Quebec passes Bill 78
As expected, the National Assembly passed Bill 78 on Friday afternoon. Wow, even using Facebook or Twitter to encourage people to demonstrate could be actionable now. Whether wearing a red square will be considered a provocation is not yet clear.
OK folks. These are my instructions: Stay home, only leaving the house to go to work, never congregate with more than half a dozen people at a time, keep your heads down and your voices down, and limit your net postings to pictures of kittens.
walkerp 18:54 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
And I suspect Charest just signed his resignation slip with this one. Still, quite astounding. He is the one who finally took off the mask.
Kate 18:56 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
It would be more satisfying if there were anyone else I preferred to see in power. Why don’t we have a provincial NDP?
Ian 19:36 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
I will be awfully surprised if Marois repeals this convenient bill when she is elected. You know, like how the federal Liberals didn’t get around to “scrape” the GST.
Anyway the obvious solution to the assembly law is to break the student movement up into small independent groups of 20 people. “Oh no, officer, we aren’t 10, 000 marching in the street against social injustice, we are 500 completely independent groups of 20 with a common interest that are only coincidentally marching at the same time”.
ant6n 19:41 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
@Ian
Of course you might have just created a single movement that protests in small groups of 20 people; that are nevertheless associated because of your post. So you’ll be fined that 100K after all.
Kate 19:47 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
The only good thing about the bill is that it expires next year, so Marois – you speak as if her election is a certainty, Ian – wouldn’t have to lift a finger.
Ian 20:01 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
I do think Marois is pretty much a shoo-in but whatever, they’re all a bunch of corrupt clowns. The small independent cell concept worked for a group now known as the bolsheviks. Food for thought.
Kevin 20:58 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
I’ve been hearing from several people that the latest Leger marketing poll will show that more than 60% of Quebecers support this law.
As a tactic, putting a sunset clause within the next year was pretty smart.
And while there is a demo tonight, and will be tens of thousands of people in the streets next Tuesday, the law is not designed to stop it (nor should it).
Clément 21:04 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
“It would be more satisfying if there were anyone else I preferred to see in power.”
And this is one of the reasons the liberals manage to stay in power. Many people in Québec would rather vote for an anti-democratic prick like Charest than vote for a party that represents most of their values (social-democrat PQ, socialist QS), yet also favours a separatist utopia that has near-zero chance of ever happening in our lifetimes.
Even if Charest ate little kittens for breakfast on TV, was part of a satanic cult, had a Swastika tattooed on his forehead and was seen on TV accepting big fat brown envelops from contractors, he would still get 30% of the votes. People would say “Well he might be evil, but at least, he’s not a separatist”.
Kate 21:43 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
Clément, I see what you mean, but it’s not quite that clear in my case. For one, the PQ used to be social democrats if not outright socialists, but they haven’t truly espoused those positions in a long time. Likewise, since their position means they have to constantly give lip-service to independence, duplicating federal services and generally putting a lot of effort into the national project, that’s a lot of taxpayer money down the drain for very little win.
In addition, I’ve never warmed to Mme Marois as a personality – she’s just too rich and too remote and fundamentally too humourless. Of course you can vote for people you wouldn’t particularly want to have drinks with, but it helps if you have some glimpse of what they’re like as a human being, and in her case I can’t say I do.
ant6n 23:12 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
At least the ‘lefties’ have decent alternatives on the city and the federal level.
Raoul 04:30 on 2012/05/19 Permalink
For all the complaints of “quebecois racism” and french cultural opression… and its the PLQ (of all parties) passing fascist-like laws.
Irony (and treachery?) is in the eye of the beholder.
Kevin 07:53 on 2012/05/19 Permalink
Everyone knows these fascist-like laws apply in places like… New York City, right?
Actually NYC is a little more strict. You need to apply for a permit 5 days in advance if you want to protest in the park http://www.nycgovparks.org/rules/section-2-08
BTW Big protest this coming Sunday in St. Jean by motorcyclists. Because the cost for our driver’s licenses went up 100% a few years ago, and the annual costs for registering our vehicles went up by 100 to 700% depending on what you ride. (Although thanks to protests, talks, and having facts on our side we convinced the SAAQ to change things. My registration only cost $545 this year.)
Kate 09:17 on 2012/05/19 Permalink
Kevin, you’re flailing to make a point here. New York City is profoundly different from Montreal, U.S. law is different from our law, and besides we’re not talking about protests in a park.
As for the motorbike thing – well, they’re dangerous beasts. I have no idea how the cost of a permit connects onto the expense of caring for injured motorcyclists but it isn’t unreasonable to ask riders to defray a little of the collective cost of using that form of transportation.
Kevin 21:23 on 2012/05/19 Permalink
@Kate
If you cannot see the obvious parallels…
Kate 10:47 on 2012/05/20 Permalink
We can draw parallels all day but that still doesn’t equate conditions in Montreal with conditions in New York City.