More pieces on a protest
Police have been accused of taping over their helmet numbers so they can’t be identified while quelling demonstrations – specifically, on Saturday night. This goes against the police code and is being internally investigated.
Businesses connected with tourism are on edge as news of the protests has made some nervous tourists change their plans. CTV speaks specifically about Grand Prix weekend – not next weekend, but the one after.
Jacques Parizeau is criticizing Jean Charest for letting the student crisis hang around unresolved as long as it has, but he also calls it the awakening of a generation. Seems Parizeau would like to have it formed into a new 1960s-style sovereignist movement – it’s inevitable that older folks will see new movements through an old lens, but it doesn’t move things forward.
Best read of the day is this piece from Ethan Cox on rabble.ca, where he asks basically for whom is this a crisis that has to be ended? “People who would be alone in their houses watching TV take to the streets and march with neighbours they never knew they had.”
Also: “If we, as a society, as a people, are to make a stand against the governments which cut taxes on the rich and corporations and then plead poverty as they dismantle our society, our communities, it will be here.”
Spock 09:35 on 2012/05/28 Permalink
Jacques Parizeau should butt out. He is a has been.
Shouldn’t he rather focus on the Quebec chapter of the KKK? You know, to wipe out the ethnic vote and such…
Robert H 09:42 on 2012/05/28 Permalink
Jacques Parizeau!…Encore vivant!
Bon essai par Ethan Cox: dans les rues c’est vraiment l’heure de la commune, parce que l’union fait la force…et le bonheur.
Kevin 10:16 on 2012/05/28 Permalink
“march with neighbours they never knew they had”
That’s the saddest statement I’ve heard in the past 4 months.
Ephraim 11:18 on 2012/05/28 Permalink
Being in the tourism business, I can tell you that numbers are WAY down. I won’t be surprised if the amount of summer jobs out there are down as well. I know that I don’t need to hire this summer, not with these numbers. People are staying away from Montreal is DROVES. More than ever before.
Bill Binns 12:05 on 2012/05/28 Permalink
We have family coming in for the Gran Prix and they have all asked “is it safe?”, “should we still come?” – You would think we were living in Sarajevo in 1995.
Every night there is a costume parade featuring make-believe ninjas, pirates, anarchists, communists and assorted anti-capitalists. In some french neighborhoods, people run around banging pots together for a half hour every night. I don’t understand where all this “Quebec is shut down and everyone is terrified” nonsense is coming from in the international press.
Robert H 12:10 on 2012/05/28 Permalink
Ephraim, you almost seem pleased.
qatzelok 12:15 on 2012/05/28 Permalink
@ spock: “Shouldn’t he rather focus on the Quebec chapter of the KKK? You know, to wipe out the ethnic vote and such…”
There is no chapter of the protestant, anglophone KKK in Quebec. However, the premier of Saskatchewan used their services to scare francos there a few decades ago. Try to sort through the media lies to figure out who the callous hegemons are, spock. Try not to let your emotions (and ethnocentrism) get in the way.
Josh 12:46 on 2012/05/28 Permalink
@Bill Binns: When 44 people in Toronto died from SARS, the reaction internationally was as though you couldn’t walk past a hospital in the city without contracting the illness. What Montreal is seeing now is par for the course.
There was a moment a week or two ago where it certainly appeared as though violent protests could well have become nightly occurrences in Montreal. That didn’t happen, but international viewers and readers aren’t paying attention to every little bit of movement in the dispute. All they know is that things got pretty hot for a while and that the political dispute is ongoing.
Ephraim 13:04 on 2012/05/28 Permalink
@Robert H – Not pleased at all. Tourism hires a lot of students who need summer jobs and it’s a big industry in Montreal. I’m sure it’s all going to hurt, I know that I’m hurting. Think of how many summer jobs and part time jobs are in tourism, an industry that swells in the summer and contracts in the winter. Students need money to pay their bills.
Spock 19:33 on 2012/05/28 Permalink
Qatzelok,did you forget 1995 when this racist fucker blamed his loss on ethnics? For someone with a “social conscious”, you certainly shouldn’t defend someone like that…. :(
qatzelok 19:58 on 2012/05/28 Permalink
@ Spock: “this racist fucker blamed his loss on ethnics? ”
Actually, he said the OUI side lost because of MONEY and the ethnic vote. Which is accurate. Money is a mafia, and recent arrivals are easily fooled by our liar Anglo media – which is part of MONEY.
Kevin 07:21 on 2012/05/29 Permalink
If you think I work for MONEY… you’re really poor ;)