An Open Letter To English Canadians: Why I Am Taking A Walk In Downtown Montreal

Today I’m posting an open letter that was shared on Facebook, written by Daniel Weinstock, a Quebecer, to his “English-Canadian friends”, with permission to circulate it. It appears there were 518 people arrested during yesterday’s demonstrations (that’s more than were arrested during the 1970 FLQ crisis when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau introduced the War Measures Act).

You may have heard that there has been some turmoil in Quebec in recent weeks. There have been demonstrations in the streets of Montreal every night for almost a month now, and a massive demonstration will be happening tomorrow, which I will be attending, along with my wife, Elizabeth Elbourne, and my eldest daughter Emma.

Reading the Anglo-Canadian press, it strikes me that you have been getting a very fragmented and biased picture of what is going on. Given the gulf that has already emerged between Quebec and the rest of Canada in the wake of the 2011 election, it is important that the issues under discussion here at least be represented clearly. You may decide at the end of the day that we are crazy, but at least you should reach that decision on the basis of the facts, rather than of the distortions that have been served up by the G&M and other outlets.

First, the matter of the tuition hikes, which touched off this mess. The rest of the country seems to have reached the conclusion that the students are spoiled, selfish brats, who would still be paying the lowest tuition fees even if the whole of the proposed increase went through.

The first thing to say is that this is an odd conception of selfishness. Students have been sticking with the strikes even knowing that they may suffer deleterious consequences, both financial and academic. They have been marching every night despite the threat of beatings, tear-gas, rubber bullets, and arrests. It is, of course, easier for the right-wing media to dismiss them if they can be portrayed as selfish kids to whom no -one has ever said “no”. But there is clearly an issue of principle here.

OK, then. But maybe the principle is the wrong one. Free tuition may just be a pie-in-the sky idea that mature people give up on when they put away childish things. And besides, why should other people pay for the students’ “free” tuition? There is no such thing as “free” education. Someone, somewhere, has to pay. And the students, the criticism continues, are simply refusing to pay their “fair share”.

Why is that criticism simplistic? Because the students’ claim has never been that they should not pay for education. The question is whether they should do so up front, before they have income, or later, as taxpayers in a progressive taxation scheme. Another question has to do with the degree to which Universities should be funded by everyone, or primarily by those who attend them. So the issue of how to fund Universities justly is complicated. We have to figure out at what point in people’s lives they should be paying for their education, and we also have to figure out how much of the bill should be footed by those who do not attend, but who benefit from a University-educated work force of doctors, lawyers, etc. The students’ answer to this question may not be the best, but then it does not strike me that the government’s is all that thought out either.

And at least the students have been trying to make ARGUMENTS and to engage the government and the rest of society in debate, whereas the government’s attitude, other than to invoke the in-this-context-meaningless “everyone pays their faire share” argument like a mantra, has been to say “Shut up, and obey”.

What strikes the balance in the students’ favour in the Quebec context is that the ideal of no up-front financial hurdles to University access is enshrined in some of the most foundational documents of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution, in particular the Parent Commission Report, which wrested control of schools from the Church and created the modern Quebec education system, a cornerstone of the kind of society that many Quebeckers see themselves as aspiring to. Now, it could be that that ideal is no longer viable, or that we may no longer want to subscribe to it. But moving away from it, as Charest’s measures have done, at least requires a debate, analogous to the debate that would have to be had if the Feds proposed to scrap the Canada Health Act. It is clearly not just an administrative measure. It is political through and through. Indeed it strikes at fundamental questions about the kind of society we want to live in. If this isn’t the sort of thing that requires democratic debate, I don’t know what is.

The government has met the very reasonable request that this issue, and broader issues of University governance, be at least addressed in some suitably open and democratic manner with silence, then derision, then injunctions, and now, with the most odious “law” that I have seen voted by the Quebec National Assembly in my adult memory. It places the right of all Quebec citizens to assemble, but also to talk and discuss about these issues, under severe limitations. It includes that most odious of categories: crimes of omission, as in, you can get fined for omitting to attempt to prevent someone from taking part in an act judged illegal by the law. In principle, the simple wearing of the by-now iconic red square can be subject to a fine. The government has also made the student leaders absurdly and ruinously responsible for any action that is ostensibly carried out under the banners of their organizations. The students groups can be fined $125000 whenever someone claiming to be “part” of the movement throws a rock through a window. And so on. It is truly a thing to behold.

