2012.05.29
Photo © Olivier Pontbriand, La Presse

Above

I only mentioned it in a comment, but we had one hell of a deluge on Tuesday. I got woken up at 05:30 by the thunder and lightning. By the time of rush hour, it was hell downtown. Some cars were dancing in the air on top of geysers sprouting from manholes just under them. Autoroute 720, the one with the tunnel under Palais des Congrès, was closed for four days because of water accumulation. The whole basement of the Musée d'Art Contemporain, next to Place des Arts, was also flooded. Where I live it is a little higher so contrary to downtown we didn't suffer any water infiltrations., even if there were three or four storms during that day. In the summer of 1987, during the storm of the century, water was gurgling in my toilet bowl and I'm at the second floor. That time, it was REALLY hell and much of downtown had turned into a pond.

Rowing for Betty

Tomorrow will be a special day for Elizabeth. They say that over (or around, I don't recall) one thousand ships will navigate on the river Thames to celebrate her jubilee, that is 60 years of being on the throne. This last expression is usually used in another sense here but since I'm a gentleman, I'll spare you with that. Still the same, it will be a grandiose ceremony, even if it will rain (80 to 90% chance) with rather frigid temperatures (10˚C). After all, the Brits are used to such weather. We will have access to the ceremony live on TV5 starting at 8h00 (Montreal time) in the morning, for a four-hour show hosted by Stéphane Bern and Marie Drucker. By her looks, she is undoubtedly the daughter of Michel Drucker (this will mean nothing to Americans). Stéphane Bern is a "royalty specialist". He often hosts special (and very well made) programs about long gone royals, like Louis the Sun and Louis the Clock and Louis the Saint and all those that revolved around them, like queens who, unlike Elizabeth, had a much shorter career, and often a shorter neck by the same token. Bern is the kind of guy who, when he talks about royalty, or anything else for that matter, seems to have been born in a field of marijuana. I say this as a compliment.

Add-on: I missed most of it having gotten up at 11:00. However of what I understand the four hours (of tv programming) were essentially about watching boats pass by in front of the camera under pouring rain, with in the end the Queen and family parading (well shielded from the rain) on a cruise ship named the Spirit of Chartwell, commissioned for the event. All this culminating with the opening of the London Tower Bridge to salute the royal convoy as it passed by heading to a dock nearby. I didn't miss that part. I see on the CBC, who are continuing to broadcast this live like forever, that boats continued to pass by the docked Queen, I mean the docked Queen's boat, and her saluting them as they pass by. She's standing most of the time which, at her age, is worth mentioning. By the way, did you know that Canada, since freak Harper took power, spends more money per capita on royalty than the British do? Pretty amazing isn't it? We live in a fantastic world, where cuckoos can become Prime-Ministers and Governor-Generals didn't pay until now income tax while the sovereign they represent does, in her own country.

They say there were about one million people on the shores. They also mentioned that the weather was about the same as on her coronation's day, so that makes it a wrap-up I guess. I forgot to mention, besides Bern and Drucker (on TV5 which was in fact France 2) they also had Karl Lagerfeld as a commentator. I don't know if he was there to comment on the Queen's hat, which looked like an overgrown peppermint candy.

The last boat of the flotilla was a barge with the London Philharmonic encased in a protective glass compartment but with the singers on its rooftop, outside, drenched in pouring rain and battered by freezing winds, and still managed to very painstakingly sport a mandatory smile. They had all my admiration, that's all I can say.

If I make jokes about the Queen (of England), it's solely in the context of British royalty having no business in the Canada of 2012. For the rest, like most others, I do recognize she is an outstanding person, a living historical monument, and I am well aware of what she represents for the British and her immense contribution in the continuity of British history.

It's too bad the weather was so lousy, nor for her but for me. There were nice images of downtown London from perspectives rarely available to commoners, like from the top and insides of the Tower bridge, and other similar views, and they would have been so much nicer to watch had the sky been sunny.

I have old memories dating back to when I was a child in the late fifties maybe early sixties, and from my crummy little home town back east where Acadians were treated at best as second class citizens and expected to "speak White" (English) when they showed up elsewhere than in their homes, schools or churches. In those days, the official Canadian anthem was the «God Save The Queen». I don't know where it came from but someone had made a French version of it, «Dieu Sauve La Reine». There was this important event which I don't remember what it was, probably a visit by then Governor General, Georges Vanier, the first French-Canadian to hold the job, and the second Canadian ever (that says a lot...) . What I do remember is that I was there with my mother. What I remember even more is that when it came time to start singing the national anthem, and admidst all those Union Jack flag bearers and monarchists, my mother defiantly started to sing «Dieu Sauve La Reine», "en français", loud and proud.

I learned early to never accept to be treated as a second-class citizen in my own country. My mother is not the Queen of England, but on my scale she is just as remarkable.

Americana - Blockbuster elections

The American election, and the American democracy with it, has turned into a gigantic farce since they started using those Superpacs. In a real democracy, those elected are supposed to be those whom the people think are the best fit for the job. Each person should be able to be compared at par value with his or her opponents. Turning elections into mega-marketing operations where the haves with their money make sure that they remain such has nothing to do with democracy, imo. Stephen Colbert was on Letterman last night. He started a Superpac for fun and was surprised that a lot of money poured in. What surprised him and much more Letterman, was that he can do whatever he wants with that money. It does not need at all to be spent on electoral expenditures.

What disturbs me the most is that the current Conservative government led by (this is a euphemism, he IS the government so much he's a control freak) Stephen Harper, is importing some of those methods here, like what those zillions in the Superpacs pay for: slandering of the opponent. This is new for us. We had not reached yet the gutter level when it comes to elections. Until now.

I despise have no sympathy whatsoever for Stephen Harper, and all those who voted for him knowingly, for what they have done, are doing, and will do to this once respected country. (addon: maybe 'despise' was a bit strong - finding them dangerous would be more like it).

Wet cracker with metastasis

After four days of negociations between the student representatives and the government, it all came to a halt on Thursday when the government left the table. Nothing is settled. The government expects everything to die out with time. No one believes this. It's all to start again in August. Meanwhile, the casseroles are making babies across the country. For now they are in support of the Québec students (there was a CasserolesInCanada night on Wednesday), but many of them want to pursue this movement with this time Harper in their aiming visor. Occupy Take 2, kind of.

A few lost souls in there, some from New York, some from Little Rock, Arkansas, even some from Austin, Texas for gawd sakes, but nothing from Davis. Time zones, I guess.

Red square explained

In English, a well made video explaining what's going on here. It was put up by a journalist based in New York City. I saw it linked on the page of another American who was here last week only for a few days. He was not granted entry for more by the Canadian Customs/Immigration, not because of who he was, but rather because of who (what?) they are. I won't elaborate too much except to say that I traveled in a few countries in my life and I was better received everywhere except in my own. This excludes the U.S. Customs officers who are in a class of their own, way down there in the bottom of the barrel. This guy (the blogger) was here the day of the jurists' march. I'm still not sure if he was not the guy on bicycle whom I encountered that day in Old Montreal. He does have similar traits and skin color.

Taken from here -> http://inthesetimes.com/uprising/entry/13261/red_square_revolt_quebec_students_on_strike/

Miniature red squares unexplained

On Thursday it was around 11h00 in the morning when I heard some unusual noise coming from outside, street side. Being the nosey person I am, I went to the window for a look and saw a police car slowly lining the sidewalk (it was the weekly street cleaning period for that side so no one was parked there). The police had its flashing lights on and was leading the way for a march of casserolers, about sixty of them, from three groups. I could tell because each group had a different colored vest. They were marching in Indian file, each group holding some kind of cloth serpent. The first group had aluminum plates attached to the neck with a rope. In another groups, they had real small pots and pans. I rushed for my camera, and once on the balcony I looked at some of the march's security people and harboring a wide smile, I extended my arms, turning my hands in a large WTF gesture to which they responded with a smile as wide as mine

Pot banging is now heard everywhere and every evening at 20h00 but also much later since lots of people then or afterwards congregate at street corners or in improvised marches in the streets, some totalling thousands, namely in my area, I mean very close area. My take is that those kids wanted to be part of the action, and those from the childcare centers heeded their requests, turning it into some kind of community party, a little to the image of what their parents' one has created. It could be something else, but I don't see, really. Another mystery to add on the pile.

When toddlers start taking to the streets, dunno, if I were the government, maybe I'd start to worry.

Where kids get their ideas from

That same day (Thursday May 31) in the evening, there was another march in my district, but this time it was literally next door. At one point they passed on Plaza St-Hubert and when they got at Bélanger they turned right heading west. That's the street I take when I walk or Bixi myself to Marché Jean-Talon. They were a couple of thousands, at least. These marches have no preset itinerary, people joining in or leaving it on a continuous basis. They are therefore totally illegal but this doesn't mean anything these days. There is nothing the police can do when a population is on the move. They follow the march, and if they can get to know the direction the march is taking, they try to block the streets to incoming trafic, but that rarely happens. That's about all they can do.

