Proud Traditions

The Province of Quebec has its proud social traditions.  Dissent and entitlement happen to be two of them.  When Quebecers take umbrage to something that offends them they do so loudly, vehemently, violently.  And they are offended, grossly so, when their expectations are not met.  Mostly expectations revolving around their perceived entitlements.  This is a society that anticipates that their state owes them a great deal.

Social assistance is seen as an obligation from the state to those who vote the governing party into public office.  And woe betide a government, like that of Liberal Jean Charest, which feels that the provincial deficit has gotten out of hand, and something must be done to restore some semblance of responsible balance, lest the province teeter closer toward bankruptcy.

In Quebec, though, the entitlements of unions whose strength and popular support by the public has government quaking in its own expectations of resulting, adamant denial, trickles down to the student unions.  And university students feel it is their right to vocally and violently hold the government to account for attempting to foist on them an increase in tuition fees that they feel should not be exacted from them to begin with.

The students who have gone out on strike and made life miserable for the other half of university students who wish nothing more than to get on with their studies, are furious that their government will not agree to meet with them, to back down from the tuition fee increase.  This is an old wound re-visited; previous attempts to increase tuition fees have resulted in student marches and turmoil.

Windows get smashed, fire hydrants opened, cafe tables, planters and traffic cones upturned, barricades created in the streets, and provincial Members of the Assembly have their offices invaded and ransacked.  Although it is the striking students who are creating this illegal chaos, it is the fault of the government, they insist, for its refusal to negotiate.

Police were pelted with stones, bricks thrown on the subway track in Montreal, bridges blocked at rush hour, court injunctions ignored.  Entrances to banks, hotels and office buildings have been blocked, traffic disrupted, university buildings occupied to forcibly prevent classes, causing semesters to be at risk, and worrying those students who want to complete their school year.

This is an example of Quebec students who see some of their professors encouraging their 'brave actions' in a 'democratic society', following the examples of their elders.