Quebec divided, stumbles again

By a small percentage Quebec voters chose a minority government for the province that is dedicated to the creation of a nation, that is, independent of Canada.  A referendum could be called at any time the Parti Québécois chooses, if it can be shown that 15% of the population is in favour. 

Premier-designate Pauline Marois (PQ, Charlevoix - Côte de Beaupré) has not suggested she wants a referendum in the near future, but the blackmail game against Ottawa is about to start.

Now 63, Mme Marois has been in public life for over 30 years, and held more than a dozen cabinet posts including finance, health, and deputy premier. Formerly resident of a multi-million dollar sixteen hectare estate at Île Bizard, she and financier land developer husband now live more modestly in Old Montreal.

Liberals were less than 1% behind PQ in popular vote, with 50 seats in the next legislature, compared to 54 for PQ and 19 for CAQ (Coalition Avenir Québec). It has been announced that the new government will annul the contested increases in student tuition (to be replaced by another scheme geared to inflation), and repeal Law 12 of 18 May 2012. University budgets, already in deficit, have been thrown into disarray.

The new government is be sworn in on 19 September 2012.

                           Léo Bureau-Blouin (PQ, Laval des Rapides)

20 yo, former junior college student and  activist; he uses all  the separatist rhetoric and  photographs well

The Economist

Rex Murphy wrote [National Post, 8 September 2012]:

It’s the same thing every time. In our benignly patriotic fantasies, we see Quebec separatism off to the churchyard, attend the lowering of the flower-spotted casket and picture the priest murmuring the lovely farewell prayers for the departed — then the reverie suddenly collapses. The bubble bursts, and this comforting tableau over a finally finished separatist movement is revealed to be all wish, no reality.

We realize that Quebec separatism is a durable entity — has a new guise every time it comes back — and that our fantasies about its vanishing are but self-comforting deceptions practised on ourselves.

Quebec separatism, like its odd twin the neverendum-referendum, has more lives than a sack of cats. This week, as if to illustrate the point, we saw yet another return of the lumbering beast, the victory of a Quebec minority government for the latest separatist avatar Pauline Marois. Naturally the victory, even though premised on a rather thin and meagre 30-plus percent of the popular vote, started the whole conversation around separatism and Quebec independence all over again. The dragon returns.

But I also sense something important and quite different from our last encounters with the beast. For the first time since Quebec separation became a real issue for all Canadians — which was, I suggest, as long ago as the turbulent ’60s, and the launch of the (then famous) Bi and Bi Commission — the threat of Quebec walking out of the federation does not send chills up the spines of people outside Quebec.

I cannot speak for the dynamics within Quebec, but outside, the feeling is more and more clear. The game of threat, campaign and referendum is worn out. The emotions stirred in so many Canadians early on in this process — the strong, reflexive urge to prevent something as horrible as the breakup of the country — have greatly decayed. Separatism is no longer seen as a legitimate yearning for recognition or respect. People believe Quebec has received both in good measure.

Separatism is more often seen now as a tactical way to lever goodies from weak federal governments, or to claim special privileges within Quebec. A tool in the political box, not a cry from the heart.

Outside Quebec, the mood on Quebec separatism is not so much indifference, as low-boil annoyance. If Ms. Marois were to reach a level of popular support within her minority that enabled her to try once more for a Yes in a referendum, I very much suspect the general citizenry outside Quebec would stifle a yawn, profess annoyance and urge them to “get on with it.” The endless ping-pong of “we’re going, no, we’re staying” has become very flat, weary and stale. No Quebec separatist politician can count on some huge rally of non-Canadians to raise a storm of “don’t go” should there be a next time.

Call it what you will. After a generation of separatist politics, after enduring the presence of a separatist party (the Bloc Québécois) in the House of Commons, after all the strains and emotions of fighting referendum campaigns, most people are quite tired of it all. And the federalist elements within Quebec — particularly those great long-sufferers, Quebec anglos — must surely by now have come to a point of utter, frustrated exhaustion.