Pots and wheels

Yesterday evening was the annual Tour de l'ïle bicycle Night Tour. 22 Km in the city streets. Last year they were 17,000. This year they were passing near where I live so I could easily take some pics. It was quite festive as usual, especially that this year there were 'casserolers' all along the path. Some had even installed their barbecue on the sidewalk and were having a casserole/barbecue/bike watching fest. At one point, one of the casserole marches arrived on Beaubien at the intersection with Christophe-Colomb where the bicyclers were heading north. It created a little bottleneck but they eventually managed to cross on the other side of Christophe Colomb. It was a little bordelic but what isn't in this city these days. I filmed some of this but Xanga doesn't take my videos and I don't know if Youtube will take it. I'll have to check. For now, a few pics.

This is in the first kilometers, the tour having started on boulevard St-Joseph in the Plateau district. Heading north on Christophe-Colomb (pic 1), they then turned east on St-Zotique St (pic 2) until Fabre then north again for a good stretch.

The daytime tour, it, usually rakes 35,000 and about 60 to 70 Km depending on the year, and is slated for Sunday (June 3rd) and until further notice, under rain all day. I did it once, long ago, when rain invited itself more than once during the itinerary. Not very funny. If it rains all day, it will be a big downer for the participants. Why can't it rain only on the houses owned by government members? Something needs to be fixed.

Laterz... Finally I got a few uploaded on Youtube. It was a breeze.

This is at the corner of Beaubien and Christophe-Colomb. I had in front of me one of those modern urban ruins which were at some point a gas service station and which are left there barricaded for decades until the oil company finds some sucker to buy and decontaminate the lot, with the city doing nothing to change this situation. By the way, there were lots of kids on their own and toddlers in bicycle carriages.

This is about 500 meters before the Beaubien intersection, on the tour's itinerary, and pretty much at the start of the tour since that location is about 1 Km, maybe 2 from the start point located on boul. St-Joseph. From there the itinerary took a street northbound, probably La Roche, then went around Parc Laurier and resumed on Christophe-Colomb, right here. I don't know if it was intended that way but the people passing on the overpass have done about 3/4 of the tour and have passed under it long before. Most are marveled by the sight, especially that there are still new people just starting the tour when they are about to end it. We can hear them mention all this. Some (not many, happily) are totally clueless and don't remember at all having passed there thinking it's where they're heading to. It takes all kinds to make a world.

Fakin' it

I removed the forced login yesterday evening, for a try. Up till now, no news from obnoxious Russian. I guess they are too busy in Syria supporting Bachar. Maybe killing children is a full time job.

The collateral effect of this unlock is more blog viewership. Each time I come nosing around my blog to check if others have done the same and I don't log in, I happen to increment the viewer total for that post by one. I know that the numbers then don't reflect reality, but I just pretend I don't.

Rue St-Denis coin/corner Bélanger - 2012.05.26 21h35

St-Denis is a major north-south and south-north street. Above is looking south. Looking north from same location here.

A Chinese encounter

I went downtown last evening to watch the jurists' march. Like they say in the ads, come and get it while supplies last. I haven't been that much downtown these last months except for the major events of the 22s (22 March, 22 April, 22 May) or the 200,000+ ones as per their other common characteristic, and the current movement could be close to its end. Although we never know, since an agreement between the students and the government does not necessarily mean the end of everything, since the movement has, by the government's own fault, migrated into something embracing a whole bunch of related and not related at all issues, on the political spectrum.

The jurists were about 300 maybe more, hard to tell. Some clerks and employees were in everyday clothes, but all lawyers and notaries were in their black robes. I followed them for parts of their march and all I can say is that they didn't choose the easy way out. They zigzaged in Old Montreal before heading north on St-Laurent then turned on Viger passing in front of the Palais des Congrès. Eventually they popped up on Jeanne-Mance and then turned on Ste-Catherine passing in front of Place-des-Arts. From there I figured they would just head straight east until their destination, Parc Émilie-Gamelin (I keep saying Place but I think it's Parc, whatever...) I was wrong. When they got to the level of St-Laurent again, they turned left and headed north on St-Laurent. I was in front of them and was heading east without realizing they had turned. After some time I looked back and saw that I had lost them. Much later, at Place/Parc/Whatever Émilie-Gamelin, I and others were wondering where they were since they were kind of late. After a while, we saw them way back in the distance passing on top of the Sherbrooke St overpass over Berri St and seemingly heading still farther east. We figured they would walk until St-Hubert, or even farther to Amherst, then turn south until Ste-Catherine (closed for the summer, we're in the Gay Village at this level - and the pink balls garlands are up again this year) and then walk back to Émilie-Gamelin. So a couple and me walked on De Maisonneuve up to these streets, but to no avail. They had disappeared. It then hit me (figure of style, I mean that I had an idea) that maybe just after they had passed on the overpass they would have turned north until Roy in some U-Turn manoeuver so as to pass under the overpass instead of using its bordering streets. those that we see in pics. That's exactly what they had done. When we (the couple and I) got back to the corner of De Maisonneuve and Berri, there they were on Berri, in the distance. Parc Émilie-Gamelin is bordered north and south by De Maisonneuve and Ste-Catherine, and west/east by Berri and St-Hubert. About 5 minutes later, maybe more, they finally arrived at destination, under the cheers and applause of those who were there. Their march was silent, in reference I think to the silence imposed on the people by the special law which they were protesting about. That, on the other hand, was crystal clear on the large banner those heading the march were holding.

Yesterday's meeting between the students and the government lasted eight hours. It will resume today at 13h00, in what is called the 'make it or break it' ultimate try. We'll see what comes out of that. Meanwhile last evening the 'casseroles' were still hitting the streets.

Yesterday also, I turned out into an improvised tourist booth. When I was at the corner of Notre-Dame and St-Laurent, opposite to where the jurists were congregating before their march, some tourists, among them a family of four, asked me what it was and I gladly gave them a crash explanation of the current events. They were from Philadelphia. I couldn't help but mentioning the bell and that they knew something about freedom. They replied that they knew even more since they were originally from India. I wished them well for their stay in Montreal and Quebec. Nice people. Most Americans, except those students who come here to get drunk and go to sex bars like they do in Cancun, are nice and generally open-minded people. Otherwise they'd go to Calgary I guess.

Then there was this Asian woman who seemed a little lost. I asked her in French and in English if she wanted to know what was going on and she looked at me in a somewhat panicked way. Seconds after, a hord of other Asians crossed the street and joined her, cameras frantically clicking at the jurists, and then I saw a young Asian girl who obviously was some kind of guide and interpreter, pointing towards the jurists across the street. I realized that the older woman most certainly didn't understand a word of either French or English, and that it was probably the first time in her life that a total stranger was adressing her as one would his next door neighbor. She'll have more than the others to tell her friends back home on her return. Add-on: I didn't mention but that woman was obviously a tourist from an Asian country which I presumed to be China.

Later on, when I was walking on Place Jacques-Cartier, separately from the march which had passed by me earlier, this guy on a bicycle stopped and asked me, in English, if I was an organizer or something, probably because of the red square I was wearing. I said no, only a regular but fed up citizen. He said he was from the Occupy movement and that he had been everywhere in the country (for the same I gathered) and wanted to know if I knew the whereabouts of the march. I told him where they had been going (Place Jacques-Cartier, then St-Paul St) and that they eventually had to resurface northbound somewhere, maybe on St-Laurent. He asked me if that's where I was going (I sensed he didn't know where that was, hence my deduction that he was not a Montrealer), I said yes and he asked if he could follow me. I said yes of course. When we reached Notre-Dame, we indeed saw them marching on St-Laurent, passing in front of where they had originally started. The Occupy guy thanked me heartily and fled towards the marchers on his bicycle. I didn't have time to ask him where he was from. He was a nice person. There are many nice people out there. You get to know this by talking to strangers, local or visitors.

When things slowed down at Émilie-Gamelin, I went for a stint (and a glass of wine ) at Friend's place before heading back home in the metro, being too tired (and hungry) to use the Bixi. I got home at about 22h00 and started to make myself a "sauce rosée" (pink sauce) to use with meat-stuffed fresh tortellini I bought at Milano's last weekend (I usually buy cheese-filled). Walking from the metro to home, I heard and saw a march of 'casserolers' crossing at an intersection.

It's amazing all the serious discussions we hear on radio and television about the Left and the Right and all the nuances in between, and neo-liberalism, and libertarism, and all the versions of capitalism from the savage to the more human-minded, and the historical contexts of them all, and how social issues and values are discussed not by a happy few in specialized magazines but by the people at large, including actors form all walks of life and/or from any of those "thought currents" just mentioned, and what have you. All this bathing in a parallel environment of some yellow journailism in some tabloids, and quick, raw, not very much thought about ideas spurred by the cyber world. I don't think there's any other place in North America where you can see such a thing. This probably has a lot to do with our French heritage, while the rest of the continent is having a British one. That why some make comparisons between this and Mai 68, but this is not Europe, not France, and not 1968. More than similarities, there are also a hefty number of major differences. Anyhow, no one knows if what's in that pot will overspill, but one thing is for sure, it's bubbling a lot.

So it goes in Montréal.

On St-Paul St, in Old Montreal.

