How to count a protest turnout
Tuesday’s big demo felt like a huge crowd, quite possibly the biggest single protest Montreal has ever seen. Fagstein has made a good honest try at counting the participants, although he admits that he probably didn’t see a significant part of the march. But he compares his estimate, that of the folks in the TVA copter, and that of a commenter counting people off on Sherbrooke Street: it’s a safe guess somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 people is a ballpark figure, but when protests split up, move around different parts of town and re-merge later, it makes even rough head counts next to impossible.
The biggest demo I’ve attended before this was on February 16, 2003 when an estimated 150,000 people marched against the impending attack on Iraq. That demo was held in –20°C weather, but people move so differently under those conditions that I’m unable to guess which was the bigger gathering.
qatzelok 19:28 on 2012/05/23 Permalink
@ Ephraim: “Come with a real solution that doesn’t cost the taxpayers of this province money and won’t ruin the universities.”
Okay. Get rid of all the useless administration positions at our universities (especially the Anglo ones) and stop paying the mafia to build superhighways and superbridges.
Or… are you looking for a solution that continues to pay unscrupulous mafia types to do next to nothing?
Spock 19:53 on 2012/05/23 Permalink
At least in 2003 it was for a good cause.
Ian 05:01 on 2012/05/24 Permalink
Oh, so you support bill 78, then, Spock? Because under its rules, there will be no more huge demos.
@qatzelok – you just never miss a chance to get in a dig at the anglos, eh? You do realize this entire mess is because of the regressive policies of one M. Charest, who as I last recall is pretty darn French.
Spock 06:35 on 2012/05/24 Permalink
Yes I support Bill 78.
So?
Kevin 07:35 on 2012/05/24 Permalink
@Ian @qatzelok
No no, the superhighway mess is because one M. Bouchard slashed budgets for Transport Quebec and provincial road maintenance, resulting in the deaths of several people.
As for the anglo universities, a strong argument could be made that those admin positions are paid for by all the donations alumni make, since the 3 anglo universities get 2-3 times as much in donations as all of Quebec’s french universities combined.
Ian 07:42 on 2012/05/24 Permalink
@Spock I point this out because if you support bill 78, even demos for a “good cause” (presumably meaning ones you agree with) would be suppressed. That’s the thing about bill 78; the law applies to everyone in Quebec, not just the carré rouge activists.
qatzelok 08:32 on 2012/05/24 Permalink
@ Kevin/Ian: This wasn’t an attack on “anglos.” It was an attack on the bloated administrations of the Anglo universities – something I’m familiar with because I worked for one of them. This is where all the money goes: to back-scratching positions in gold-plated cubicles. French (in France) universities have minimal admin, and this is why they have money for free tuition and books. Concordia and McGill are heavily in bed with mafia (Concordia) and the 1% (McGill).
Ian 09:49 on 2012/05/24 Permalink
While I’m not surprised to hear this, I’d be very surprised to hear it wasn’t true of UQAM and UdeM as well… I think bloated admin is common to all Quebec universities, and agree that some housecleaning would go a long way to more effective budgetary allocation.
Kevin 10:55 on 2012/05/24 Permalink
@qatzelok
You should have just said universities. Yes the BOG at Con U are a bunch of idiots, but it was the admin at UQAM that bankrupted the school and forced the government to bail it out because of a horrible idea.
As for France, they may have free tuition, but their entrance exams are much tougher than we have here: which is why thousands of of Frenchmen and women come here to study.
There are problems in universities across Quebec, and nobody denies that. It’s just that there are problems with everything. That’s the way the world works.
qatzelok 14:03 on 2012/05/24 Permalink
@ Kevin: “As for France, they may have free tuition, but their entrance exams are much tougher than we have here: which is why thousands of of Frenchmen and women come here to study.”
So you have to be smart in France, but in the Anglosphere, you need to have upper class parents? This isn’t how “the world” works. It’s how our Anglo mafias work. They aren’t the world, they’re actually ruining the real world.