I want to walk up to Jean Charest and say "Give your head a shake boy."
I will admit that living just west of La Belle Province, I was taking a bit of 'nothing much has changed since I was in university' approach to the student strike in Quebec this past year. I remember the dramatic increases university students faced in Ontario in the early 90s and was a bit fatalistic about the whole thing. Then, I heard about the Metro attacks and though... "Oy, not good for the cause." And for the student who genuine and peacefully want to speak up. Violence is about silencing voices and scaring people.
Then the elected Quebec government went ahead and lost their minds. In what seems to most of us to be a clear over-reaction to the situation, they passed a bill limiting free assembly all over the province -- forcing demonstrations of more than 50 people to register with the cops eight hours.
Which prompted a protest of 100,000 people and this really funny notification from the Gatineau Chamber of commerce asking police how many plain-clothed officer they'll be sending so they could adjust their catering order. (I'm trying to find it but it seems to have been taken down.) http://talktothehump.blogspot.ca/2012/05/snap.html.
I'm worried however, between attempt to get up in my uterus (again!), alleged election fraud, draconian legal changes, and just a whole whack of stuff that makes me wonder what country I woke up in. I just really have no clue what to do about it.