On Viger St. Autoroute 720 is passing under the Palais des Congrès and Old Montreal is on the other side of it (aka on the left here).

On Ste-Catherine St passing in front of Place des Festivals and Place des Arts, a few minutes before I lost them.

The jurists arriving at Émilie-Gamelin (corner Berri and De Maisonneuve). It was already 20h22, two hours after I first arrived at the Court House where the march started.

Before their arrival. That is probably an art installation but I didn't have the time to check it out. On the lawn in the upper right corner, there were four young homeless trying to sleep in sleeping bags and who appeared quite annoyed by the noise when the casseroles started and by the jeering after the jurists arrival. Sorry guys, didn't mean to disturb. I was offered to buy some pot. Not the type you bang on, rather the kind you get banged out with, so to speak. I declined. I'm a boozer.

Laterz...

Found this tonight. For nice views of Montreal. One of the lawyers was holding a quote by Benjamin Franklin (2m10s) sayiing in French «A People ready to sacrifice a little liberty for a little security merits neither one and finishes by losing both.» I checked and although I was all around, I'm NOT in that video.

Nasty southern winds?

I don't have to go back to Mexico to be confronted with horrors, Mexican horrors are coming here. Today, a parcel was delivered to the Conservative Party's headquarters in Ottawa, by regular post apparently. This is the current governmental party (headed by Stephen Harper). The parcel contained a human foot.

Meanwhile, an apartment building manager in the mid-western (so to speak) Montreal district of Côte-des-Neiges had noticed a luggage case deposited since a few days alongside the garbage bags near his building. Today, by curiosity, he opened it and found a human torso.

For now, it is not known if the two parts belong to the same person nor, if it is the case, who that person would be (or have been I guess).

Meanwhile I cannot not think about the current crackdown on immigrants by the federal government, coupled with a crackdown on unemployment benefits for seasonal Canadian workers which will have as a collateral effect to lower the salaries paid to migrant seasonal workers in the agricultural field, many of which are Mexicans. And this is not to mention the black record of Canadian mines in Mexico where there have been targeted assassinations against some union or other representatives of Mexican people's rights. Then again, I may be totally off track and there's no relation at all. I sure hope so for Harper's gang. When you make a specialty of bullying everyone around, you play a dangerous game these days. All I know for now is that there's too much smoke to my liking.

Laterz... apparently there was a second parcel delivered. No information given by police yet about whom it was delivered to and what 'part' was in it. Doesn't smell good, figuratively I mean.

Next day... it would be a hand. It was found in a Canada Post sorting office and would have been mailed at the same location as the first parcel. They don't say where that was, and they still don't say to whom it was addressed. Still does not smell good. Looks like a temporary cover-up attempt. Political intervention? With the current government's record, nothing is to be excluded.

Laterz... the suspect would be a Torontonian living in Montreal since a few years and who's a failed porn star and cat killer. Up to now, it would appear I was off track. The police say they're not interested by who is the other addressee in Ottawa, not part of the equation they say (er...???) but on the CBC they say (from sources...) it's the Liberal Party's headquarters. The CBC has been caught dead wrong before so I'll wait and see. All the found parts belong to the same body so it's the Montreal police who's handling the case. As if they needed that these days!

Laterz.... I mean so much laterz that wer'e now the 31st (which, and this not related to the case at all, also happens to be my mom's birthday ). The Montreal Police have asked Interpol for their help. The murderer has vanished and he even had posted a video or something in the past explaining how to do so. Ian Lafrenière, the same police media spokesman who yesterday said that they considered irrelevant who the second addressee was, adding "read between the lines", also said that the crime was horrible and that as a father he was highly disturbed by it. As a father? What the hell has this to do with the case? The victim was a child? The murderer was a child? If not, then WTF? Since when one would be less disturbed by such a crime if he's got no kids? Geezus... He also talks about an arm and a leg. The anchor in the video below and all others talk and have talked, from the start, of a hand and a foot. Now it's a hand or it's an arm? It's a foot or it's a leg? I mean it's not really the same thing, does it, if only for the size of the parcels. In the Radio-Canada video of this conference, the news anchor also wonders what the hell that "read between the lines" means. We're not psychics, Mr Lafrenière of the Montreal Police. When asked to confirm the address of the crime by a reporter who even gave the address in the question, he replied that "they keep that information for themselves" (again... er???). Meanwhile videos of the crime scene (the inside of the small apartment where it happened) could be seen everywhere on the net. The police are weird, if you want to know the bottom of my thoughts... The same Mr Lafrenière is a fixture here since we've seen him every single day on tv for the last three months explaining to the populace, with the same 'I know you're dumb but I'll make an effort to explain to you" attitude, how arresting peaceful protestors by the hundreds is for the general good of humanity. He is also very much the incarnation of the type of society we saw in the movie Fahrentheit 451 where everyone squealing on everyone is posed as a virtue. They don't say it that bluntly. They say, as in this video and many times since the student unrest started, something like the very first words of this press conference: «Thank you very much for your patience. We need the help of the population, the help of the public, we are looking for a suspect... ". A culture of delation they are slowly but surely instilling in the minds of people.

http://www.radio-canada.ca/widgets/mediaconsole/medianet/5920140

A few weeks ago, those three young girls who (presumably) are those who had thrown smoke bombs in the metro, had been photographed before the fact by someone with a portable phone, someone who rushed his pics to the police. Pierre Foglia, in his column (titled I Love You), had this to say a few days later:

«[..] Speaking of smoke, here is another formidable reason to self-congratulate. The guilty ones were found in a record time. They hadn't fetched their bomb from their bag that they were already frontpage. Thanks to whom? Thanks to you. Thank you. The police was so happy about you. Me also.

Have I told you before I loved you?»

Informants (délateurs) are people I can't stand. Especially when they are at the service, paid or not, of those who control our societies with solely in mind their own personal benefits and the benefits of their friends.

Sure, the police can use any eyewitness information in a case like this sordid one. And it's reasonable to think that most anyone having such information will pass it on to whatever channel is concerned. It is totally superfuous to Big Brotherize it for that. Doing so is more a symptom than anything else of where we are heading as a society.

On the other hand, when people call them without having been requested to do so, they are brushed away as lunatics. There has been for some time a video on the net on a site held by a person in Edmonton, Alberta, a so-called "gore" site, and which is thought to be the above murder, filimed by the murderer himself. One guy from Montana (a lawyer), in the States, says he tried to warn at least six police outfits, including the Toronto police, as early as last Friday, and he was told that this video was most certainly a fake and no further action was taken. Great! Not only is Big Brother looking at you, He also knows better than you. The last I heard, the Edmonton guy refuses to remove the video from his site, despite police and FBI pressures. I won't mention the reasons why he refuses because they are to puke for. And I certainly won't look for or supply the link to it. As a psychiatrist just mentioned on tv, watching this can leave scars and he highly recommends not doing so, not to mention that people watching his video is exactly what that deranged mind is up to in his sick power trip. The first part of his comment, I already knew and have tried to apply it to all similar cases in the past. I don't need to SEE IT to know what is horror. A popular columnist from La Presse saw it and now regrets it dearly. Well, I have little sympathy for him, he should have thought about it before and as far as I'm concerned, he showed a lack of judgement.

The line between yellow and good journalism is a very fine one, at times. Like the large daily La Presse, supposedly a serious publication, which sent some reporter to knock on the door of the murderer's mother's homne, in Peterborough, Ontario, when it is already known that he had been estranged from his family for a long time. Cheap. Gutter level.

Crisis update - May 28, mid afternoon

Government and student leaders should be meeting at I write this.

This evening at 18h30, independent lawyers (not paid by the State) will be marching silently, in their robes, from the Provincial Court house in Old Montreal up to Place Émilie-Gamelin where the nightly demonstrations start every day. They being lawyers, they will respect the law and have therefore advised the police of their itinerary. I hope it does not rain on them. Probabilities are 40%.

From their press release, translated by the people from the site I mentioned and indirectly linked yesterday (see below) and link here now -> Translated artcles. There's in there an article from my today's daily and which I hadn't even had the time to read the original Frenchy yet and explaining why this movement will not spread to the rest of Canada. Nothing new in there I guess for those who have been following me for some time. I could of course be underestimating, as I've been all along since the start of these events :

«We are a spontaneous group of lawyers in support of the contestation of Law 78.

Our walk has the purpose of expressing our dismay in light of the passing of a special law that we believe constitutes a disproportionate attack on our freedom of expression, of association, and of peaceful protest. We equally wish to demonstrate our concern regarding the (predictable) loss of confidence of a growing number of citizens in our judicial institutions following the passing of this law.
[..] »

I mean, hey!

