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Five Points of View on the Student Movement
Friday, June 22 2012 - UQAM University
Jean-Pierre Student
We're gathering on Friday, June 22nd, early morning until noon.
We screen documentaries, videos, clips and testimonials, to vent and to see, as social workers students, the shape of things to come.
A time to think.
On a communications level, what the conflict has brought to the forefront is,
and to a point that people were quite surprised, is just how repressive our government could be.
And we saw how instrumental the media - who we thought to be the watch dogs of democracy - could be.
In any case, we saw the true face of some, those presupposed tacit alliances that we could feel but couldn't prove.
There definitely is a Western drift towards repressing social movements who challenge the establishment;
as if there were a global elite trying to impose its views as to what constitutes public debt,
how it should be managed and that citizens don't have their say since they're not experts on anything.
People feel it's a critical moment, all with the "Plan Nord", Bill 78
curtailing freedom of association and peaceful gathering; Bill C-38 which seriously attacks unemployment benefits...
seriously attacks environmental protection,
environmental impact assessment...
These are all major issues.
And in my view, democracy is the fundamental issue at stake here.
If you're elected by a majority, can you impose your views?
Ignore amendments proposed by the opposition? Ignore public outrage?
I find that to be the worst form of contempt towards the people.
The movement will have to organize this summer
to bring together all the elements of that struggle
just like March 22nd was about students...
April 22nd was about the environment...
and May22nd was about social struggles...
and on June 22nd it's about bringing those three messages together.
Marie-Pier Manager
Friday, June 22 2012 - 1.30PM
I work for a non-profit organisation.
An organisation that represents the business sector.
I don't think there's a single view on the business side,
I don't believe all businesses are against the student movement.
On the contrary, I think there's no one in Quebec who hasn't talked about the student crisis,
who hasn't talked about the ensuing social crisis either.
So it's certainly been talked about in my workplace.
Sometimes we may be less vocal about it,
sometimes we talk about it behind closed doors
or we talk about it more with some people than others,
but we all talk about it.
Some messages say that Bill 78
can "tone down" the demonstrations,
reduce their frequency
and therefore encourage consumer activity downtown.
But did it have an impact on the level of activity in downtown businesses?
I don't feel that since Bill 78 came into law
that there are more people downtown
and I find that, on the matter of business traffic,
what we hear is "The students this, the demonstrators that",
it's just too easy to blame it all on the students.
We heard that the students or young people,
that the new generation were egotists
they were the generation of "child-kings".
They showed us the opposite,
that they stand together,
that they share values of mutual aid, social values,
and values of solidarity.
And that's extremely positive, it's hope for the future.
In any case summer, even for businesses,
is usually a time to plan ahead.
So I think it's great, I don't see it as a puttering out
because there are people, very active leaders
who have great ideas
who will prepare over the summer
to regroup and reposition themselves
and come up with solutions, I hope!
Camille CLASSE spokesperson
Friday, June 22 2012 - 2.30PM
It's important to know that, in Quebec,
there's never been such a long student strike.
Over the summer, many students and the general public
may not be in Montreal or available for nightly demonstrations.
So we, at CLASSE, thought about it
and decided that, this summer,
we wanted to reach out to the population, not only in Québec city or Montreal,
but in every town and village in Quebec
to avoid going through the media to deliver our message,
to speak directly to the people and to open a dialog over the summer.
It's important to remember that this movement was built and propelled by thousands of people,
that's it's not just about leaders like with regular political parties.
The drive of the movement comes from a collective consciousness,
from a movement born to oppose more than the hike in tuitions
but also the privatisation of public services
and the selling off of all that is communal
not only here in Quebec but the world over.
So, the movement doesn't boil down to
just a few faces, but includes all those involved
and all the ideas that motivate it.
Previously, politics weren't publicly debated:
it was just news, bylines, elections every four years
and that was about it.
Now we see people taking to the streets for the first time.
