Todos somos quebequenses! We Are All Québécois!
Posted 11 years ago on May 29, 2012, 2:57 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
March for public education in Santiago, Chile; August 7, 2011
Below is a statement of solidarity from Chilean academics and student leaders with the ongoing student protests in Montréal, Québéc, Canada. (English translation via Translating The Revolution.)
We Are All Québécois!
We the undersigned, Chilean academics and student leaders, denounce to national and international public opinion the persecution of the student movement in Québéc, Canada, expressed in Act 78, which was enacted on Thursday, May 19 by the government of Prime Minister Jean Charest.
Act 78—or the “Loi Matraque” (Rattle Law)—is the harshest since the War Measures Act in October 1970. It has been denounced by the President of the Bar of that province, as well as by Amnesty International, the Human Rights League, the four main trade unions, and various academic bodies.
It co-opts the fundamental freedoms of the citizens of Québéc by fundamentally restricting freedom of expression, freedom to demonstrate, and freedom of assembly, which are enshrined in both the Constitution and Québéc’s Charter of Rights. This law affects not only the students who have been on strike for fifteen weeks against higher tuition, but also all citizens—particularly teachers, academics, and workers, whose rights of expression and assembly are being affected.
Amongst these measures we denounce those that prevent spontaneous demonstrations of any group of more than fifty persons; the prohibition on protesting within fifty meters of a school; and the strengthening of police power by allowing police to decide at any time if a demonstration is legal or illegal, or if someone is an agitator.
By the same token, this law punishes any public expression of support for the demonstrations. For example, nobody in Québéc during a conflict may prevent the entry of students to colleges and universities, on pain of individual fines, fines to the student association or unions they belong to, as well as fines to union and student leaders. These penalties range from CA$1,000 to CA$125,000. Student leadership have announced they will challenge this law in court for being unconstitutional, and they have called for solidarity from all citizens.
The people of Québéc have for years stood by the Chilean people with their active solidarity. That’s why today we feel called to express and demonstrate our fullest solidarity with their student organizations and their leaders, with their labor unions, and with all citizen activists.
We do this for solidarity, but also because we understand that any attack against the freedoms of any place in the globalized world is an attack on our freedoms.
The so-called “Ley Hinzpeter” (Hinzpeter Law) driven by the Chilean government is part of the same repressive and undemocratic perspective.
The struggle of students, academics, and workers in Québéc is also our struggle.
Santiago de Chile, May 24, 2012.
(see here for list of signatories)
The average cost per year in Quebec for higher education is $2,500. The average cost here for a four year school is over $18,000 per year. What has these Quebececers so riled is not only the proposed tuition increases, but the new draconian law that limits dissent under penalties of heavy fines. So now what was a relatively small protest has turned into a multi-city one from north of Quebec City to south of Montreal, people are out in the streets. No longer will people be fooled by the old Franco vs. Anglo, and one party vs, the other paradigm. We in this country could learn from that.
Loi Matraque echos the Anglo efforts to stamp out French language and culture after WW II.
There's always some hole with severe paranoid personality traits looking to inflict behavioral tyranny on society. It does not depend on the involvement of an organized religion, either.
One of the first people that I met in OWS was a very bright, young, French woman who knew well the value of getting out in the streets. I have enormous respect for her. Unfortunately many people here believe this revolution can be brought to fruition aby voting for the right party.
NYC students have faced rising student debt for far too long. The strike in Quebec symbolizes a struggle for a system that provides everyone equal opportunity to achieve their full potential. Debt is slavery and education is the liberation that will help us win all our struggles. It is time to bring Quebec's infinite strike to the United States, starting in NYC.
We have created a Facebook page and Twitter to help us organize actions around NYC infinite strike Quebec solidarity marches, please like, follow, and share:
Tonight and every night, infinite student strike! Solidarity with students in Quebec and around the world. It is time to end debt. Washington Square Park at 8PM:
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/JDGC75
Twitter: http://bit.ly/ML0cM7
Yes, it's time for middle class kids to get more subsidy. Those poor oppressed Canadians. Oh, the humanity! Has the world really come to this? LOL.