So if Ms. Marois’ new government intends to pick up the old game of “demanding” everything from Ottawa, as she simultaneously denounces the federalism that has routinely given Quebec’s demands so high a priority, the current Prime Minister will not jump to deliver. Her game will be seen as the feeble, out-of-date act it is. Harper may even, with justice, turn the request around and ask her what Quebec is bringing to the federation in exchange.

Ms. Marois’ government might contemplate the following as an axiom: A separatist provincial government should never demand more than what is requested by the provincial governments that actually support, believe in and want to remain in Canada.

Ecuadorian asylum for Wikileaks Julian Assange

Ecuador on 16 August 2012 granted diplomatic asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, currently an advisory board member. An Australian citizen who has never been in Ecuador, he sought refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on 19 June. That followed British court decisions approving his extradition to Sweden on charges of rape and sexual assault against two women.

British government does not recognize the validity of diplomatic asylum, and will not in any circumstances permit safe passage of Assange to Ecuador or anywhere else for that matter. For the time being talks continue with the Ecuadorian government, but there has been mention that domestic law* permits the suspension of diplomatic immunity of an embassy in a specific situation of national interest. Should that occur police would forcibly enter the building and arrest the individual to be deported.

*  Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act (1987)

Of course,  the international repercussions of such an unusual action would be hard to anticipate.

In the background is the possibility that the United States might request Assange's extradition from Sweden to face charges relating to the publication by Wikileaks in 2010 of a vast number of classified U.S. diplomatic cables and military documents relating to the Iraq and Afghan conflicts. Judged authentic, some were subsequently published in the New York Times and The Guardian.

In the United States Pfc. Bradley Manning, U.S. Army, intelligence analyst who passed on documents to Wikileaks, was arrested in May 2011 on 22 charges, including aiding the enemy, wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the Internet, transmitting national defence information, and theft of public property or records. He has been imprisoned at Fort Meade, MD and Fort Leavenworth, KS, at times under harsh conditions, and is not facing court martial until February 2013.

Aghanistan: green-on-blue shootings

Infiltration or bad blood? 

Reasons for Afghan forces' attacks on allies offer little comfort

BY KAY JOHNSON, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

17 AUGUST 2012 5:02 PM

[Montreal Gazette]

KABUL - The U.S. military trainers handed the new recruit, Mohammad Ismail, his AK-47 to defend his remote Afghan village. He turned around and immediately used it, spraying the Americans with bullets and killing two — the latest of nine U.S. service personnel gunned down in two weeks by their supposed Afghan allies.

The shooting in western Farah province was not the only such attack Friday. Hours later a few provinces away in Kandahar, an Afghan soldier wounded two more coalition troopers.

One turncoat attack per month raised eyebrows last year. One per week caused concern earlier this year. But when Afghan forces turn their guns on international trainers twice in a day — as they now have two weeks in a row — it's hard to argue there's not something going on. The question is, what is it?

The U.S.-led alliance says it's too soon to tell what's behind the rash of insider attacks. The most likely explanations: Either the Taliban are increasingly infiltrating the Afghan police and army, or relations between Afghan and American forces are turning toxic — or both.

"There's no positive spin on this," said Andrew Exum, an analyst with the Washington-based Center for a New American Security who has advised the top U.S. generals in Kabul. He said the number of Afghan insider attacks has risen beyond what can be explained as isolated incidents.

That's bad news for the U.S. exit strategy for Afghanistan, which has seen Washington spend more than $20 billion on training and equipping a nearly 340,000-member Afghan security force on the assumption that it would eventually be strong enough to fight the Taliban on its own.

