Well, that was interesting
Been banging a pot for half an hour at Jarry and Saint-Denis.
Lots of people are out. In a way it’s too bad it’s taken this crisis to get people out, moving around, making a joyful noise, dancing with their neighbours.
Tonight people were being less scrupulous about keeping the demo mostly on the sidewalk and crossing mostly at the lights. By the time I wandered away the crowd had pretty much occupied the intersection and police were redirecting traffic away from it. As I left, people were beginning to process southward again as they did last night.
As had been promised, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois turned up. I have no idea whether he planned to make a speech but nobody had brought any sound equipment so I doubt he’ll manage to get the crowd to pipe down so he can be heard. Several media outfits were following him, CTV and Radio-Canada interviewing him (nattily dressed but with a spoon and pan in his hands) against the background din.
But this was the thing.
People knew who he was. I saw an old lady hug him, with tears in her eyes. I saw men and women coming up to shake his hand. I saw a little kid speak to him. He wasn’t glad-handing, though. He was just there talking to people who came up to him.
He’s also a little guy, but being a short guy has never been an obstacle to political success in Quebec. René Lévesque and Pierre Trudeau were neither of them tall men.
Not saying GND will necessarily use this whole thing as a springboard to political life – he’s very young – but weirder things have happened.
It also crossed my mind as I walked home that it’s typical that people are talking about GND and Léo Bureau-Blouin in admiring tones, but neither Martine Desjardins nor Jeanne Reynolds have received anything like the same adulation nor are their names becoming household words – and yet Reynolds just got the Lieutenant-General’s medal for being topp at skool, at a time when she’s also helping direct a major organization through a tricky strike. Maybe we just have an archetypal thing about the strong male leader, as a culture, or even as a species.
Josh 20:32 on 2012/05/24 Permalink
What does everyone suppose it would take for the demonstrations to stop? Is an election the only answer?
And what about if the Liberals won that election?
Fred 20:43 on 2012/05/24 Permalink
I wonder if everyone who is against this pot-banging nonsense should get together, demonstrate, throw a few bottles, may be burn a couple of trash bins. Oh, right, I forgot – they all have something to do with their lives besides partying and making loud noises. But honestly, I am already angling for an organized backlash of some sort – if only to show the airheads that they can’t monopolize public discourse with their meaningless theatrics.
Faiz Imam 21:15 on 2012/05/24 Permalink
@Josh A 5+ year tuition freeze would calm the situation right up.
Add an increase to bursary and scholarship programs plus better loan terms and everyone will go right back to spending their days on the streets shopping and such like proper consumers.
Add in some tighter regulation on university administrations and the students might just vote Liberal!
Jack 21:45 on 2012/05/24 Permalink
Its 10.43 and the SQ helicopters are flying over Villeray…….what do you think they will find ……a spatula
Ian 22:25 on 2012/05/24 Permalink
@Fred – 2 small children and a full-time management position, and I manage to find the time to get out even if only for a bit… maybe you’re not so much a counter-activist hero as a lazy complainer.
Anto 22:26 on 2012/05/24 Permalink
Fred: Do you know why this hasn’t happened? Because those people are only interested in the statu quo. They have nothing inspiring to propose. They feel good when nothing’s happening. And they don’t even feel strongly enough about it to do anything else than insulting people on the web and calling radio shows.
Ben Weaver 23:17 on 2012/05/24 Permalink
On my way over to work i take the Jolicoeur metro,and at about 9 15 pm there was a casserole crowd just on the other side of the Jolicoeur bridge walking down Champlain.
Fred 00:52 on 2012/05/25 Permalink
@anto, @ian – ok, I don’t know, may be you (non-gender-specific) guys are right and that’s the correct approach. I don’t want to insult anyone – obviously some of the people on this blog feel quite strongly about this and I even share their (overall) political vector of beliefs. Well, to a degree.
And I like free or nearly-free education as much as the next guy. I just think that priority-wise, this is completely backwards: we’re facing an energy, environment, and (yes) a debt crisis that is threatening to bury the entire North American continent and what are we choosing to do, in the first place, as our top priority? Go out and bang some pots demanding that the province plunge more in debt so that some of us can take dirt-cheap college-level courses which increasingly won’t even be likely to bring anyone any job or income (oops!).
Well, good luck to you all and keep up the good work! If nothing else, this makes for an entertaining show. Sometimes laughter in the middle of a slowly-unfolding tragedy is beneficial.
Ian 05:00 on 2012/05/25 Permalink
You haven’t been paying attention – the pots & pans is in response to bill 78. As to the rest of your argument, post secondary education funding represents such a tiny portion of the overall budget it’s ridiculous to suggest that we must have the education subsidy decreased as an austerity measure – and I’m just talking about above-board budget, let alone the vast corruption & waste that go on in Quebec. There have been any number of suggestions as to how to recoup the money it would cost to keep the tuitions frozen, but of course Charest will hear none of it as this increase is a “necessity”. It’s all such a cynical charade that I’m surprised and disheartened when apparently intelligent people fall for it – misdirection is the oldest political trick in the book.
