Wrapped In Democracy

It's just not going away.  It's called a strike; call it civil disobedience, call it mob rule.  About 175,000 university and CEGEP students in Quebec are determined to keep battling their provincial government to ensure that democracy rules the day.  What they are doing, expressing their discontent at a duly elected government's decision to embark on an austerity program, meeting the economic exigencies before them, is democracy in action.

On the other hand, what the government of Quebec Premier Jean Charest seeks to impose on Quebec students is outright dictatorship, in defiance of democratic values.  The elected government of the day does not represent, in their decision-making, a democracy in action.  But the marauding, law-breaking students, imposing their will on the greater proportion of university students who are not striking, who wish to continue their studies, represents democratic action.

The Liberal government of Jean Charest poses as liberal and democratic while, according to the student unions, it really is fascist and totalitarian.  According to the student union CLASSE spokesperson, "The Liberal party and democracy seem to have a very complicated relationship."  Clever sound bite for the self-entitled students who insist their goal is a righteous one; to continue to have their tuition subsidized at 87% or more.

Their education, their future employment prospects, their self-assurance as future leaders of the province are at risk because people whose children cannot afford to attend university may balk at continuing to pay such a heavy burden on their privileged behalf.  While the middle-class students whose parents can afford to aid them in paying their university tuition appear to have stimulated in their offspring the unalterable belief that they are entitled to huge state subsidies.

Those strikers represent fewer than 20% of the province's 16-to-25 population.  Their violent tactics have intimidated those students who have no wish to join them.  The very students who don't agree with  their demands or their tactics and who wish to continue devoting themselves to their studies, concerned that they may lose a semester due to the tumult and unrest.

And these are the very students who have, unlike their vociferously-angry peers, decided to turn to the courts to ensure that injunctions are issued by the courts ordering student associations to refrain from intimidating and threatening students and teachers, and blocking access to classes.  In a classic example of student/union democratic action, the striking students have ignored the injunctions.

"The very aggressive remarks conveyed on social media unfortunately reflect a deterioration in the general climate and make us fear for the safety of students and all those who visit the campus.  The dissension between students who want to re turn to class and those who wish to continue the strike is stronger and stronger", one school administration said in a news release.

Concerned over safety issues as the situation becomes increasingly heated and violent, classes have been cancelled.  When students are able to enter their school, the atmosphere becomes so disruptive it is not conducive to teaching, and classes must be cancelled.  A statement was issued by the student union CLASSE, the more militant of the unions, that anyone who attends class is a strike-breaker.

Some strikers carry placards with a black tombstone, "R.I.P. Democracy" writ large.  How right they are.