The coalition has downplayed the insider attacks as anomalies and mostly a result of personal grievances, even as their numbers soared from 11 last year to 29 so far in 2012. The alliance says only about 10 per cent of the attacks were related to infiltration by the Taliban insurgency. But that analysis was done before the latest furious spate of seven attacks in 11 days, a frequency that suggests some type of co-ordination.

"Whether or not these specific events turn out to be insurgent-initiated ... we're just going to have to do the investigations and figure that out," said Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.

Some historians are hard-pressed to find precedent for this in previous wars.

"I have never heard of anything in Vietnam comparable to what we have recently experienced in Afghanistan," said James McAllister, a political science professor at Williams College in Massachusetts who has written extensively about the Vietnam War. A British military expert on colonial wars, Martin Windrow, said the level of these types of attacks were "almost unheard of" in any conflict he'd studied.

Exum said the insider attacks have "tremendous strategic impact" because they damage morale among international troops and further weaken support for the war in the U.S. and other NATO nations training Afghan soldiers and police to take over security nationwide by 2014.

What's unclear, he added, is how much influence the Taliban actually have in organizing the increasing numbers of attacks.

The insurgents have been happy to take credit. The Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, boasted Thursday that the insurgents "have cleverly infiltrated into the ranks of the enemy" and were killing a rising number of U.S.-led coalition forces.

Defence Secretary Leon Panetta told The Associated Press in an interview this week that the attacks may reflect the Taliban's use of unconventional tactics against a coalition force it cannot defeat on the battlefield. He added that U.S. military commanders say such attacks still remain "sporadic" and not a long-term trend.

Friday's deadly shooting in Farah, at least by the accounts of local Afghan officials, seemed unlikely to be a personal dispute. Mohammad Ismail, a man in his 30s, had joined the Afghan Local Police just five days earlier. He opened fire during an inauguration ceremony attended by American and Afghan forces in Kinisk village, Farah provincial police chief Agha Noor Kemtoz said.

"As soon as they gave the weapon to Ismail to begin training, he took the gun and opened fire toward the U.S. soldiers," Kemtoz said. The police chief added that he had warned U.S. forces organizing and training the community not to move too fast to recruit in the village, which he said is heavily influenced by the Taliban.

Afghan military analyst Amrullah Amman has no doubt that Taliban infiltration of Afghan security forces is rising. He said that despite new methods of screening, it's simple to forge documents and invent references in Afghanistan.

"The gate is wide open. The enemy is infiltrating because they see it's very easy," Amman said.

But the turncoat attacks may also reflect growing mistrust and resentment among Afghans working with international forces.

Afghan soldiers interviewed by the AP earlier this year offered their own explanations: The Afghans feel disrespected, the soldiers said. They complained of getting inferior equipment and condescending treatment by Americans.

In May 2011, a U.S. Army team led by a behavioural scientist compiled a survey that indicated many Afghan security personnel found U.S. troops "extremely arrogant, bullying and unwilling to listen to their advice."

"I think infiltration is easier to address, actually," Exum said. "I think the worse thing is, if your entire strategy going forward from the next three or four years depends on partnering with Afghan forces, then if relations have already devolved to this degree, you're really worried."

___

Associated Press writers Amir Shah in Kabul and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed to this report.

Similar incidents have occurred with British and other NATO forces training Afghan police and military personnel.

[New York Times, 21 August 2012]:

KABUL — General Martin Dempsey, chairman of [U.S.] Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Afghanistan on Monday [21 August 2012] for discussions on the progress of the war, including an intensified wave of insider attacks by Afghan forces on NATO service members, even as New Zealand became the latest coalition partner to announce an accelerated troop withdrawal.

Pussy Riot

On 21 February 2012 three members of the punk band and radical feminist collective Pussy Riot pulled a flash stunt in the sanctuary of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour singing a song entitled "Holy Shit" and chanting "Virgin Mary, Mother of God, send Putin packing". Consequently the incident was posted by the group on YouTube.