Above (header)

The guy on whose blog I found the above video is Ethan Cox, a politically involved English-speaking Montrealer. I found his blog through [hashtag]Manifencours on Twitter. His blog is very informative. He mentions among others that there is a gang of people (English speakers) who are dedicating some of their time to translate in English French articles about the "Printemps érable", the Maple Spring. Ninety percent of the world's maple syrup is produced in Québec, as I've already mentioned in another post. The words "arabe" and "érable" in French sound somethat the same, hence the word play [as I am writing this, I hear lots of noise coming from Jean-Talon St - there's obviously a demonstration going on - I'm leaving - will be back .... laterz.... I'm back. I would have joined them but I haven't had my supper yet, it's 20h50]. Anyways his blog, very interesting is here -> http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/ethan-cox/2012/05/it-starts-quebec-our-revolution-love-hope-and-community. At the end of it he mentions something about a Canada-wide "casseroles" demonstration slated for Wednesday in support of, well, us. He doesn't say if it's his initiative or if he only reports about it (my take). It goes like this:

«Wednesday night a huge "casseroles" demonstration has been called for people across Canada to show solidarity with the Quebec movement. At 8:00 p.m., wherever you are, go outside with a pot and a metal implement and make some noise. Bonus points for meeting up with neighbours while doing it.

Oh, and follow me on twitter for regualr updates: @EthanCoxMTL»

See his blog linked above for embedded links in that blog, if interested of course. I'm not as presumtuous as to believe that our current situation is 'that' interesting to outsiders.

Crisis update (May 27)

The pot-banging phenomena has been growing by the day. The downtown daily evening march (the 33rd yesterday) has produced metastasis and now every evening after the 15 minute customary pot banging, people congretate at different locations here or there in more excentric districts like mine and start improvised marches which head to no preset direction, in violation of the Special Law (Law 78). They are all declared illegal from the start by the police for this reason, but as long as there's no criminal activity, they act as if they weren't. The police simply try to figure out where they are going to try to close some streets to traffic. It's an almost impossible task so most of the time, incoming of outgoing traffic is just stalled at intersections until the last marchers have finished passing.

Last evening, Friend came for supper (I made a salade niçoise, yum! yum!). At 20h00, we went on the front balcony to bang the "casseroles" for fifteen minutes and then went back to the rear balcony to have dinner (supper). Somewhere around 21h15, we heard some noise coming from Jean-Talon St. Since we had finished eating, we decided to go check what was going on. When we got there, we had in front of us the last quarter of a 1 Km march of pot-banging marchers, coming northbound from Avenue Christophe-Colomb and who, after a stint on Jean-Talon, were heading southbound again by turning on St-Denis. A similar march, somewhat smaller, had taken place the day before in my area, but when they came close enough for my noticing (hearing), it was 23h00. I jumped on a Bixi and followed their whereabouts for about an hour, following their zigzaging path in the streets around, until they finally ended up going southbound on Christophe-Colomb, heading to the Plateau district, and me back home.

Last evening, at the intersection of St-Denis and Bélanger. Long march, loose at times, less at others (in my back, for instance ), but very noisy.

Meanwhile there was a 2-hour special program Friday evening on both Radio-Canada's regular and allnews channels, trying to find an outcome to the crisis. In the last part, the student leaders and the Education Minister were interviewed, but separately, the students first. They were in the same studio, in full view of each other. When the show ended, the Minister, in an improvised gesture, went towards the students to shake hands with them. Another one to add to a very long list of booby traps. So-called negociations are supposed to take place this week. So far the students haven't heard from her nor the government [update May 27, 18h30 - just heard on tv that a meeting is now scheduled for tomorrow]. I don't think the students were impressed while she was talking.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but Line Beauchamp, who was holding the job of Education Minister, resigned from both her job and political life altogether two days before the Special Law 78 was voted by her government. The current Education Minister urgently named to replace her also happens to be the Treasury Minister, the one controlling the budget. Then a few days ago, the "Chef de cabinet" of Premier Charest also resigned, officially for [unclear] reasons not related to the social crisis. No one believes this, of course, especially that Charest gave the job to someone who already had it some years ago and had to face a large crisis back then with striking nurses. For Americans, a chef de cabinet is like a chief of staff. A key non-elected job in the government.

MEANWHILE IN MONTRÉAL
Mayor: draw me a solution...
Voice: there's the crate, the solution is inside
© Chapleau - La Presse

International scene: Radio-Canada has a page linking to stories about this in foreign media (including English language ones in the US and the UK).

http://blogues.radio-canada.ca/surleweb/2012/05/25/crise-quebec-revue-presse-internationale/

As usual, parts^[1] of the rest of Canada is on freak mode. It happens every time something goes on in Quebec. That's because it's always something they know nothing about because most of the time it's something new and un-NorthAmerican, and that their media keep them in ignorance. The Toronto Sun is one of those tabloids belonging to Quebecor and which can be put under the "garbage-friendly" column, along with Fox and the likes. First an editorial about how our 'riot culture' will contaminate and destroy their beautiful country. Then another one this time particularly about the Ontario students getting nasty ideas. Lots of stench also in the comments sections.

May 23: http://www.torontosun.com/2012/05/23/riot-culture-firmly-established

May 26: http://www.torontosun.com/2012/05/26/ontario-students-ready-to-back-montreal

^[1] There are some enlightened people in the ROC. A far cry from what can be called a crowd but they are there just the same so it's only rendering them justice to mention them once in a while.

Although its creator insists on this not being a mascot per se, this panda called AnarchoPanda now appears here and there in the demonstrations, often depicted on signs or as plush animals, but also very well alive over its creator, a college philosopy teacher, who created it to collect hugs from both sides, in some kind of tension defusing way. Essentially it's a gesture against police brutality. A fine article about it (in French) was published in my daily on Saturday, here.

During the March 22 250 000-strong march. Both pics © Le Devoir.

Embracing CLASSE spokespersons Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, with co-spokesperson Jeanne Reynolds amused by it all.

BUT, MOST IMPORTANTLY, WE MUST PUT AN END TO THIS INSANE AND CRUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST SAUCEPANS.
SAUCEPANS, POTS AND PANS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!!!

Yesterday, on the corner of Jean-Talon and Christophe-Colomb we saw this young and lean guy maybe 6'1" or 6,2" (1,90?) marching with a stewpot upside down on his head, as if it were a helmet, and banging on it frenetically with a wooden spoon. There's all sorts of people on this planet, some we didn't even know existed.

What's going on?

There's a Twitter handle about all what's going on about demonstrations. Needless to say, especially in the evenings, it's on fire. Here -> https://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%2523manifencours. (no need to have a Twitter account)

"Manifencours" means "CurrentDemonstrations". There are a few tweets in there in English, not many though I'm afraid. Anyways, once there, the "Tout" link means "All", and "[number] nouveaux tweets" means "[number] of new tweets". Has to be clicked to refresh.

Also CUTV with its live streamings: http://www.livestream.com/cutvmontreal. CUTV stands for Concordia University TV, Concordia is one of Montreal's four universities.

In semi-related matters

Related in the obscene crackdown on people sense.

Yesterday afternoon, there was another demonstration at the same place on Jean-Talon, which it also ended up in a march. It was about a federal proposed law curtailing the entry of future immigrants to Canada, to make sure they respond primarily to business people imperatives. It also denies refugee status to anyone coming from any country not kuddos with the Conservative governmetn (they don't say it that way but that's what it is) or bashes up to deportation some others who already have permanent resident status and who've been here for years.

A video by those who organized that march. Once more, a Montrealers' initiative. What are they doing elsewhere in Canada??

On rue Jean-Talon, in front of the Centre Jean-Marie Gaudreau where they congregated before the march. The taller building on the left is the Tour Jean-Talon, and underneath is the Jean-Talon correspondance metro station.

Other semi-related matters

This afternoon, former Québec Premier Jacques Parizeau and who was the Premier (from the Parti Québécois) during the last referendum on sovereignty in 1995, and who still remains very influential, gave a conference at Université Laval in Québec City and mentioned that he was appaled about the current government having let things rot into a social crisis, without however taking any sides about the core of the matter. He also said that it is not true that the young people are always right, but that those who hit on them are always wrong.

He also added that it was tell-tale about Québecers' identity that in marches gathering more than 200 000 people from all walks of life, Quebec flags can be seen everywhere but not one single Canadian one. Could mean nothing. Could mean everything. All I know is that since Harper is there, Canada is pushing Quebec to make up its mind. It started to do so by voting massively against him last May 2 (2011). And push comes to shove, if placed in front of no other alternative, I don't have the shadow of a doubt that they will leave. Except for some Anglos is western Québec, about no one cares about Canada on a sentimental basis in this province. Those who are federalist are so only, and only, for practical financial reasons, aka they think we would be worse off if an independent country. This has been demonstrated factually to be bullshit but the fear entertained by the federalist camp is still the winner on this scene, as it is anywhere on this planet where they install fear in populations. It's their magic recipe. And it works. Most of the time. For the rest, most feel they have not much in common with the ROC. I've already mentioned in the past that in some way, Quebecers are more American than Canadian. Not in a colonized way like they are with Americans, but more on a normal international basis. Us being of a different culture and language, and having a different history, and one that is prior to theirs on top of that, surely has a lot to do with it.

Elsewhere

Syria/Houla/Homs.

Vatican. . (barely)

Indonesia/Gaga.

American pastor Pastor Charles Worley. He believes in Hell. Good.

