carrément dans le rouge

Crowd by JustinLing via Flickr (Creative Commons Attribution license)

Tonight is Casseroles Night in Canada (and around the world), in protest against Quebec Premier Jean Cherest's plan to raise tuition in that province, austerity and Bill 78, which makes a gathering of more than fifty people illegal in QC--and is therefore unconstitutional (it goes against section 2. (c)--peaceful assembly--of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms) and also severely punishes those who support the protest. Since May twenty-second, there have been nightly protests in Quebec in defiance of the bill, and the march on the twenty-second--the one hundredth day of protests--was the largest protest in Canadian history.

Since the Occupy movement started last September, I've become more aware of how the one per cent is attempting to shut the ninety-nine per cent up. They want to control us, and protect their wealth and their ability to do whatever the heck they want. Well, we've had enough--and the Establishment is scared big-time.

Much of the mainstream media outside Quebec has ignored, dismissed or demonized the protests. They say that the students should just shut up, return to class and accept higher tuition. They criticize the protesters for what they deem a "sense of entitlement". But what's so wrong about demanding better than what we're being asked to accept?

As a result, I support the protest because everyone has the right to an affordable college or university education (ahem, US), perhaps even a free education like they do in some European countries--and we should keep it that way--and although Quebec has the lowest tuition fees in Canada, unfortunately we need to fight (nonviolently!) to maintain those rates, especially at a time when Canadian students collectively owe $20 billion in student loans, as of 2011. I support the protest because everyone also has the constitutional right to peaceful assembly. I support the protest because austerity sucks and doesn't work. I support the protest because Bill 78 sucks and is unconstitutional. I support the protest because civil disobedience is traditionally one of the most effective forms of protest--and the bravest. And I support the protest because humanity has finally snapped as of a year ago, with the Arab Spring.

And this is coming from someone who went to a fairly inexpensive school in New Brunswick. I support the protest because although I had it fairly good, I'm in the minority.




English translation:

You tell them
You tell them
That it was instinct that
Drove you up to here.
You tell them
You tell them
That your senses were screaming
Deeply driven
By a strange force
Let it be your base camp.
Let it be your base camp.
You tell them
You tell them
That it was intuition that
Drove you up to here
A carelessness
So necessary every now and then
Let it be your base camp.
Let it be your base camp.

--from Translating the Printemps Érable