Kyrill I, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, had impicitly been supporting the candidacy of Vladimir Putin for the presidency, and many priests had been doing so openly. Putin was elected President of the Russian Federation three days after the incident.

The three women were arrested on 3 March charged with hooliganism and held in custody at times under harsh conditions. They are: Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30. Two are mothers of young children. Mme Tolokonnikova holds a valid Canadian residency card; her husband is a dual Russian-Canadian citizen, educated in Canada.

On 17 August 2012 Judge Marina Syrova in Khamovnichesky District Court of Central Moscow found them guilty of the charge, aggravated by blasphemy offensive to the Orthodox Church. Prosecution had called for a sentence of three years. The judge sentenced them to two years of labour camp less time served.

Statement of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova [New York Times, 17 August 2012]:

To my deepest regret, this mock trial is close to the standards of the Stalinist troikas. Who is to blame for the performance at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and for our being put on trial after the concert? The authoritarian political system is to blame. What Pussy Riot does is oppositional art or politics. In any event, it is a form of civil action in circumstances where basic human rights, civil and political freedoms are suppressed.

Troikas were commissions of three NKVD (secret police) officers who summarily tried millions of political prisoners in the USSR.

The sentence was appealed on 28 August 2012. Defence counsel was not optimistic. The appeal will be heard 10 October 2010.

International reaction of many governments and press has been highly critical of a trial worthy of the Inquisition, most calling the sentence disproportional. Le Monde [18 August 2012] notes the difficulty of the defence to get access to all the elements of the trial, and the fact that blasphemy is not a crime mentioned in the criminal code:  

Avec ce verdict, le troisième mandat de Vladimir Poutine bascule dans le ridicule. Plus que jamais, l'appareil judiciaire russe vient de se déconsidérer, bafouant les droits de la défense – les avocats n'ont pas vraiment eu accès au dossier d'accusation –  ainsi que le code pénal – le blasphème n'y figure pas. Sans parler de la Constitution, qui fait de la Fédération russe, multiethnique et multiconfessionnelle, un Etat laïc.

A government spokesman ridiculed public hysteria surrounding the case, saying that the law functioned impartially without interference. It was reported that authorities were meanwhile looking to identify two other participants of Pussy Riot who took part on 21 February.

[El País, 20 August 2012]  The two, however, were reported to have probably fled the country. About a dozen other members of the collective remain active in Russia.

 [reports 26 August 2012.]

For three hours on Tuesday, 21 August 2012, hackers apparently of Anonymous collective got into the web site of the Moscow district court where Pussy Riot were tried. One of  PR songs was embedded along with one by a Bulgarian supporter. A headline read: Putin's thieving gang is robbing our country! Wake up, comrades! 

[NYT, 21 August 2012]

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova replied in writing from prison via her lawyer to numerous questions from Der Spiegel about the meaning of the protest. See issue 36 (3 September 2012). The movement is described as anti-authoritarian, feminist, and anti-capitalist, artists with a political and social agenda of whom there have been many in Russian history.

Pussy Riot were awarded a LennonOno grant for peace in New York, and there was a fund raising event there this week. [21 September 2012]

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedyev was quoted to believe the two-year sentence was excessive, while in no way condoning the offensive actions of the group.

Medvedev also said that he believes a suspended sentence, including the six-plus months the women have already served, would have been enough. "Prolonging their time in prison in connection to this case seems unproductive," he said. Still, Medvedev said he was "sickened" by the group's acts and the "hysteria" they caused. [Rolling Stone, 12 September 2012]

With Pussy Riot now one of the best-known symbols of the Russian political opposition, any development in their case attracts enormous attention and mobilization efforts. Security was tightened around the courthouse [for first appeal session on 1 October 2012]  as defenders of the Russian Orthodox Church chanted hymns and engaged in public prayer. Meanwhile, supporters of Pussy Riot brought an inflatable doll to the courthouse wearing a balaclava. Several people were arrested, including members of a Ukrainian male dance group called Kazaky [Cossacks], who appeared in support of Pussy Riot. [NYT, 1 October 2012]

Anticipated election in Quebec

At the moment Quebec is the most indebted Canadian province, with the highest unemployment rate, and most unpopular government in the country. Premier Charest has called an early election, uncharacteristically in the summer, perhaps to throw opponents somewhat off guard, and to tap into a silent majority upset by the recklessness and occasional street violence of students and Black Bloc opportunists.