Rue Sherbrooke - 2012.05.22 - 15:29

Above

History's revenge? The Patriots' Flag (1837-38 Rebellion) and Queen Victoria, reunited. (see previous post)

Americana 1

A country is not a business and is not supposed to be run like one. A country is based on different notions and values such as the common good. I therefore don't really understand much of that Romney/Bain controversy as I find it irrelevant. I know, I just caught glimpses of it all, so I may be talking through my hat. But rock bottom, who cares if Romney is a good or a bad businessman? Can he elevate himself over self-interests, for the common good of the nation? That's the only question worth asking. And to this the answer is no. It was no also for W. We now see in what mess the U.S. are in.

Since it's reelection time, I find rather strange those who blame Obama for not having brought back prosperity in his first mandate. The damage done by Bush and all the years of neo-conservatism before him will take a very long time to heal, much more than one single presidential mandate. I'm pretty sure I mentioned this back then. The economy is not something you mess around with because when it's broken, there's no magic recipe to fix it. When you put immature puppets in the number one seat, you get what you vote for. And what Americans are still getting is what they voted for in November 2004. That election, and the same can be said of those here having elected Harper and Charest, are the best proof on hand that elections have become a travesty of democracy, having been turned into marketing ventures. Nothing serious is being discussed anymore during election time. Accessorily that's also why the Quebec government and those who support it are laughing in our face when they say we will be able to express our view at election time if we don't like the current 'student' situation. Back on the U.S. scene, those who are nostalgic of the Bush years and want to come back to his policies are not only pathetic, they are also dumb.

Americana 2

Facebook shares lost 19% of their value (as of Tuesday) since their launching, last Friday, for all sorts of reasons all having to do with greed and unbriddled capitalism. Now they're all at each other's throat. It won't be pretty. Am I sorry for those who lost millions? Not really. Am I glad? Not really either. I guess satisfied would be a better way to put it.

I'm not one of those reporters who dub Mark Zuckerberg as a computer genius in their articles. He had a good idea, the times were just right for it to grow like crazy, and he's someone with no scrupules. The perfect recipe to become instantly rich in our form of capitalism. But for the rest, he's an ignorant. All that stock exchange mess is apparently being traced to a top Facebook financial guy who blew the numbers upwards, someone whom I'm sure Zuckerberg doesn't understand much of what he says when he talks to him. Then there's that documentary about that catastrophic interview he gave where he put his feet in his mouth and started to sweat like a tropical storm. And then there's those who bought those shares on the expectations of future ad revenues considering the 900 000 000 users. This when everyone is mentioning that the advertisement business, as well as the media for that matter, is more and more segmented and targeted to special interest groups. Ads that will aim the 900 000 000 are not a dime a dozen. And this also when ads are already saturating to the hilt almost everywhere. Expansion? What expansion? How much more ads can a normal human swallow? So yes, I'm quite satisfied about how it turned out. A capitalist zit has burst. Luckily those who got splashed by the puss are only those who pressed on it.

Americana 3

In the news these days: the combined schooling debt of young Americans totals 1000 billion dollars. For many observers, the country is facing a new speculative bubble enough to rock its economy. May I suggest that 1000 billion dollars spent in reimbursing banks is that much less money spent in the economy at large to make it turn? There was an interesting editorial in my paper this morning about this, and especially how this money has not been spent on research and teaching but on props to lure professors, like golf courses, ultra-high-tech gymnasiums and other goodies having nothing to do with a quality education. Bad university management is something our students have mentioned over and over in the past months. That's what happens when education becomes a market, as our own government here would want it to be. By the way, that unfinished building we see in pics and videos taken from the Sherbrooke St overpass over Berri Street, on the left side of Berri, is exactly that. A Université du Québec construction project that turned into a multi-million dollar disaster by the sheer incompetence of the university's administrators. The building has been standing there for many years, is an eye sore, and no one seems to know what to do with it. A constant reminder about who has the right take, in these current events.

It ain't over until it's over

Finally Tuesday the rain stopped in late morning and there were even bouts of sun in the afternoon. I'm almost tempted to add unfortunately, since it was already quite hot and very humid, and the sun just made it more difficult. Anyways, once again I ended up totally off track in my predictions. I expected a crowd of maybe 30 to 40 thousand at the march. There were much less people in the metro than last time (April 22), although it was only 13h15 instead of 13h30, and it was a workday with much more frequent trains to unclutter the wharfs.

I got at Place des Festivals at 13h45. There were indeed less people there than last time, on Earth Day. But what I immediately noticed is that if many people were at work and couldn't come, grey and white heads seemed to have filled the void. They were all over the place, some quite elder, including a blind couple. At 15h00, I was still on the site which didn't seem to be emptying and I was eager to start to move. I finally decided to walk to Sherbrooke St where the march was supposed to pass. No one was there. A little to my left at Jeanne-Mance, the march was heading towards the west on Sherbrooke instead of eastbound. I wondered what the hell was going on, if the police had arbitrarily modified the itinerary (they can do that with the special law we were precisely protesting about). Anyways thousands were heading west so I did the same and joined the march.

It is only when I got back home that I heard on tv that the CLASSE, the most radical of student organisations, and having called the march in the first place, were heading the march and when they got to Sherbrooke St they chose to turn left, in violation of the special law, which they had warned they would not obey, in general, not necessarily this here march. So technically, we were all breaking the law and could have been arrested, even if the overwhelming majority like me didn't even know about it. There were no arrests of course. Why? Because that law is so stupid that the police does not even apply it. Why again? Because we were a quarter of a million. Minimum. Yesterday evening, the police obviously got a phone call since the nightly demonstration, always starting from the same point, on Place Émilie-Gamelin next to métro Berri-UQAM, was declared illegal before it even began because they didn't supply the itinerary to the police eight hours in advance, as required by the special law. My brother who's at 700 km from Montreal called me to say that two spontaneous demonstrations had just popped up in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, in east end Montreal. I mention this to show that if he knows this, imagine what unfurls right here on the social medias. We are now in a new world. You repress a march, another one pops up elsewhere, and another one, and so on. They interviewed government big brass on tv and they still talk as if we were in February. They don't seem to have a clue that the world has changed, but worse, that by their idiotic refusal to even discuss the tuition fees with the students, the number one reason why the strikes started in the first place, they have opened the pandora's box of all the other frustrations they have created by their pityful and corrupt governance over the years. And now that the beast has been irresponsibly let out of the cage, god knows what can happen.

Since a few days, something new popped up. I learned about it again by my brother. I'm not on social media so I'm late in knowing about some things. On the other hand, knowing myself, I'd be glued to these i-Whatevers and go nuts, so... Anyways, this something new is not new to me per se, because it is a very old Acadian tradition that they probably brought with them from France. It is called the 'tintamarre' and which is still happening every August 15 in Acadia, the National Day of Acadians. It is something that the Chileans also know very well, having used it a lot during the dictatorship. It's used to peacefully let it be known to whoever is concerned that the people are not happy at all with what is going on, especially when other ways of doing so (demonstrations) are repressed. In short, it's pot banging. You go outside, you bring a kitchen pot and some other instrument to bang on it, and you make one hell of a rumpus. So, as I mentioned, since a few days, every day at 20h00, and for 15 to 20 minutes, people go outside and let it be known they are angry. Some go to busy street corners for the banging and turn in circle, well in square, for the whole period. This thing was started by someone in the social media, and it's spreading fast all over the province. Like someone says on tv, it permits people to express their anger without having to go downtown or to participate in demonstrations which one never knows how they will end. It also shows, like one journalist mentioned, that this special law is like bolting the cover on a boiling pot. It fixes nothing and only creates more pressure. I saw on Youtube that there was some not far from where I live, in the Villeray district. I thought that there wouldn't be on my street, because there are lots of very young children (babies) and I don't know, just a feeling of mine. A little past 20h00, I was preparing my supper when the phone rang. It was Friend who had just gotten back from a trip to see his dad and mentioning that all hell had broken loose in his area (the Gay Village) and wondering if it was the same here. The air conditioner in my bedroom was on, both doors were closed, and I hadn't heard anything. I put him on hold, opened the back door and indeed I could hear some clanging, but could not point where it came from. When I hung up, I went up front and opening the door I saw my upstairs neighbor standing on the balcony and holding their month old newborn, and his wife below on the sidewalk clanging a pot cover like there's no tomorrow. All around people were on their balconies doing the same. Once again, I was caught off track. Since February, I've constantly underestimated my fellow Quebecers. I think it has to do with my upbringing in Acadia, where we were always considered second class citizens and always had to fight for our rights, not only against those who oppressed us, but also those of us, the assimilated, who sided with them. This is one of the main reasons why I now live in Quebec.

This is what it sounded like from 20h11 until it ended about 12 minutes later. Call it the 'sounds of Montreal' if you will (and if you really don't have nothing better to do ) I had something on the stove to cater to, so I placed my camera on a chair (inside) on record mode and this is what was coming from the street.

In the Villeray district just a few streets from my pad, they hit the streets in a spontaneous move, yesterday. The day before (2nd video), they were a the intersection of Jarry and St-Denis.