The government is clearly aware that this “law” would not withstand a millisecond of Charter scrutiny. It actually expires in July 2013, well before challenges could actually wind their way through the Courts. The intention is thus clearly just to bring down the hammer on this particular movement by using methods that the government knows to be contrary to basic liberal-democratic rule-of-law principles. The cynicism is jaw-dropping. It is beneath contempt for the government to play fast and loose with our civil rights and liberties in order to deal with the results of its own abject failure to govern.

So that is why tomorrow I will be taking a walk in downtown Montreal with (hopefully!) hundreds of thousands of my fellow citizens. Again, you are all free to disagree, but at least don’t let it be because of the completely distorted picture of what is going on here that you have been getting from media outlets, including some from which we might have expected more.

Daniel Weinstock

May 22nd, Montreal

More links:

NY Times: Our Not-So-Friendly Neighbour

Quebec Student Protestors Find Creative Ways Around Controversial New Law

Just For Laughs puts a lighter spin on the Montreal protests here.

0 thoughts on “An Open Letter To English Canadians: Why I Am Taking A Walk In Downtown Montreal”

  1. I have no sympathy. This is the type of socialist government Quebecers have wanted all along. Now they don’t like the monster they have produced, well too bad.

    They wanted a socialist government, they’ve got one now, complete with quasi-fascist rule.

    English Canada has warned Quebecers for years that their province is far too left, but they ignored the warnings.

    Quebecers have made this bed, they can sleep in it.

    English speaking Canadians have seen enough. Have a nice day Quebec.

    cheers

    Reply
    • Klem, you’re not speaking for ALL English Canadians here, and definitely not for me. Shame on you for not addressing the real issue here, which is an unwarranted increase of tuition. The government has a debt problem and want students to pay for their incompetencies Why would they want to do this?

      The ignorance of many English Canadians is beyond believe.

      Reply
  2. I wish I wasn’t so far away. I’d be walking too. Education is something that pays for itself without destroying anything.

    Unlike welfare-cheque collecting organizations like Exxon, for instance. Which contribute nothing except destruction.

    Reply
    • Hello Yank,

      Quebec students are rioting in the streets about their university tuition which will be increased from a staggeringly high $1600 a year to $2000. That’s what they’re protesting about. No, that’s not a typo, there isn’t a digit missing, they pay about $1600 a year for university.

      You’re a yank, that’s far higher tuition fees than you would pay in the States, right? So no wonder they are rioting.

      Actually the tuition protests ended after about a week, the real reason they are rioting is because they see students rioting on TV from France, and its just soooo cool.

      Moneky see, monkey do. That’s about it.

      cheers

      Reply
      • Once again, Klem, you are choosing to see a complex issue in terms of black and white. There’s much more to what’s going on in Quebec than what you suggest, as many observers have noted:
        ...a panel of political experts said the almost nightly protests in Montreal have transcended the student movement’s opposition to tuition fee hikes and are now more about the future of the province and basic rights. http://news.sympatico.ctv.ca/home/focus_of_quebec_protests_swells_beyond_tuition_hikes/58fc1bb3

        From “The Guardian”: So far, for most of Canada, the protests could be dismissed as just another case of Quebecers wanting more than is reasonable, but, then again, what is reasonable? How much is a degree worth? The rest of Canada can point to its high tuition fees and ask why Quebecers aren’t paying more. Or we could ask why we’re paying so much. Quebec clearly cannot continue funding education without reaching a breaking point, but it’s a matter of priorities. Perhaps the rest of the country should ask itself why cheap tertiary education isn’t one. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/27/quebec-tuition-fee-protests-canada-listen

        But a very good question to ask at this point, especially since lawyers have publicly joined the protest against the repressive and anti-democratic Bill 78, is why a government that is elected by the people to represent their interests, feels justified in using extreme force (stun grenades, kettling) to enforce its will on peaceful protestors? That should alarm any Canadian who wants a free and democratic country:

        What started as a peaceful downtown protest by more than 2,000 Quebec students against higher tuition fees turned ugly Thursday just as the demonstration started winding down. Montreal riot police had to move in and use stun grenades and pepper spray to disperse a rowdy group of students after scuffling with them outside a government building.

        http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110331/mtl_student_110331/20110331/?hub=MontrealHome

        Reply
  3. I think one of the reasons Quebecers are ready to hit the streets is that they haven’t been as brainwashed by the mainstream media as their English speaking cousins. Those Cdns who tune into Fox “News” (Klem, perhaps?) are conditioned to see the world through the lense of an American us-versus-them, right-versus-left, black and white dumbed-down mentality. Life is never that simple. And I for one am very grateful to our Quebec brothers and sisters for standing up for a different vision of the world. Merci beaucoup!

    Reply

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