In an earlier blog I noted:

A provincial election has been called in Quebec for 4 September 2012. “In the last few months we’ve heard a lot from a number of student leaders," said Premier Jean Charest. "We’ve heard from people in the street. We’ve heard from those who have been hitting away at pots and pans. Now is the time for the silent majority.”
 [in Quebec City, 1 August 2012, after the electoral writ was signed by the Lieutenant-Governor]

Parti Québécois immediately announced, if elected, it would cancel increases in student tuition and scrap the exceptional law of 18 May 2012. Léo Bureau-Blouin is running as candidate in Laval des Rapides; he is past president of Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec (FECQ). They would like students to stay off the streets for now and concentrate on gathering votes for their party. But Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, still spokesman for CLASSE, the largest student group, made clear that public militancy was going to continue.

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois suddenly resigned his function with CLASSE, and is not planning any political activity. There have been many comments about his charisma and intelligence. Could he be returning to studies? [8 August 2012]

He actually quietly began to work as a researcher for large trade union Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) which strongly supported the student action. [17 September 2012]

le beau Gabriel

I have searched but cannot find the text of the decree dissolving the National Assembly and ordering the general election in Quebec, only the following announcement from the Director General of Elections:  

En vertu d'un décret du gouvernement du Québec, le directeur général des élections, doit tenir des élections générales au Québec, le 4 septembre prochain.

[at web site of the provincial legislature:]
Le 1er août 2012, le lieutenant-gouverneur a proclamé la dissolution de l’Assemblée nationale. Par conséquent, les élections générales auront lieu le mardi 4 septembre 2012.  La dissolution de l’Assemblée a mis fin à la 39e législature.

Au moment de la dissolution, la composition de l'Assemblée était la suivante :

• Parti libéral du Québec (chef : Jean Charest) : 64 députés
• Parti québécois (chef : Pauline Marois) : 47 députés
• Députés indépendants :
• Coalition avenir Québec : 9 députés
• Option nationale : 1 député
• Québec solidaire : 1 député
• Autres : 2 députés
• Circonscription vacante : 1 (Bourassa-Sauvé)

Pauline Marois (PQ) is strangely sounding off about the Queen and the monarchy! Is this in any way relevant to the provincial election? Too bad we can't hit her for treason and lèse majésté.

Crash!

Just two days after installing the newest Apple OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion in my 27” 2TB iMac the computer crashed. I was cut off from over 300 GB of valuable data, much of it not backed up. Two hours on the telephone with AppleCare did not solve the problem. I was referred to an Apple Store where the computer was expertly repaired in a day without loss of data.

This has been a learning experience. I have meanwhile learned how to use Time Machine (which I did not previously understand) and am now fully backed up in both computers that I use.

student choreography

Canada's National Ballet School

Stephen Godfrey Choreographic Workshop

A programme of 16 short works was choreographed by students aged 14 to 19, and danced by same ages. The pieces were diverse, interesting, mostly contemporary style, often surprisingly intricate. Every emotion at some point was touched on. The quality of dance was certainly admirable and a pleasure to watch.

Arma virumque

The student shooter apprehended in Aurora, CO legally possessed two .40 calibre Glock handguns, an AR-15 assault rifle, a Remington 12 gauge shotgun, and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

What questions does this raise? In the US apparently not many.

Bill Maher

It's never the right time to talk gun control in America — we go right from "too soon" to "it's forgotten".

