This is not okay, under any circumstances.
The student protests in Montreal have me quite conflicted. I'm a graduating student this semester, and while my work is complete and that process will continue without interruption, there was awhile when it seemed like my professional life would be delayed due to the actions of others.
I'm also conflicted because I don't find the reason for the protests to be something worth protesting over. This likely stems from the fact that, while I did post secondary education in Quebec for parts of 6 years, I didn't grow up here, and therefore paid out of province tuition. This means I would pay ~$7000.00 per year instead of the ~$3500.00 that people from Quebec would pay.
I was able to pay for this by with a bit of help from my parents, who are admittedly wealthy (which consequently keeps you from getting almost all scholarships by the way), a small scholarship coming out of high school, and working my ass off for 4 months every summer to build a savings that would get me through the year.
I made sacrifices, like not going to rock concerts or bars, and I didn't have a vacation from the summer of 2004 when I began to save up for school, until 2009. But I also didn't live poorly. I lived downtown for most of my education and paid premium rent on a nice place. I also had a new laptop and put up cash for extreme high speed internet and cable, where most of my internet came from.
There have been times since I moved out here in 2005 that I've struggled financially, worrying about making enough for rent, but I always found a way, and I'll be graduating debt free. But enough of my story, my only point in this is that it's possible to do this.
So as you can see, I'm not for the protests. I never really was. In fact, most students are either against it or apathetic. In my program I was one of only 75 students to vote whether or not to strike, and my program is huge. This is why the rhetoric surrounding the student protests legitimately worries me.
I understand that people don't care for the methods the striking students have employed, I agree. I understand that foolish blockades have inconvenienced people on their way to work or on their way home, I agree that it's incredibly annoying. I understand and agree that the vandalism happening while these protests go on is unacceptable. What I don't understand is the vitriolic response, as if people believe that they have a right not to be inconvenienced in their every day life. I don't support the protests either, but you know what? Too bad.
These students have a right to free assembly, even if their cause is spurious. Complain all you'd like, debate the issues on social media, and condemn the actions of the students when they go too far. All this is good.
What isn't good is the increasingly frequent vitriol I've seen popping up, where people are comparing a bit of vandalism and a smoke bomb or two with terrorism. Do you people even know what terrorism is? Please tell a New Yorker who lived through 9/11 or lost a friend or family member how terrifying these student protests are as they terrorize your neighbourhood. This kind of rhetoric is dangerous, because it dehumanizes the people you're speaking about, which leads to my next point.
I have never in my life seen so many people calling for and excusing police brutality. This is in an age where police brutality is completely out of control. Not only is it on the rise, but there are almost no consequences for police officers ruining someone's life. Read this story, then tell me how just the police can be. Not all of them are bad, but the ones that are bad are given free reign and being rooted on by idiots who think themselves pundits.
Do you really think that a 19 year old kid making you 20 minutes late for work on a Wednesday needs to be beaten within an inch of his life? You may want to re-examine your moral compass if that's the case, you're a little bit old testament for modern society.
All too often I've heard people condemn this generation for not fighting for anything. Too busy checking Facebook to get out on the streets and do something. Yet when they do, the same people do nothing but complain. There were even people calling for military intervention this week. Is this the 'red scare'? Should tanks be storming campuses to bulldoze the people you don't agree with? Is this how Canadians want their society to behave in 2012?
I guess it depends what you define as a "bit of vandalism." You've castigated Paul Watson as a "borderline terrorist" in the past, right?
ReplyDeleteWhy is that? Because he and his group interfered with a transportation vehicle (whaling vessels on the open seas) that could have caused the death or harm of humans, yes?
So by that token what is the act of throwing a bag of bricks on the Metro rails if not borderline terrorism?
I don't want to be the guy who cracks open the dictionary to publish a definition of terrorism, but I guess I'm going to have to do it: "the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes."
There are many acts of terrorism that are small, but acts of terrorism nonetheless. You don't need to fly a jumbo jet into a skyscraper, all you need to do is harm or threaten to harm others in the name of your political cause.
As soon as violence or threats of violence or acts of vandalism that can harm others comes into play, you're, in the very least, talking about the realm of "borderline terrorism," n'est-ce pas?
I think people are rightly frustrated with these protests because, as you point out, it's not really a well-reasoned cause, and it can inconvenience many people, too. But I think most reasonable people are most concerned about the seemingly increasing level of violence.
There's also an element of anarchy and thuggishness to this, agreed?
