The army? Lisée thinks so
I’ve seen all kinds of dark hints about the army being called in to deal with the demonstrations; Jean-François Lisée stokes the paranoia while others are dismissing it. At this point I’m not sure the rest of Canada would want to help pay the bills for Quebec’s problems.
Alex L 22:36 on 2012/05/21 Permalink
It wouldn’t surprise me if they bring in the army.
Faiz Imam 02:17 on 2012/05/22 Permalink
And do what? The student are holding no physical ground, there is nothing to protect or attack or disperse. There is no problem for demonstrators to just go home and come back the next day.
This is a police job and they are making a mess of it(as would be expected really…)
Unless we are talking real martial law, there is not much the army can do that the cops are not.
Hamza 05:55 on 2012/05/22 Permalink
Bringing in the army follows the same line of thinking that loi 78 did – namely if you apply enough force, fear and violence against students , that they will abandon their beliefs, fall back in line and somehow magically everything will go back to the way it was .
You know , when this province just swallowed Quebec City’s filth and said thank you.
All the truncheons and tear gas and rubber bullets and tanks in the world can’t make 2+2=5.
Just cancel the tuition hikes and give us our peace.
Spock 07:26 on 2012/05/22 Permalink
War Measures Act should be enabled, or its current name; the Emergencies Act.
Bill Binns 07:27 on 2012/05/22 Permalink
I don’t see what the big emergency is with the nightly marches. Let them march until they wear holes in their sneakers. Follow them around and arrest the people who are violent, leave the rest alone. I’m much more concerned with the Metro smoke bombing, the violent takeover of UQAM last week, the arson and the blocking of schools than a bunch of children walking around the city blowing horns all night.
Spock 07:29 on 2012/05/22 Permalink
Because they are a real pest. The Emergencies Act isn’t just for “emergencies” per say but also for anything that’s disrupts the social fabric and life, in general, that we need to establish normality.
Hamza 08:39 on 2012/05/22 Permalink
normality is 75% increases in tuition, a mafia-funded government, universities handing out multimillion dollar golden handshakes to deposed presidents and rehiring them months later, the entire part of Quebec north of the 49th parallel to be converted into Alberta2 , the right of peaceful assembly made criminal , construction projects that routinely go overbudget by far greater amounts than anywhere in north America…
I could go on but needless to say normality is overrated no?
Bill Binns 09:02 on 2012/05/22 Permalink
@Hamza – Normality here is also universal health care, a quality higher education system so cheap it may as well be free, one of the safest (the safest?) cities in N America, a functioning economy and generally good prospects for anyone who has even the slightest motivation to get off their ass and do something with themselves. Things are so good here that doctors and engineers from other countries come here to drive taxi cabs.
Things can always be better but we are not exactly living in Somalia here.
Anto 09:07 on 2012/05/22 Permalink
@Bill Binns: So if forces are pushing against all these good things, little by little, when exactly should you start taking action?
Stefan 09:13 on 2012/05/22 Permalink
@Binns
It is interesting that the aspects you compare in your argument only work because you seem to compare to the United States (if not Somalia).
I haved moved back to Austria, because I am afraid of this crappy health system. Education here is basically free from kindergarten to university and Vienna is much safer compared to Montreal, where innocent people can get shot by the police, or run over by drivers without any consequences. Aside from an economy in better shape, all these advantages seem to be the consequence of less rampant corruption.
Stefan 09:18 on 2012/05/22 Permalink
From my personal experience it seems to me that a cultural emphasis of education (and not just simple formation for the industry) leads to a better understanding of society and how not to tolerate corruption, demagogy and so on. This is why I think free access to education is so important (and not just being seen as a return-on-investment).
walkerp 11:00 on 2012/05/22 Permalink
I heard a theory that the cops are actually equally sick of the Charest government (they had their own labour issues) and the corruption and that they are deliberately taking it relatively easy on the students.
On a side note on the importance of education, one of Quebec’s big industries is videogame development. Quebec shines relative to its size in the industry because we have so much talent. This talent is the result of an excellent education and social system that produces disciplined and hard-working young workers who also have some global values, making them more than just code monkeys and thus making our product a much higher level and thus making our market more sophisticated and valuable than the kind of code and animation farms that you get in South Korea.
This isn’t just about social justice and wealth disparity. This is about the economic future of this province and choosing the correct strategies that will grow us long term. This is what Charest and his cronies are throwing away for short-term gain (and a minimal gain at that).
Kate 11:20 on 2012/05/22 Permalink
so well put, walkerp!
ant6n 11:32 on 2012/05/22 Permalink
@walkerp
Some would argue that the video game industry is only in Quebec due to big subsidies.
walkerp 12:56 on 2012/05/22 Permalink
I’m not sure how that is relevant to my point.
Josh 14:17 on 2012/05/22 Permalink
That’s kind of anecdotal, walkerp, and I question the value of looking at one particular employment sector. Any one of us could pull out statistics from other sectors of commerce and industry and show that other parts of Canada also produce things at a higher level than South Korea (or wherever) despite the low tuition in Quebec, or whatever it is that you think is responsible for the video game industry.
And ant6n’s point is totally relevant: Part of the reason for the thriving video game industry in Montreal might very well be subsidies from the provincial government. Are you able to deny it? (Genuine question – personally I don’t know the first thing about subsidies to the industry.)
walkerp 15:42 on 2012/05/22 Permalink
Of course the videogame industry is subsidized, like pretty well all other industries in the province. My point is that we create employees here with higher level skills that perform well in a high-end service economy, which produces finished products rather than exports raw materials. This has always been a weakness in the Canadian economy and Quebec is one that has taken the lead in some areas, computer programming being one of them, but I believe also in pharmaceuticals and engineering as well. These people, as long as we keep them here (which is part of the reason the government subsidizes these industries) are very valuable to our economy.
Kevin 10:29 on 2012/05/23 Permalink
I can personally attest to the benefit of provincial subsidies (although I prefer to say I’ve been bribed) in the pharmaceutical industry.
The problem is it doesn’t necessarily work. High tech, high-skilled industries are very mobile, because the *people* are the resource, and will go wherever the pay is better.
Case in point: almost all pharma firms in Quebec have now closed because the subsidies from *other* state/provinces/countries got bigger.
It’s one reason I agree with the Plan Nord approach: if you want to make money from primary industry, you kind of have to do it here.
Josh 16:54 on 2012/05/23 Permalink
Fair enough, walkerp. I just don’t think it’s a very convincing argument in support of low tuition. My point is that other areas of Canada can certainly point to areas in which they’re successfully turning out skilled workers. I’m not the person to make that case because I don’t have the expertise, but rattling off skilled industries that Montreal has a track record in is not in and of itself an argument in favour of the present higher education system in Quebec.