[Facebook]

New York Times, 24 July 2012:
Surveys show support for gun control has never been lower. An annual Gallup poll of the issue in October last year found that for the first time, a majority, 53%, opposed a ban on semiautomatic guns, or assault rifles, and a record low 26% favoured banning handguns. Support for stricter laws was down in all subgroups, with 64% of Democrats favouring stricter laws, 37% of independents and 31% of Republicans.

Right now, after the Aurora shooting, gun sales have been escalating in Colorado and throughout the United States. Yet there has been not the slightest move to control arms in the US.

President Obama has been vaguely calling for better vetting of persons who have weapons, and observing that assault weapons belong in the military, not on the streets. The most vocal and consistent call for change comes from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the affiliated Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Alone in a crowd

Bronze Crowd (1990-1991)
Magdalena Abakonowicz (Polish, 1930 - )

The installation of 36 figures, each a bit different, is in Dallas, TX where I was in November 2003.

Fête nationale française

I think that the annual military parade on the Champs Élysées is a splendid public occasion for the display of national pride. The President of the Republic is also very much in view, each with his distinct style. This year there was emphasis on alliances with a UNO contingent opening the parade, and German battalion with flag passing in review for the first time.

I must reflect on the pitiful event that Ottawa musters on 1 July. At least the fireworks are impressive.

Vive la France!

new blog site

I was distressed to find that blogger.com has blacked out a lot the illustrations to my posts without explanation. Some, not all, were posters of movies that I reviewed or commented on. As protest I shall mainly discontinue posting at this site. Instead I plan to make use of my own:

                                                     http: lewis27.ca/blogspot

at Toronto garden show, 22 March 2012   

Raymonda

Raymonda
Раймонда
chor. Marius Petipa (1898), Aleksander Gorsky (1900)
recension Yuri Grigorovich (2003)

Bolshoi Ballet
simulcast from Moscow on 24 June 2012
with Maria Aleksandrova (Raymonda), Ruslan Skvortsov (Jean de Brienne), and Pavel Dmitrichenko (Abderahman)

The production was lavish and impressive, with peerless principals and excellent support of virtuoso soloists and corps de ballet.

War of 1812

On 18 June 1812 the U.S. declared war on Great Britain. The future of Canada was at stake!

Commemorations have been minor and sporadic, with little interest anywhere. Yet it is a fundamental event in the founding of this country.

Quebec students and the law

Arrests of student and other demonstrators in Quebec this spring have been been about 4000, mostly for minor offences against municipal by-laws or highway regulations. These have incurred fines for the most part, typically about $600 or $700, and do not leave a criminal record.

Pending are a number of criminal charges that are more serious, under many headings: mischief over $5000, inciting fear of a terrorist attack, possession of a prohibited weapon, obstruction of justice, assault of a police officer, conspiracy to commit a criminal act, participation in a riot, and participation in an unlawful assembly, to name most.

Four students, currently on bail, face charges relating to the smoke bombing of the Montreal subway system.

Student organizations have raised thousands of dollars to pay for legal costs and to reimburse fines.

In the residence of Amir Khadar, member of the legislature (Québec Solidaire), himself arrested and fined, is an allegorical black flag poster showing himself triumphant with rifle over the dead or dying body of the Premier of the province! The poster originated with anarchist performing group Mise en demeure who, to the tune of Ah! vous-dirais-je maman, sing about clubbing the Minister of Education on the head. It is actually the cover of their 2010 album, based on the iconic Eugène Delacroix painting of Liberty in the 1830 rebellion in France. Many, if not most of their songs involve some violence.
14 June 2012


Eugène Lacroix, La liberté guidant le peuple (1830)

This week:
About 100 demonstrators delayed their evening march to get a $10 red patch tattoo on their bodies.
Pauline Marois, leader of Parti Québécois, has been wearing the red patch.
Montreal is asking the province for $10 m to cover municipal costs related to nightly demonstrations.
An assembly of assorted pots, pans, and casseroles makes a tempting battery for a percussionist. La Presse published video of an enthusiast at work.
16 June 2012

