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Kate
Spock, if you were really civilized you wouldn’t be posting under a phony name on a blog like this.
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walkerp
“Spock” you really need to change your avatar name here. It does a disservice to the real Spock, whose logic you do not share.
Man, I wish I were in Montreal right now! These casseroles are really inspiring! I’ve been sharing video with my workmates here in SF and they find it pretty exciting as well.
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Spock
1. Kate don’t try to define civilised because by equating an alias to uncivilized behaviour you demonstrate alack if understanding of the word.
2. Walkerp, you do know that Vulcans do not really exist? Thus there is no such thing as a real Spock…
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Kate
Spock, you are beginning to sputter.
1. If you want to hold yourself up as a paragon of civilization, that demands a certain pride. Post under your real name, not a pseudo. I have a deeper sense of civilization in my little finger than you have in your whole body.
2. The character Spock embodies an ideal that exists, a paradigm of cool logic and stoicism – a civilized ideal that apparently walkerp and I both understand, and you do not. If I had time to waste I’d run a grep and change your username to Spork, but I have better things to do.
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Guardian UK profiles Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, mentioning the many death threats he’s received since coming into prominence; Amnesty International condemns Bill 78 as “an affront to basic freedoms”; Monday evening, lawyers in full legal kit will march silently from the Palais de justice to Place Émilie-Gamelin to underline their dismay at a law that attacks freedom of expression and association.
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Talks are set to resume between the Quebec government and the student leaders representing FEUQ, FECQ and CLASSE. This CBC article quotes Martine Desjardins saying the students have no plan to target the festivals and are more interested in the June 11 byelections in Argenteuil and LaFontaine ridings.
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It isn’t clear Sunday when talks are to resume between the government and the students, but some are hoping for Monday.
FECQ’s Léo Bureau-Blouin may have misspoken when he said students may be prepared to accept tuition hikes. The Gazette leapt on this with the headline Students may be ready for compromise but Mr. Bureau-Blouin is reaching the end of his term as head of FECQ and will soon step aside for a leader we haven’t seen yet, Éliane Laberge.
I suspect that right now, it’s not the school year or academic results that are on the minds of the authorities. The CBC’s Salimah Shivji reports this morning that the Quebec tourism minister is hastening to assure tourists that student demos won’t interfere with the city’s summer offerings.
What will happen between now and the first day of the Grand Prix, June 8?
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A woman was shot in the ankle last night as people were coming out of the bars after 3 a.m. near Prince Arthur. There was a panic and two guys fled in a car.
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Steve Quilliam
Please, let’s not profile anyone here !
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Jack
Why can’t our policeman do that when the shoot homeless people?
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Quand vous lancez des pierres, ça les rassure, ils disent, voyez, faut bien qu’on passe des lois spéciales.
Mais quand vous jouez de la casserole, ils ont peur.
– Pierre Foglia
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Robert H
That’s the power of The Pots!
And furthermore from M. Foglia…
“Dans 1984, le chef d’oeuvre d’Orwell que vous devriez ABSOLUMENT relire (quitte à lire moins les journaux), dans 1984, il y a des affiches partout qui avertissent: Big Brother vous regarde. Big Brother ne vous regarde plus: il vous filme dans le métro. Quand vous vous mettez un doigt dans le nez, vous êtes filmé. Il ne reste plus qu’à filmer celui qu’on vous met dans le cul depuis si longtemps que vous ne le sentez même plus.”
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TiGuy
Je ne crois pas que 1984 soit le « chef d’oeuvre » d’Orwell.
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Kate
Quel titre préférez-vous, Ti-Guy? J’ai toujours été un fan de Down and out in Paris and London.
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The Museum of Fine Arts has received a significant collection of classic art on the agreement it builds a new pavilion to house it.
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Robert H
Wow! This is great news. Great for the Museum, the city, and for anyone who cares about art. Interesting considering the Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavillion opened relatively recently. I don’t blame the finance minister, this gift from the Hornsteins is far to good a deal to pass up and the taxpayer money is well spent as far as I’m concerned. That’s the old-fashioned power of the purse!
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Kate
Yes, I wasn’t criticizing it, I think it’s good. I wonder what we’ll lose on Bishop Street to build the new wing, but to get a pile of valuable, interesting art for the price of giving it house room is a net bonus.
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Robert H
I didn’t think you were, but I did anticipate that others might reflexively object in these times of on-going budgetary crisis. Again, this is such welcome good news for Montreal amid all the negativity that it is with as much relief as happiness that I find myself reacting to it. Like you, I’m hoping a way can be found to place the future Hornstein Pavilion delicately into the existing built environment with a minimum of demolition, as was done with the Bourgie. On the other hand, my preferred solution to the question of space would be the destruction of Concordia’s hideous Henry F. Hall building but I won’t hold my breath. Speaking of Universities, it is fascinating to watch how the MMFA, restricted by its tight urban setting, is itself evolving into a campus of pavilions scattered across adjacent streets. Done properly, this could enhance an already attractive district.
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david m
we already know that itll be built directly south of the safdie addition, but it’s not clear whether that will mean demolition or some sort of re-purposing, as with the erskine and american church.
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Kate
Too bad in a way that it has to be built directly adjacent the existing museum. We have so many other disused churches that could be repurposed – but not right there.
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A few nervous folks have cancelled their Grand Prix plans but Bernie Ecclestone says a few demonstrations won’t stop his race from running.
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Faiz Imam
If brutal repression of demonstrations is Bahrain didn’t affect the elite high octane merrymaking, whats a few students walking around banking pots?
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Hamza
Ecclestone is a brute who understands only money. The Bahrain race went on because cops cracked down twice as hard. Which means in the ever-developing tactics of dissent, we have to try three times as hard to make sure the eurotrash and jetset one-percenters feel oh-so-welcome in the midst of our little uprising. (did i just break loi78? Or is the law blind to wink-wink subtlety)
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qatzelok
What does the mafia have to do with the F-1?
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Kevin Rice
I’m not coming to Montreal this year. I’m afraid the government stupidity will make life hard for me and my family during a visit. Get someone sane in office, I’ll revisit this decision.
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Kate
I’m sure we’ll manage without you, Mr. Rice.
Hamza, I’m seeing tweets about possible streaking at tourism events. I’m game if you are!
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Singlestar
The testosterone class at the GP doesn’t understand civil liberties anyhow.
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Hamza
Ouf I totally would , except I read somebody’s comment recently about there being some parts that you wouldn’t want to expose to pepper spray.
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Kate
Now that you mention it… yeah.
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The 33rd night of consecutive demonstrations has wound down peacefully. According to tweets, two people were arrested for attacking police horses, and a motorist is going to be charged with “armed aggression” against a demonstrator, the details of which haven’t yet been made clear. Timeline of the essentially incidentless evening.
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alanah
It’s not the first time that the manif was immediately declared illegal, but then police issued a statement that it would be tolerated so long as no criminal acts took place. Credit where credit is due, the way mtl police seem to be doing their part to undermine bill 78…
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Robert J
Yeah I think a lot of cops are wary of applying this law. They probably don’t want to get any more wound up in the legal consequences than we do.
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Ian
on their Twitter feed the SPVM specifically said they wouldn’t be applying bill 78 until it’s clarified. Also, they said the “armed” part means the car being used as a weapon.
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kyle 22:32 on 2012/05/27 Permalink
LOVE this idea. What a curious and interesting time for this city.