JaneyB 05:28 on 2012/05/25 Permalink
Kate – I too have noticed that the male leaders are getting the press coverage while the young women are in the background. I’m glad you brought that up. I have a number of grim theories about this. I think people just see men as future leaders and women as more temporary public presences who will drift away when they have children. I know Quebec has a long history of women leaders but I can’t think of ones who were much under 50. Anyone?
JS 06:45 on 2012/05/25 Permalink
Psst: the correct word for protesting by banging on pots and pans is charivari or chivaree: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charivari
Bill Binns 07:28 on 2012/05/25 Permalink
Went out on my balcony at 8:00 PM sharp, ready to be angry at my neighbors but not a sound was heard over here in Anglo Acres.
Kate 07:38 on 2012/05/25 Permalink
JS: Yes, we know that: charivari in French, rough music in English. It’s still called “casseroles” here at the moment, though.
Kevin 08:00 on 2012/05/25 Permalink
@Kate
For the women, I think it’s because that at many, (although certainly not all) their news conferences Martine has played the angry woman, while Leo was the calm man. It’s probably the reason that Leo is the only figure in this whole mess who does not have a disapproval rating above 50% (that was what, in Tuesday’s Journal?)
GND is also angry, but it’s more acceptable for a man.
Jeanne doesn’t speak as much, and has never spoken in English, so she’s definitely taken on the role of second fiddle for CLASSE.
@Faiz
Everything you suggest except a 5 year freeze has already been offered.
paul 08:10 on 2012/05/25 Permalink
@Kate, good question regarding women in politics here. Pauline Marois and Louise Harel aren’t exactly inspirational for the cause.
As far as Ms. Reynolds, every time I have seen her speak she is much more agitated and aggressive than GND – she doesn’t make good sound bites as she is all over the place. The media (and we) love sound bites; perhaps that is the reason?
mdblog 08:12 on 2012/05/25 Permalink
@Fred
I’m with you so long as it’s peaceful and civilized. I also agree about the passion play that these protesters seem to love being a part of. It’s useless (the courts would bring down Bill 78 with or without the casseroles) and compared to doing some actual political work (which would be effective) it’s just too sexy to pass up I suppose!
@anto
Make it to your 25th birthday, have some kids (eventually). Status quo won’t seem so bad. Besides, some of us have to work to pay for your language cops and cheap tuition.
Bill Binns 08:40 on 2012/05/25 Permalink
@mdblog – There is no need to be peaceful and civilized. The students have shown us that you need only keep repeatiing that your event is “mostly peaceful” as you march over broken shop windows and past bonfires that have been lit in the middle of the street. If you’re really pressed, you need only say that the viloence has been commited by radical splinter groups or those ever present, shadowy “agents provocateurs”.
David Tighe 08:46 on 2012/05/25 Permalink
Kate: your “topp at skool” made me laugh. Somehow echos of Ronald Searle, St Trinians and the ’50′s
Anto 09:02 on 2012/05/25 Permalink
@mdblog: Funny you should say that, I’m turning 30 today. And have been working full time since I was 20. Most everyone here at work agrees with me, even those with two kids!
Please stop trying to sound like the wise elder, you lean to the right, others do not.
mdblog 10:20 on 2012/05/25 Permalink
That’s you whose giving the me the title of “Wise Elder”. I didn’t take it for myself, but thanks. My point could probably be more easily made if I told you to act like the grown up you are, but I won’t stoop to that (at least not today). The reason I thought you were younger is because you clearly see the world as some great left-right paradigm where the forces of good (the left) are valiantly fighting the demonic, evil forces of the right. Sorry buddy, life aint that simple.
Anto 10:27 on 2012/05/25 Permalink
@mdblog: You surely do think you know a lot about me! Sorry though, I won’t take the bait and start arguing on my brithday. Have a nice day!
marco 11:12 on 2012/05/25 Permalink
@Ian
It’s getting harder and harder to follow this discourse but I’ll try to sum it up:
The red squares represtent free university tuition for everybody.
The pots and pans are to allow student protesters to bully fellow students again and block traffic as the please.
The green, white and red flags that the protesters carry are for kicking out the anglos.
The people who break windows, throw smoke bombs in the metro and are agents of the government.
Those who don’t agree with the above are fascists.
Now I’ve got it.
Ian 14:00 on 2012/05/25 Permalink
@marco – If the best you can offer to this conversation is making up things to put in my mouth, I’m not really surprised you haven’t offered much else in the way of coherent or interesting ideas to the general discussions before now.
Spock 17:05 on 2012/05/26 Permalink
Its one thing to peacefully demonstrate on things you believe in.
Its another to:
1. Break the law
2. Vandalize and riot
3. Disturb the lives of citizens
4. Impede on the rights of other students
5. Create a racked with stupid pans and pots at night