Citizen resentment of entitled students will help the government if an election is called soon.
20 June 2012

Although Pauline Maurois was incongruously beating a casserole at Argenteuil recently, she no longer sports the red square. The PQ in power would reduce the increase in students fees, she said, but not abolish them. Opportunist that she is, she is aware of the unpopularity of the students' fizzled spring.
30 June 2012

A web site is now calling on students to prevent resumption of the interrupted semester at the 14 CEGEP's and 11 universities designated by the exceptional law. Meanwhile CLASSE has called for a return to the streets on 22 July.
[Montreal Gazette, 12 July 2012]

As delayed term resumed numerous student protesters and hangers-on, many of them masked, disrupted classes at the Université de Montréal and UQAM. Police intervened at UQAM, and 20 were arrested, all but one charged under Law 12 of 18 May 2012. Most students have voted for an end of the six-month strike. [28 August 2012]

naked and ugly in Quebec

Jacques Villeneuve commented about the students this week that they must have grown up with parents who never said "no". They were tiresome, threatening to disrupt Grand Prix Formula 1 in Montreal and, he thought, "it's time to go back to school."

Villeneuve, 41, was Formula 1 world champion in 1997. The response to his comment was a ton of abusive e-mail, including death threats.
[Montreal Gazette, 8 June 2012]



The 48th nightly demonstration, illegal but tolerated, turned vicious with the smashing of bank windows. The crowd was dispersed by riot police with numerous arrests.
[La Presse, 10 June 2012]

In Quebec Superior Court Chief Justice François Rolland to-day heard first arguments on behalf of a student association (CLASSE, Coalition large de l'association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante) against the special law of 18 May 2012 [L.Q. 2012, c. 12].
[La Presse, 12 June 2012]

Chief Justice rejected actions against parts of the law. Validity of the entire law will be considered in the autumn at the earliest, or perhaps not until January. The Court of Appeal declined to consider the case after presentation of arguments.


The Human Rights Commission*  meanwhile found the law of 18 May 2012  [L.Q. 2012, c. 12] incompatible with the Quebec Charter of Human Rights & Freedoms, citing articles 12-31. 
[Montreal Gazette, 20 July 2012]
                         * Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse
                           The Commission's report is a mere opinion of no juridical consequence.


A provincial election has been called in Quebec for 4 September 2012. “In the last few months we’ve heard a lot from a number of student leaders," said Premier Jean Charest. "We’ve heard from people in the street. We’ve heard from those who have been hitting away at pots and pans. Now is the time for the silent majority.”
 [in Quebec City, 1 August 2012, after the electoral writ was signed by the Lieutenant-Governor]


Parti Québécois immediately announced, if elected, it would cancel increases in student tuition and scrap the exceptional law of 18 May 2012. Léo Bureau-Blouin is running as candidate in Laval des Rapides; he is past president of Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec (FECQ).

showcase my photography

Parliament Hill, Ottawa (2006)

I am starting to create a portfolio of my photography, adding a few items each day, and inviting comments and critique. It is at a site for serious photographers, amateur and professional:
http://web.photo.net/photos/bel_ami

garden show (2012)

Ça casse!

Bonjour, Québec: Well, more fun in the street, red and black flags, lots of bling blang cacerolada — semester is suspended anyways. And, hey, Grand Prix Formula 1 is a few days off!

Who is actually on strike? It appears to be primarily students at 11 universities and 14 CEGEPs (community colleges) — that is where the semester has been suspended until August. The number of students registered in 161 protesting associations was 154,163 on 23 May 2012 — about a third of students in the province.
[www.bloquonslahausse.com]

The strike, now into 16th week, kicked off in a small way on 23 February 2012, picking up steam along the way.