Who can step in? Who restores order? Their fellow students who don't support the cause? I think we can agree the burden shouldn't be on them. So we look to our police who are supposed to protect the innocent.
I'm not quite sure that - if there are people advocating police brutality against these protestors - those folks are all that serious or are just spewing some silly rhetoric of their own.
The police have a difficult job on a good day, but these sorts of things are trying. They are questioned if they don't do enough they are questioned if they do too much. They are often taunted by protesters, hoping that it will be police who light the spark of the fuse.
If you're an intelligent student who doesn't like the tuition increases, do you show your intelligence by marching peacefully or by engaging in violence and vandalism? It becomes more about the fun time and the frenzy of the crowd after a while, doesn't it?
Just like all those "Habs fans" who burn the city down when their team wins a playoff round, I don't think Montrealers want their city to be seen that way.
That's why you hear what you hear, even if it's over the top, but they're just words spoken of frustration over a situation that doesn't look to have a simple or quick solution.
The thing about terrorism is that no one agrees what constitutes terrorism. That's partially why it's such a dangerous term. Paul Watson puts people's lives in danger, that hasn't been done at all in these protests. The bricks on the rails stopped the Metro from running for awhile, it didn't hurt anyone and had almost zero chance to. There's a huge difference between that, and willingly putting people in danger.
DeleteI get that people are frustrated with it, I am too, but that's not all there is. In the last 24 hours there's been a shift in the rhetoric in the media, now the blame is being shifted to ALL students instead of just striking ones, and several media members here have called for a militaristic conclusion to the protests.
The violence isn't escalating. If anything it peaked last week with the bricks on the metro lines, since then there's been a couple smoke bombs which don't hurt anyone, they're just annoying.
There have been other non-student factions who've joined in who've made quasi-threats on the premier, but that has nothing to do with the students, and they're empty threats.
My answer to the police having a tough job is the same as when people say NHL refs have a tough job: boo hoo. Having a tough job doesn't excuse hospitalizing people who call you names.
If people break the law, by all means arrest them. But advocating for police beating the tar out of someone just because you don't agree with what they stand for is not something anyone in a free society should be able to say and maintain respect. I know you agree with me there, being a libertarian.
This is a very interesting movement and I believe that you, being in Concordia, might have missed the gist of it. I'm currently on a master's degree in UQAM and my department have been on strike since feb 20th. I also was in UQAM in 2005, the last time we had big student protests around these parts.
ReplyDeleteThe current events are unheard of. Five quick points:
First of all, agree or not with the thing, it's massive: over 170k people, going strong after 11 weeks.
Secondly, the movement has taken hold in social media: go watch the sheer volume of tweets on the #ggi channel, who recurrently is in top topics in montreal. This gives the whole protest a very real autonomy against the traditional media sphere, allowing them to define their own agenda.
Third: The three main spokesperson of the student groups are splendid communicator and have done a tremendous job. Again, agree or not with them, they've been insanely efficient.
Fourth: The media footprint of the movement is, in the french media, absolutely huge. The issue is swamping everything, including arrests of construction sector entrepreneurs in crackdown against corruption.
fifth: I always considered the government's idea of the whole protest was "meh, they'll tire of it and go away". This doesn't work and now they have shifted strategy.
What this strategy is, quite frankly, I can't tell.
Your concerns about how the kids are being labelled "terrorists" and whatnot are valid. But I think in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter, because the whole movement is so large. It's ending will necessitate a solution that just won't allow the "let's pretend they are terrorists" way to hold. Just too many people involved.
There's quite the huge language divide it seems, as english students aren't striking in anywhere close to those numbers. No matter though, most students aren't striking. 170K is across Quebec if I'm not mistaken, and there are over 90K undergrads at McGill and Concordia alone. The student population in Quebec is staggeringly large.
DeleteThe longer it continues however, the more important the rhetoric is. If 11 more weeks from now the protests continue, and the rhetoric gets worse while public sentiment continues to be vitriolic, I wouldn't be surprised if the military was called in.
I think your estimates are a bit high. Overall, the movement concerns around 40% of the post-secondary student population (University+CEGEP).
DeleteAs for the importance of the rethoric: it's far, *far* less one-sided and heated in french. The Gazette, in particular, is flat out off the rails.
More importantly, I think the police isn't necessarily veering off control at large. I think the riot-police, just like defensemen in playoffs, understand they are in a situation (70+ straight days of people taking the streets for more or less large, more ore less pacific protests) where they have far more leeway than in usual circumstances. So they, you know, use it.
My overall guess is that the government will milk this until next week find some kind of half assed solution and then call an election.