The police has a Twitter account and sends tweets to the sites of those talking about the demonstrations, telling them in real time for example that a demonstration has been declared illegal, and so on. I must be the last person on earth to be surprised by this. I'm not very 'connected' at times. Today someone put up a video with the police having a quite civilized exchange with marchers-to-be, prior to yesterday's evening demonstration, both discussing when and how it could be declared illegal or arrests made and the likes, students asking questions like what happens if one fluke out of 2000 peaceful marchers threw a rock, and the police explained they would have to declare it illegal right away. Things were clear to everyone. This place is weird. In the good sense of the word. This said, later on, the police arrested 512 people in Montreal alone (176 in Quebec City), all held in buses for the night, handcuffed, and let go in the morning with a ticket of 634$. Needless to say, those from Montreal arrested under a city bylaw will all challenge their tickets in municipal court. Nice bottleneck to come, especially that more are to come, no doubt. Some of those arrested were tourists, one from Saskatchewan. An elderly man suffering from angina, handcuffed like the others, was denied his pills and an ambulance had to be called eventually. In Montreal they were arrested under a city by-law. In Quebec City it was under the special law so those people face fines well over 1000$. Organizers (those who supplied their itinerary) face fines in the tens of thousands, up to 125 000$ under that law. These arrests are a new turn of events, the police priorily being more tolerant about not arresting those who made no trouble (generally, of course there are goons on all sides). It does not take a wizard to know that some phone calls were done yesterday by government officials to the police so as to row on the government tune. So it's more repression that will lead to more and more spontaneous demostrations and the wheel turns. Either this goverment is totally in panic mode, or it's dumbfuck to the bone. [update May 26: charges agains those arrested in Quebec City under the Special Law (78) have finally been changed to municipal infractions. In Sherbrooke (the town) where they were the first to apply the Special Law, they have done the same. It looks like those who should apply the Law don't want to. General popular disapproval? Fear of it being smashed in court after the court action challenging its constitutionalilty taken against it by the students supported by around 140 organisations?]

These are some link to reports here and there in Canada and in other countries:

In French
http://tvanouvelles.ca/lcn/artsetspectacles/general/archives/2012/05/20120521-082100.html
http://www.courrierinternational.com/article/2012/05/24/grand-tintamarre-contre-la-loi-78
Plusieurs articles ont paru dans Le Monde, Libération, Le Courrier International et à la télévision et aussi dans Le Soir (Bruxelles) dont celui-ci paru hier.

In English
http://www.globalnews.ca/on+day+100+of+quebec+student+strikes+protest+goes+international/6442646154/story.html
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/22/union-cash-flowing-to-quebec-student-groups-to-fund-protest-now-in-its-100th-day/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/on-day-100-of-quebec-student-strikes-red-river-of-protest-runs-through-montreal-152640335.html
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=31002

These two are about an op-ed in the New York Times. The first is a report about it, with an interesting comment by an American woman (look for Erica Gipson), adressing what I mentioned in my Americana 3 section above. The second is the NYT op-ed itself.
http://montreal.openfile.ca/blog/montreal/2012/new-york-times-op-ed-says-quebec-has-gone-rogue
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/24/opinion/our-not-so-friendly-northern-neighbor.html

This one is from Toronto's Globe and Mail. I only post it for anthropological purposes. You have there, in over 1500 comments, or should I say slurs, all the explanation to some of my stances about the ROC (Rest of Canada), especially the part of it starting with Ontario and ending in Alberta. British Columbia, but many accounts, would be a much more civilized province. Some media in English Canada are less fanatically anti-Québec (I think of CTV for example) but, interestingly, the most hypocritical of them all are The Globe and Mail, "Canada's number one daily", and the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - english network). The first one is a cumpulsive Québec basher. The other most of the time ignores Québec in its news department as if it didn't exist.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/massive-montreal-rally-marks-100-days-of-student-protests/article2440155/comments/

The following are pics I took at and during the march on Tuesday:

Dangerous troublemakers resting a bit before marching.

Ste-Catherine St, facing Complexe Desjardins (left) and Place des Arts (right) which is next to Place des Festivals.

Boulevard René Lévesque at 16h29 looking west (incoming) and east (outgoing). The building on the right is the southern facade of Complexe Desjardins whose northern facade faces Place des Festivals on the other side (right), where the march started much earlier. At this point, we have walked about 3 Km. The whole march ended up being 5,7 Km.

Other dangerous troublemakers. (on sign: white hair - red square)

Berri St with the Sherbrooke St overpass. On the right, the "scandal" building I mentioned earlier. Place Emilie-Gamelin (and the major Berri-UQAM metro station) is located two corners behind me so the marches often pass here, which explains why we often see that overpass in videos and photos.

The same viewed from the overpass. I got there at about 17h05. Shortly after, there was a strong shower and I took refuge for fifteen minutes or so in a building entrance. When the rain calmed down, I messed around a few minutes (I had an umbrella) and when it stopped completely, I picked up a Bixi and headed home, where I arrived completely bushed.

Guess who?

2012.05.16

State of affairs

We are now in the 14th week of the student uprising. It has turned into a major social crisis, in grand part because of the government. This is not only about tuition fees anymore. It's also about a head-on collision between two opposite visions of the way a society should function. First there is the individual rights vs collective rights clash. Between those whose sole interest is me, myself and I, and those whose interest also embraces, when it's not dominating, the fate of those from the generations to come. Second, there is the neo-con vision of government, one where between elections, the government needs to respond to no one, and those who believe that governments must listen to the people at all times, if only to prevent them from engaging into stupid gestures that have to eventually be corrected. What this government has created, irresponsibly, is an extreme polarization in the population. And that is never good news.

For many days now, the situation has been evolving by the hour, and it still is. Yesterday evening, the government recalled the National Assembly to present a special law whose net effect is the curtailment of basic freedom of speech, reunion and protest rights and is the next best thing after a totalitarian or police state. The only difference being that here, elections are still not outlawed. The Assembly will sit round the clock until the bill is voted, which it will since the government holds a majority. This law also provides for fines totally out of proportion. Today, the Bar Association condemned this law saying it will leave a scar in the democratic tissue of Québec. The Bar is the lawyer's association, not some Marxist group. The last time such a charge against the People was enacted was the infamous October 70 Crisis. Civil disobedience and/or civil unrest may occur. There could also be a general peaceful uprising in the population, because Quebecers are anything but a violent people. Some people mention a general strike. I cannot explain here much more, because it would take pages and pages and I don't have either the time nor the urge to do so.

Meanwhile every day continues to bring its load of demonstrations. For the last 23 days, there were nightly ones. Others are in the daytime, as in the pic above.

All I want to say is that this happens at the same time as I am in the process of a major cleanup of my apartment, to be followed by a complete repainting of it. Between this and following the political situation, if not participating in it, simply put, for some time the length of which I cannot evaluate, I may but more likely I may not post. Unless I want to try escaping it all by making a cybertrip back to Mexico. I will however continue nosing around on other people's sites.

State of affairs update - May 22

Nightly demonstrations are still on, with more people participating since the voting of the Special Law (Law 78) on Friday, between 5 000 and 10 000 depending on the time and other factors. It was quite nasty in the weekend with fires lit in the street and some 300 arrests on one night, but last evening it was back to calm with virtually no arrest to be reported. Everyone knows that the violence is for most of it coming from people who are not students but marginal extremist groups, even lone individuals having a personal grudge of their own, who parasite more or less the peaceful demonstrations. There written press is antistudent except for my daily (Le Devoir) which is the only media that does not bash the students, but does bash the government, and rightly so. Then again it is the only one which is independent (aka does not belong to a conglomerate). Those, like La Presse, editorially bash the students, but has a few columnists on the students' side, to save face. At the Journal de Montréal, a tabloid in all the pejorative meaning of the word and belonging to a conglomerate (Quebecor Media) looking more and more like the Fox organisation, it's a continuous student-bashing party. Radio-Canada (tv) does its best but with the repetitive budget cuts coming from the Harper government, they can't give all the coverage they'd want. Electronic media are more objective. There is an independent outfit providing live coverage on the Net when events happen, so I suppose they will be broadcasting the (hopefully) large demonstration being held this afternoon and which I will attend. The site is www.cutvmontreal.ca. There are also a bunch of videos on Youtube, one can imagine. I found this one, linked on a site put up by the Teachers Against the Hike (tuition fees). It's an open letter to the students, and also an appeal to participate in today's march. It's in French of course. The text is by a university philosophy professor and is being read by two actors and television personalities. All three are well known. I wish I could have had the time to translate the text because it is really something else. The kind that elevates itself over the turmoil, and adresses the real issue at stake here: the core values so many of us are seeing being slowly destroyed by the rising right, these last years.

I say "hopefully" above because, to start with, it's a working day, but also that it has been forcasted to rain all day today with possibilities of thunderstorms, not very inviting. This will be the only day of bad weather in the whole week and it had to fall today. Even the weather guru is siding with the bastards.

Today is Day 100 since the start of the student strike, hence tdoay's march. 2000 1000 (memory failure , not that it changes much of anything) [update May 25 - it WAS 2000] people have been arrested since. How many beaten? How many pepper-sprayed at very close range?

