Montréal: A Day At The Protest

Protests flared through the streets of Montréal today as thousands gathered at the Place du Canada to march against tuition fee hikes and the Liberal government of Jean Charest. For the past six months mass demonstrations have been held on the 22nd of each month to keep the heat on the government. With a provincial election scheduled for September 4, students are determined to keep the issues of access to education and the draconian Bill 78 alive.

Yuko and I arrived into Montréal late last night, just in time to join the festivities. It was exhilarating to take part and witness the revitalization of the protests. Organizers were encouraged to see more people participating than previous months, but estimates varied widely.

According to the Montreal Gazette, La Coalition large de l’Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (CLASSE) put the number at 100,000, while a counting firm hired by Radio-Canada put it at 12,250, and some journalists placed it at closer to 20,000.

(With Guerrilla Panda)

The whole event was conducted peacefully and lasted about two hours. Much of the media has been trying to write off the students, calling past turn-outs "anemic" and suggesting the movement is dwindling. But after today, that may only be wishful thinking.

(Socking it to Charest)

Pas Cool Jean: Charest's Folly

"Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it" ~ H.D. Thoreau

The Quebec government of Jean Charest has revealed a stunning lack of political savvy with Bill 78, the most draconian legislation to appear since Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act in 1970. Just when it had the sympathy of a majority of Quebecers against the ongoing student tuition-hike protests, the government has now resorted to a set of laws designed to restrict the civil rights of all its citizens. Charest has not only overplayed his hand, he's also activated a backlash that may sweep him out of power in the next provincial election, which could come as early as this year.

The bill was hastily thrown together and includes some ridiculous restrictions that directly contravene the Canadian Charter of Rights. As the Montreal Gazette reports:

Article 16 – which stipulates an organizer of a demonstration of 10 people or more (later amended to 50 or more) must first submit the itinerary, date and time to the police – had people asking about their soccer teams, church picnics and the Canadiens. What if we won the Stanley Cup and poured out onto the streets to celebrate? Illegal, under this law.

Faculty are targeted as well through Article 29, which covers crimes of omission. “Anyone who, by act or omission, helps or, by encouragement, advice, consent, authorization or command, induces a person to commit an offence under this act is guilty ...”

Daniel Weinstock, a philosophy professor at the Université de Montréal, wondered if that means he can’t teach his students about Karl Marx?

As Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, spokesperson for (CLASSE), the largest of Quebec’s four student federations, has said, "For us, education is a fundamental right; no economic barriers should prevent anyone from pursuing his or her education."



According to Berkeley Political Science Professor Wendy Brown, such desperate acts on the part of a government reveal its fundamental impotency. In her 2010 book, Walled States, Waning Sovereignty, Brown suggests that when invoking these restrictions the state isn't asserting sovereignty, but rather is reacting defensively to an outside threat from a weakened posture. The notion that any state could ever be regarded as a sovereign actor that feels itself under such siege is ludicrous. Bill 78 can actually be interpreted as the last gasps of power. As long as the state has the sovereign ability to enforce a state of precariousness, the conflict in Quebec will likely intensify into an ever-worsening relationship between the government and its citizens.

Paul-Émile Borduas: Resplendent Anarchy

“To hell with the holy-water-sprinkler and the tuque!”

The "Refus Global" (Total Refusal) manifesto, released in 1948, was a cri de coeur against "La Grande Noirceur" ("The Great Darkness") of Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis' stifling reign. Spearheaded by artist Paul-Émile Borduas and Les Automatistes based in Montreal, Refus Global is now regarded as one of the very first salvos in what would eventually become known as the Quiet Revolution (Révolution Tranquille) over a decade later. The reaction was immediate and swift - within a month of its release in August 1948, Borduas lost his teaching position at l'École du Meuble.

Borduas in his Saint-Hilaire workshop, 1950

According to the Canadian Encyclopedia:

"Refus global not only challenged the traditional values of Québec but also fostered an opening-up of Québec society to international thought. The manifesto advocated a strong need for liberation, if not 'resplendent anarchy,' and anticipated the coming of a 'new collective hope.'"

Borduas, Composition, 1942

While only 400 copies of the manifesto were printed, they sold out quickly.

"The reign of hydra-headed fear has ended.

In the wild hope of effacing its memory, I enumerate:
- fear of facing prejudice -- fear of public opinion -- of persecutions -- of general disapproval;
- fear of being alone, without the God and the society which isolate you anyway;
- fear of oneself -- of one's brother -- of poverty;
- fear of the established order -- or ridiculous justice;
- fear of new relationships;
- fear of the superrational;
- fear of necessities;
- fear of floodgates opening on one's faith in man -- on the society of the future;
- fear of forces able to release transforming love;
- blue fear -- red fear -- white fear; links in our shackles."

Along with Borduas, the Automatistes included such artists as Jean-Paul Riopelle, Pierre Gauvreau, and Marcel Barbeau whose work resembled New York abstract expressionists Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock.

Marcel Barbeau, Rosier-feuilles (Rosebush leaves), 1946

Below is an excellent NFB documentary from 1954, "Artists in Montreal" on the Automatistes.