We see children, we see seniors.
It truly is intergenerational, it's more than a student movement,
it really concerns the whole of society.
In my opinion, we've already won that.
We've won that thousands of people have become aware,
people who will never see the police and politicians,
who won't see elections and democratic institutions the same way
and whatever the final outcome of the strike, we'll have won on those points.
Audrey Lawyer
Friday, June 22 2012 - 3.30PM
Of course for a legal expert, this Bill 78
is really quite intense!
You could say it's aggressive.
Because it literally attacks many of the fundamental rights
that are the basis of our democracy.
The charters of rights are the foundations of our judicial system,
of our democratic system.
If we allow a government,
in all intents and purposes,
to stomp out anything it doesn't like,
by constantly passing special laws this perverse
in their effects, is extremely serious.
So, for a legal expert who knows the law,
the charters of rights and constitutional law,
it's probably even more serious from our point of view.
But as citizens, as human beings,
it's totally unacceptable.
It's nothing short of an outright attack against democracy,
in Canada, not just in Quebec.
In Canada, many laws were recently passed
like C-10, C-11 and more recently C-38...
Most people aren't aware, of course, and with what's happening in Quebec,
people weren't aware of what C-38 was really about.
It stayed under the radar...
However, when I speak to people and tell them
"Did you know the age of retirement has changed?"
"You're kidding, right?!?"
And then they panic.
"Get outta here!" "No, I'm dead serious, but you obviously haven't heard about it."
Thanks to information control and manipulation...
And that's when we talk about what's happening in Canada.
When we notice that the conflict, the problems here
aren't only about tuition fees
and run deeper than the student crisis.
The problems are much larger and touch the very core of Canadian and Québécois identity.
We crave democracy, free expression and freedom
and that's the message of every rally held on the 22nd day of every month.
They're beautiful and very uplifting events
and I've marched in all of them.
Étienne Playwright
Friday, June 22 2012 - 4.30PM
As a writer and a playwright,
it's my view as an artist,
that it's very difficult to integrate
the day-to-day and the news into my work.
It's because of the way I work, the things I find interesting.
I'm also into a more dramatic, theatrical brand of theatre.
Years ago, I decided to involve myself as a citizen,
not in totally independent way, but at other levels.
I work at the People's University,
I'm in the street marching,
I'm involved in many other projects,
that seem more in synch and more efficient in regards to the values I want to defend.
I think what we need is a revolution.
The problem is that were capitalists,
that I think capitalism can't be fixed and I think we have to go all the way.
I don't think we're there yet.
We can do better, that much is obvious
and people are saying they want better, that they understand,
that they can talk about it, that they wish it, they want it and that they're ready to come together to make it happen.
The police's role in all of this
is a very complex one.
I think we shouldn't automatically associate police actions
to those of the people demonstrating.
We shouldn't see them as mirror images of one another because they aren't.
The police are in effect a political creature
blatantly used to protect the interests
of a well-established class - that much is clear.
It's clear that the police are political.
The stakes are the usual: intimidation, control
and, more importantly, I believe the police aren't really there for the protestors...
They may say "We're here to protect you",
but by showing up with weapons, it's a way of telling all of society
"Look, we're protecting you against some terrible evil."
And by arresting citizens, it's a way of dealing out extrajudicial punishment
without having to bring them down to the station.
I was arrested and spent the night hands cuffed behind my back, in a bus, nothing to drink, nothing to eat
and all those procedures are just made-up, because all I got in the end was a simple ticket.
It's like getting pulled over for speeding and they have you spend the night in a bus,
in handcuffs and then they drive the bus to the other end of town and kick you out.
I mean, just give me my ticket and be done with it!
So they come up with all these convoluted protocols,
long, drawn-out ways solely designed to humiliate you.
I'd say we've not yet reached a critical breakdown
of the legal system, but we've clearly moved beyond the breaking point of any kind of trust we had for the police,
the justice system
...and the government.