This other one below, about the March 22 demonstration and its 200 000 participants, is about the sound of boots, if you know what I mean. I post it for my own satisfaction. It ends with an excerpt from a poem by late Québec poet Roland Giguère, published in 1965 in "L'âge de la parole" and titled, in English, «The Hand Of The Tormentor (Tyrant) Always Ends Up in Rotting»

From the video's audio:

«Don't you hear them
Loud as thunder
Walking in goose-steps
Crushing frontiers
Bashing doors
With their studded soles
Pretexting the defence
Of Rights and Liberties

Don't you hear
The wind that carries
The sound of boots»

Below, as read at the end of the video by Pauline Julien, a recording from the Nuit de la Poésie, on March 27, 1970, a marking event in Québec's history.

«The large hand nailing us to the ground
Will finish by rotting

The large hand will rot
And we will be able to stand up and go elsewhere.»

This may all seem surrealistic in these days and ages, and in North America. I'll just remind that I am old enough to remember when the boots entered Quebec and flushed rights and liberties in the toilet.

Reporter: «How far would you be willing to go?»
Trudeau: «Just watch me».

We watched. And we saw. In some ways, we still see. That wasn't in FarAwayStan, that was in Ottawa, in Canada, in 1970. Yesterday, so to speak. Tomorrow?

Why our British-style parliamentary and electoral system is rotten to the bone

I'll come back here later to address this important topic, if I have the time.

Later...

I took the time. I needed to vent.

Canada and Quebec, as well as all other Canadian provinces, have a parliamentary system based on the old British system, the main reason being that Canada was a British colony, and still is, watching Stephen Harper removing Canadian artists works from government buildings at home and abroad to replace them with photos of the Queen. Québec had another system but it ended after the British conquest of 1759. At the federal leval and in some provinces, there is a second legislative body, of which none are elected. Québec got rid of its second chamber in 1968. On the federal scene however, it is still very well alive (so to speak) and is called the Senate. Every bill passed in the House of Commons (which is elected) has to mandatorily be also passed in the Senate (which is not elected), before the Sovereign can sign it to become law. The unelected Senate can also initiate its own bills, without them having to have passed prior in the House of Commons.

1) The Canadian Senate is the first rotten piece of Canadiana. As forementioned, its members are not elected but nominated by the government of the day, or 'recommended', as they suavely say in British style parliamentary systems, to the current sovereign, the Queen that is, via her local representative, the Governor-General (the Gee-Gee for shorts), also nominated, or 'recommended' by the government. In the provinces, a lower form of the sovereignism goes by under the name of Lieutenant-Governor. GGs and LGs are nominated on about the same basis as the Senators, although maybe slighlty less partisan. Nominations to the Senate are totally based on small politics and partisanry. Competence is not a criteria. One self-admitted analphabet hockey coach is a Senator. The overall idea is to stash the place with people from your political party or who are known to support your political agenda. You will therefore find in there lots of ex-politicians who were democratically defeated in elections and who are very undemocratically being let inside just the same, by the back door. Some have simply retired from the turmoil of active politics but are kept to good use by the government in the more quiet Senate dormitory. You will find a guy whose only competence resides in being a strong advocate of tougher stances on crime after having had his daughter killed by a maniac, a Harper obsession even if crime has been declining for decades in Canada, and who, although he is not elected and not even a member of the Cabinet, speaks for the federal government in Quebec because said government was massively rejected by Quebec voters and severely lacks Québec Members of Parliament. Others, for the same reasons, are precisely nominated for the sole purpose of becoming a Cabinet minister, someone who normally must come from the legislative body (House of Commons - you know... the elected ones). You will also find in there a youngster in his early thirties whose qualification is to be an Amerindian, to show our Natives how generous the Canadian government can be with them (while screwing them the rest of the time, namely for having tried in the past to culturally genocide them.). In the bag you'll also find prominent former news anchors or political show hosts, former Olympic athletes, and so on. The Senate is a Club Med that works like a lotto. If you draw the winning ticket, it's valid until you die or reach 75, whichever comes first. For example, that Amerindian, if he stays there until 75, will have won 9 265 000 $, which is not bad for just being a Conservative Amerindian at the same time that Harper was Prime-Minister. In 2009, Senators were paid a yearly 130 400 $, fully indexed. Simply put, the Canadian Senate has nothing to do with democracy. It's rather a humongous farce.

2) The second bowl of Canadian crapola is filled with political perversion. The British parliamentary system has worked well for centuries. So did the associated judicial. Both are based on customs, also known as the unwritten law (among which parts of the Common Law), more than on strict legally written language. Like any political system, it is a reflection of the culture of the land. The major reason why this system worked, and it's no scoop mentioning it, is that the British are known worldwide for their phlegm when faced with adversity, but also and more importantly, their gentlemanry. I know it's not a word but it says what it says. I would also add to this fairplay. Mind you, it does not have to be real. In some cases it's only appearances, underneath knives may be flying low, but up front, you're being screwed by someone who lifts his hat and tells you "Good morning, Sir, if I may". On first glance, this may seem like hypocrisy. It is not, or not intended as such. It is a way to pursue conflicting views and agendas in a society, without getting at each others's throats. When you remove this "polish", the whole British parliamentary system crumbles.

In Canada, since Harper got elected at the federal level, and Charest in Quebec, the gentleman has been tossed away to be replaced by the goon. No more fairplay in parliament. Both these governments make use and abuse of the "gag" procedure, one which permits a majority government to cut short debates and force a vote on a proposed law. This measure has always been considered , under the British 'approach' I mentioned above, to be one of absolute last resort, in front of a real and verifiable emergency brought about by weeks or months of systematic obstruction by the Opposition. Since 2003, the "gag" procedure is being used right and left for just about anything. In many cases, the proposed bill has been presented just days earlier, and only a few days from parliamentary recess, for vacations or whatever. A few weeks ago, the federal goverment tabled a 430-page bill bringing modifications to around 70 different laws covering a carload of different domains, but which for many have to do with curtailing any opposition by the people to their environment bashing policies. This bill dubbed by many as the Mammoth Bill, was to be only studied for five days, and in only the Finance House Committee which is not even concerned by most of it, instead of by the different other Committees from the departments which are concerned, and who hold the required expertise to discuss these different matters. This makes a mockery of the Parliamentary system, and turns our Parliament into a rubber-stamping tool for a dictatorial regime.

3) The third piece of crapola is Parliament itself. They say that we have a representative system. That we vote every four or five years to elect people who talk in our name. Well they don't. Not because they don't want to, but because they can't. These two governments, maybe others also in Canada, have given to the Executive excessive powers over the Legislative, powers that shun the one that any individual member could have. And even in the Executive, the powers bestowed to the Prime-Ministers and Premiers over the Cabinet are absolute. Many Presidents have less powers, and on the opposite, many dictators share the same. A member of parliament from the sitting government and who is not in the Cabinet is a nobody. His role is to vote along party lines when asked to vote, and the rest of the time to shut up, especially if he or those who voted for him/her don't share the government's view. And when that member is from the Opposition, he may as well stay home and play darts. The Ministers being named solely by the Prime-Minister, they know where their job comes from. In Ottawa under the Harper government, they are told what to do by Harper, even in minute details. This situation can prevail because, I repeat, we have a British style system, based on fairplay. This system has not forecasted that one day this system could be used by people who wipe their ass with fairplay, and therefore they haven't thought of any provision to face this kind of situation. We don't have impeachment procedures like in the United States, for example. Worse, in most cases, there are no fixed election dates. It is the current Prime Minister (or Premier, its name in provinces), currently goons, remember, who chooses when it suits him to go to the polls, and this even if he is leading a minority government. The only exception to this is when all the opposition members vote against a 'budgetary' measure presented by a minority government. And then again, this is not written. It's a custom, which like the rest is in the waiting to be trampled upon by a goon government. So, all in all, when these people talk with a tear in the eye about the superb democracy we have here and how lucky we are, I'm not that sure I want to be THAT lucky. And when I was hearing about representation, for some reason I was thinking, silly me, that the 'represented' included more than media moguls, financial big brass, and organised crime. For all these reasons and most notably because there is no way to counteract abusive governments like it is the case right now in Québec, many start asking themselves about possible, but peaceful, civil disobedience.

However this degeneration (dégénérescence) of the Canadian system is not new to post-2000 years. In 1982, one of the two founding peoples of this country was screwed like there's no tomorrow by Pierre Trudeau and his government, with the tacit approval of the rest of Canada, precisely because of the same reasons. This new Constitution and Charter of Rights based solely on individual rights, and which they wanted to ram down our throats even if the whole of Quebec was united as a block against it, had its day in court. The Supreme Court came out with a judgement saying it was illegitimate, but legal. In other words, under the unwritten laws and customs and how things had been done in this country from the start, this tampering with the fundamentals of the country without the concourse of one of its key founding members and furthermore the seat of French-language Canadians, was totally illegitimate. But since no written law prevented it, it was legal. By default, so to speak. In other words, what is not provided for can be done. Like Harper and Charest, Trudeau was a goon. He chose the goon way of doing things. Like all goons, he thought he had won. Thirty years later, Quebec has still never signed this new Constittution, and the idea of independence is anything but dead, contrary to what they think in English Canada. Being an independentist, as long as they continue to sleep on the switch, that's all fine and dandy with me. Charest also thought he had won. Yesterday evening, fires were set in the streets of Montreal. And according to an article published yesterday in La Presse, over 500 lawyers would have offered their help, free of charge, to the legal outfit taking care of the students' appeal in nullity to come this week, five hundred!, and an online petition for those wanting to add their voice to these court proceedings garnered 150 000 signatures in 36 hours, so much that their site (http://www.loi78.com/) couldn't handle it at times. Meanwhile cyber attacks on governmental and Liberal Party sites were undertaken by Anonymous and others, to the point that they had to close them for a few days, by their own initiative.