Who to fuck are you people that you'd take this groveling for subsidy seriously? This is how Greece happened.
You Sir are a total piece of shit!
Sorry, I just call them as they are. Middle class whiners wanting more subsidy with no idea or care in the world about who pays. This is how Greece happened.
Gee and all this time I thougt it was the IMF and poor banking practices with corrupt politicians.Thanks for the insight.Perhaps they should follow Icelands lead.
Greece and the PIIGS generally happened because the EU generated its own Big Bubble starting in 2000-2002 to haul Germany out of a prolonged recession. That monetary expansion led to many Germans buying vacation and retirement homes or doing the scammy "time share" "buys" in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
Real estate prices in PIGS exploded on this retiree/vacation wave.
Ireland was somewhat different, as was Iceland. There it was perverse banking practices with no regulation whatsoever -- a la Greenspan and his "Mental Masturbation" take on running a Central Bank.
Free money formed up as a tsunami. Real estate prices in hot areas tripled.
Of course Germany got out of its recession. Hip-hip-hoo-effing-ray !!
And then Germany began a conscious policy of depressing wages. You will see this labelled "German Mercantilism." That is a wholly accurate coinage. The one and only cure/counterploy/strategy for the rest of EU to defeat German Mercantilism is for consumers to stop buying German products.
Same as America and China. Americans will have to stop buying Chinese goods en masse to stop the outflow of dollars. Chinese Mercantilism has quite the momentum today so don't expect to see that happen.
Nope, it wasn't. It was a government living on the fumes of borrowed money, with half the economy in government hands and its employees retiring at 50. It was a debt party and loads of laughs, well, until now. But that's the bankers' fault. LOL.
Translation correction: "Loi Matraque" means "Truncheon Law" not "Rattle Law" lol
The world is finally waking up!
The article reads like a scene from "Soylent Green".Next the authorities will send out front end loaders and tip trucks to round up protesters.The free West has turned into a police state.Time to vote out all dictators before the kleptocrats make forming new political parties illegal.Meanwhile back on Wall Street a new group of suckers is being fleeced with the Facebook IPO as the Investment Banks and Zuckerberg cash in on day one.So who are the suckers,well Superannuation Funds are one to start with.Protest hard,Solidarity.
I met a woman at Occupy Astoria who is a lawyer in the firm that is suing facebook for their IPO misdeeds.
May this law firm start bringing down this house of stacked cards Odin.Time to see insider traders jailed,dating back from the `87 crash retrospectively on to the present.
Yes the crap that goes on in Wall Street is pervasive. It was good to see a person like this being an Occupy supporter. She is not alone by a long shot in being yet another interesting, intelligent person that I have met at an Occupy event...Lots, and lots of good people involved in this from all walks of life. Did you see my reply to Betsy Ross?
Yes I did Odin,a good honest response.You may have planted the grain truth in the NYPD,all it takes is a grain planted in a fertile environment to grow the tree of wisdom.In time people will see the forest again through the corporate billboards.
agreed
Here is the lying technique used by Mitt Romney and his team. You get to see how they construct their big lies.
Search engine test: Mary Jo Kopechne and Leola Anderson.
Why does R-money lie about a dead priest? Mary Kopechne and Mrs. Leola Anderson. 1969 and 1968. Same difference. (Well, Ted Kennedy admitted responsibility from the next morning. R-money and his crew are trying to stick it on a dead priest.)
http://occupywallst.org/forum/mary-jo-kopechne-and-leola-anderson-rest-in-peace/
Monseigneur Albert Marie, a vehicular manslaughter in 1968, and the victim: Mrs. Leola Anderson.
Amazing the bald lies that get generated and then published without checking in NY Tmes and WaPo. E.g.: head-on collision with cars going 70 mph and 40 mph -- there's a pic of the actual damage !
Occupy Security page at Facebook has pics and more.
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