This is a beautiful video:
Tag Archives: manifencours
A cacerolazo in Montreal?
There have been a huge amount of reports on Twitter of people grabbing pots and pans and heading to the streets to bang them around and make noise in Montreal.
While it’s impossible to immediately compare the student fees protest with the Argentine economic collapse, it is perhaps poetic that the same mode of protest is appearing in both locations. In Argentina, it’s a cacerolazo. In Quebec, it’s a “concert des casseroles.”
Continue reading A cacerolazo in Montreal?
Quebec: Art, Manifestation, & Protest
Watching the Quebec student protests over the past few weeks has been kind of amazing, especially from the Vancouver viewpoint. While the protests have been going on for more than three months – today is the 100th day of protests – they have not really been intensely covered in the English media until the Quebec government of Jean Charest passed Law 78, which is an emergency law aimed at preventing the students from protesting by imposing strict limitations on when and where and how protest can be done. I’ve done some work on drilling down the effects of the law over here.
Now, while the Quebec Minister of Justice is busy declaring that civil disobedience is synonymous with vandalism, it appears that the Quebecoises and Quebecois themselves have decided that they’ve had enough with laws that go too far. The protest held today (22 May 2012) has varying estimates for attendees, but safe to say, it was more than 50.
One impressive thing that’s emerged is a fantastic amount of engagement through art. There have been songs, pieces of performance art, Anarchopanda, and so much more that have come out of Quebec sharing the amazing power of the struggle.
Art, of course, has the power of being beautiful aesthetically, but art can also be so incredibly powerful as to connect us across millieus and disparate experiences towards a common understanding. Parenthetically, that’s one of the reasons I’m involved in the amazing Art for Impact.
From Quebec, recently, I’ve found some music and music videos that should be shared. First up is the song “jeudi 17 mai” by Ariane Moffat, which we’ve featured before, and there is more after the jump. Be sure to play them all – and if you have more, let me know in the comments below and I’ll add them.
jeudi 17 mai 2012
This song, by Ariane Moffat, is a piece that condemns the Loi Spéciale passed by the Quebec government.
Continue reading Quebec: Art, Manifestation, & Protest
Quebec Law Seeks to End Student Strikes, Prohibit Protests with 10+ People Without Notice
Tonight in the Assemblée Nationale, Quebec Premier Jean Charest is pushing through a law that would seek to end the Quebec student protests (the #GGI, or the #manifencours).
The law would prohibit “demonstrations” in a “venue accessible by the public” unless the organizers of the demonstration had provided at least eight hours written notice to the police of the venue, the route, the time, date, duration, means of transport. Additionally, the police would have the ability to force a change to any of the details.
Massive fines are provided for organizers who disobey, but also for participants who take part and do not “ensure” that the law’s requirements are upheld.
These are only two of the clauses in the controversial bill, and two that would not likely withstand constitutional challenge. When and if such a challenge would be undertaken remains to be seen.
Twitter users can follow #manifencours, #ggi, #loispeciale for constant commentary en francais.
And, to the police: “On va manifester partout, tout les temps. A la prochaine.”
More to come.