To recap, our system works somewhat democratically, much less than in the United States ^[1], but in an acceptable way all things considered, provided that its actors abide by the unwritten rules that make it hold together. When these actors don't follow those custom-inherited rules, you end up with something that has many of the characteristics of a dictatorship.

Some Canadians think that Canada is the shit-hottest country on this planet. I wouldn't venture on taking sides on this, but if indeed it is, then it would mean that the rest of this planet must be one gigantic hellhole.

About civil disobedience:

It was another war and another time (1954) but the theme of civil disobedience is universal. Who doesn't know about Rosa Parks? Who doesn't know a Viêt-Nam draft dodger? Who never heard about Gandhi? This song by Boris Vian, Le Déserteur (The Deserter) is very well known in the French-speaking world.

Joan Baez in Europe, 1980

Peter, Paul and Mary, in a version with slightly modified lyrics.

Speaking of civil disobedience, my paper (Le Devoir), twice a month, «offers to passionates of philosophy, history and history of ideas, the challenge of decrypting a current affairs topic using the theses of a leading thinker». The whole page is titled "Le devoir de philo" (The Philosophy Assignment) as in a student's assignment, this title being of course a word play with the paper's name (which in its case means "Duty"). In the weekend edition of February 18 to 19, 2012, a college philosophy professor chose to address the issue of civil disobedience, in view of the Harper government's actions. He chose to do so by basing his argumentation on the writings (teachings?) of American Henry David Thoreau, back in the mid 19th century. I didn't have a clue who was Thoreau before reading about him on Neil's blog (if I'm not mistaken) some time ago. Just to show these blogs do serve a useful purpose and can be highly educative. In view of the special law that the Québec government voted this Friday and which is considered totally illegitimate by a myriad of people, talks of thinking about civil disobedience have sprouted, even by one of the members of the National Assembly. This morning, on a radio show adressing those current events, Thoreau was again mentioned. I cannot translate that article, but Google did not that bad of a job. Just keep in mind that the title should read The philosophy assignment, and that "stopped " should read "would stop", and near the end, «A wise man will leave [therefore] not justice to thank you the chance, he does not wish to see prevail through the power of the majority. » should read «The wise man will therefore not leave justice to the mercy of chance (fate), he will not want it to prevail by the power of the majority.»

Here is the Google translation, in an image. Click on it (as with all my pics) to get a larger and readable image, twice for this one. The original French is linked below. Keep in mind that I don't necessarily make mine all of Thoreau's teachings.

Version originale en français ici.

Now, isn't venting great? It does smooth out nasty bouts of rage, and the best of all, it works even if no one read the rant in question.

^[1] Not that the American system has no faults. It's some times very heterogeneous and unduly complicated, and too litteral. Everyone except those with bad faith knows that the Second Amendment was to protect oneself and the country against invading forces, the country then being under British assaults coming from the north, and nothing to do with running around on the streets with concealed guns or having a basement full of machine guns, in 2012. On the other hand, it being geared on individualism is not a fault per se since it's a social value shared by most Americans, one which makes consensus. It would be a fault if like in Canada, a government elected by a fraction of registered voters would use its majority to ram down people's throats individualistic policies based on values that are not shared by the majority of the population, which is the case now in Canada, and which can happen with impunity because, again, of the system we have.

About democracy and what it really means

Tomorrow (Monday) is a holiday in Canada. For most Canadians, it's just another day off. Officially however, the day has a meaning. Two in fact. In Quebec, it's the Journée des Patriotes (Patriots' Day), a remembrance day for those who engaged in the 1837-1838 Rebellion whose purpose among others was to bring some kind of democracy to this patch of land, in the footsteps of what the Americans had done, but nothing even near independence however. It was dubbed a sedition and crushed in a blood bath by the British. The leaders of the Rebellion were for some (a dozen or so) hanged in front of the Pied-du-courant prison, to let it be known to the population who controlled this land. It still exists as an historical site and is located today right under the Jacques-Cartier bridge. Many more were forcibly exiled, a large contingent in Australia. I've posted many times about these events and this prison, so I won't linger on this subject. I will however mention that during those events, the British had a freshly churned new Queen, Queen Victoria. In the rest of Canada, tomorrow is Victoria Day. Just sayin'...

Personally, I'm more comfortable celebrating people who fought for democracy than others who tried to crush it. But that's only me.

I don't want to make a big fuss of it, the past is the past, but if the Patriots are still today considered by many Quebecers as a bunch of bad people equating to modern days definitions of terrorists, instead of the liberators they were, it's in grand part because of the Québec Catholic Church which from the start, after the Conquest in 1759, sided with the occupant (the British) so as to keep its privileges under the British rule, and constantly demonized those who participated in the Rebellion. It's not something specific to Quebec, the same has happened everywhere. Mass murderer Pinochet was kuddos with the Chilean cardinal and went to mass and received communion every day, and Pope John Paul II did all he could to sidetrack the priests in Latin America who were a little too political in fighting for a better life for exploited Latin Americans (the Liberation Theology). I suppose dining with Pinochet and others of his kind is not political. One of those who participated later on in this was Cardinal Marc Ouellet from Québec City, a retrograd reactionay who is currently prefect of the Congregation for Bishops (that's like number 2 in the organization) and concurrently president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI on 30 June 2010. He, Ratzinger, was in the first row, however, back then. It's not for nothing that he picked Ouellet to continue the job. I'm sure Marc Ouellet is at ease with the way the Rebellion was handled by the Brits, with the help of his former colleagues of the time. I'm also sure that he is the best insurance policy against the Catholic Church ever making a comeback in Quebec. I don't understand these people who are ruling the Catholic Church. There are a zillion Catholics out there who contraty to them have followed the paths of evolution, but these cro-magnons, Ratzinger, Ouellet and those like them, continue to torpedo the Catholic Church. It doesn't prevent me from sleeping, that's the least one can say, but I feel bad for some people, like my own mother who is very religious but who, at 88, pains to recognize herself in this Church of disconnected old farts.

About the red square

Last night, Montreal's Arcade Fire did a gig with Mick Jagger on Saturday Night Live. The members of the group all wore the red square, in support of the students, and now, maybe, simply in support of democracy.

A few days earlier, Xavier Nolan presented his third film at the Cannes Film Festival. On a photo shoot, he and the main actors and actresses, half of them are French (from France) all wore the red square.

No, Mr Charest, it is not over.

About Charles and wife

Charles and Camilla just landed in Canada for a few days of royal fun. In view of where they will go and what they will do, I'll leave them their fun. No jealousy here. Some woman specialized on royalty was on Radio-Canada saying that they won't come to Quebec because tomorrow is Patriots' Day here and that the Rebellion was a fight by the French-speakers against the British. There was yes a linguistic component in the Rebellion, Québec (Lower Canada) being an occupied land where the overwhelming majority of the people was not British, if you know what I mean. But the responsible government component was a much larger one, so much that, hushed by these supposed experts, the Rebellion also happened in Ontario, the then Upper Canada where the population was anything but French speaking.

People who read this blog know why Charles and wife won't come here. They already came and frankly, I put myself in their shoes, why in the hell would they want to be that masochistic, tell me?

They will be going to Regina, in Saskatchewan. In the year of the Queen's Jubilee. I mean, how more subtle can you get? Those people organizing royal tours have as much imagination as a rock under a cloudy sky. Well, at least it brings me a smile. The Royals do have some utility after all. We were told, however, that there won't be any cattle stints wearing cowboy hats, like the royal youngsters engaged in last year in Calgary. Pfeeew! It was a close call.

About roses

The 27th nightly demonstration has started downtown. On tv, I saw that they were throwing white roses to the police advancing towards them on horses. Charles would have loved. It won't last. It will get nasty later on when those from the Black Bloc will step in. Yesterday also, they were mentioning that the police, who have had to handle almost two hundred demonstrations since February, are for most on the verge of massive burnouts. Yesterday, they called for the provincial police to come help them. These are not used to big city policing and this type of civil unrest, as they have shown in the botched intervention in Victoriaville a few weeks ago (when a student lost an eye and another one was badly injured on the head). Without any judgement for or against, it remains that the situation in Montreal these days is fascinating. Did you know that in Chili, there has been a student uprising for the past 19 months? I knew there was one, it was in the news that some Chilean student leaders would be visiting here in August, but I didn't know it was that old. It's a Chilean neighbor of mine who told me so this afternoon.